Archive | June, 2009
Inti Raymi: Festival of the Sun God
Inti Raymi is celebrated near the winter solstice on June 24th every year. It is an Incan ceremony that is performed in the native Quechuan language rather than Spanish. We arrived in Cusco 2 days prior to the actual ceremony and the city square was already abuzz with people and bands and general merriment being [...]
Continue reading...Getting High in Cusco
26. June 2009
The plan was to take our time getting to Cusco from Lima. We were going to spend a few days, stopping along the way at Nasca and Arequipa to split up the journey. Then we learned that the Inti Raymi festival was happening in Cusco on June 24th so we thought we would head straight [...]
Continue reading...Lima, Peru
23. June 2009
We had heard plenty about Lima before arriving, most of it negative. People told us that it was dirty, and big, and dangerous and menacing – that we should spend as little time as possible there. We ended up staying 5 and a half days…and we quite liked it. Sure it’s big (>10 million!) and [...]
Continue reading...Riding My Way Through It
18. June 2009
I have a confession to make. I hate flying. Yep…I, know…around the world…gonna have to fly. The idea of this trip was to do something unusual. To experience new cultures, hear new languages, see new things…step out out of our comfort zone. ‘One Giant Step’ refers to that leap of faith required to step out [...]
Continue reading...The Lawns of Brockville
13. June 2009
Victoria may be the ‘City of Gardens’, but I think that Brockville’s tagline should be the ‘City of Lawns’. Seriously, the lawns here are amazing! I can’t imagine the time that people must put into them, but I surely can imagine the pride that they take because every single lawn is beautifully cut and manicured [...]
Continue reading...And Then There Were Three…
6. June 2009
Meet Roland. He heard that we were about to embark on a journey around the world and contacted us to ask if he could join us. He comes with great credentials, having traveled much of the world already. Iceland, India, Malaysia, Norway, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Japan, and Jordan just to name a few. In [...]
Continue reading...OneGiantStep Packing List
1. June 2009
Here’s a link to our packing list. It tracks most of what we packed for our one year RTW trip and include some post trip notes about what worked and what didn’t. I also wrote a post when we returned about what we packed and how it worked out. You can read here about the [...]
Continue reading...OneGiantStep Day By Day Budget
1. June 2009
I struggled with the idea of making our budget public. The thought of making all of our spending open to scrutiny makes most of us squirm. However, while researching our RTW trip, I found it very difficult to get a real idea of what if might cost us and so I decided to be transparent. [...]
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Wanna-be expat. Giant Stepper. 
Welcome to OneGiantStep.
I'm Gillian. In 2009 my partner, Jason, and I set out to travel the world for a year.
Now we're looking for something more long term; a place outside of our 'home and native land' to hang our hat; another Giant Step along the path.
Come along as we figure out where to go and how to get there.
29. June 2009
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