10th September 2001: Sydney

Well, as you may have noticed I lost my tendency to write long emails from the field somewhere in darkest Peru.
Anyway I am sorry to report that I'm still alive and kicking!
A brief fill-in: Peru - Bolivia - Chile - Paraguay - Brazil - Uruguay - Argentina - New Zealand.
Highlights included:
A day mountain biking downhill non-stop from the snowline to the jungle.
White water rafting down the sacred valley of the incas.
Brazilian women.
5 days in a landcruiser going across the salt flats and other bizarre martian scenery in Bolivia.

I arrived in Australia in May and have been here since. I've just left a (crap) job doing data entry for an insurance company (yawn), and am now doing a short stint as a researcher for a fund manager at AMP (nice one Campo!).
Life is pretty agreeable out here. The winter weather is never below 12 degrees, and summer is on the way (apparently it gets to 35). Bondi beach is walkable from my house (but only if you're feeling energetic). My office is on the 17th floor overlooking the harbour, the bridge and the opera house. All in all there's not really much to complain about. Sydney nightlife is pretty wild, and I am in the processing of conducting an in-depth study into the various watering-holes.

It's all worryingly domestic; I've got my nice little house in leafy suburbia, my mobile phone, my stereo. What happened!?!? Well, it is certainly a change from living out of a backpack for a year. Once I've saved up a bit of cash (ie sometime next february), I might get off my arse and have a look around this country.
Then, if I can afford it, I'll buy a plane ticket home.
We'll see.


Matt