Easter Island

Some of the mysteries of Easter Island were shown to me on my trip there. Let me share with you a few theories/stories that caught my imagination:   It looks like the Moai (big statues) ´walked´to their positions. We saw the quarry they were made and then were shown how they were possibly transported; upright, [...]

Una vida extraordinaria

The cinema in Lima is much cheaper than in NZ. When we discovered this it seemed silly not to go and check out a movie or two. And it turns out that most movies here have subtitles (which I love), rather than are dubbed (which I hate). We looked at the list of what´s playing; [...]

Researching food

How do you create a sense of place when writing? There are many ways but I´m sure a very important one is through food. My second novel is currently weak on this point. While it is not set in a specific country, I want it to be recognisably Latin American. I´ve spent time in lots [...]

A whole lot of time on a bus.

On the map, the trip from Valparaiso in Chile to Arequipa in Peru doesn´t look that long. It´s only a nuckle or two up the page, only from one country to its neighbour. Perhaps I should have born the long thin nature of the first in mind or taken into the account that some of [...]