News from Pura Aventura published January 2006

Dear Traveller

Happy 2006 and welcome to Pura Aventura’s winter newsletter. Since many of you will still be wondering where 2006 will take you, here are some ideas for each season. Alternatively, just pick up the phone and call us to discuss your holiday plans.

Best wishes,

Thomas Power

Holiday ideas for 2006

Winter: Not sure when or with whom to go skiing this year? Ski in the relaxed and friendly atmosphere of the Spanish Pyrenees on our Sociable Ski Week leaving on 5th March 2006. Find out more…

Experience the volcanoes, forests, lakes, glaciers and mountains of southern Chile on foot, horse and even raft whilst sleeping in luxury. Why not join our Patagonia’s Pirenwinkul Holiday leaves on 24th February 2006. Find out more…

Spring: Mallorca Walking. Get away to warm sun and fantastic walking in unspoilt scenery on this fly-drive holiday to the unspoilt north of the island. Since you can fly direct from most corners of the UK, it makes an ideal short break. Find out more…

Summer: Picos Family Adventure Holiday. This year we have small group departures at half-term as well as during the summer holidays. This holiday proved a big success last year. See the results on a short video on our website. Find out more…

Autumn: Andes to Amazon. Our Peru Multi-Active trip is an absolute corker, hike the Inca Trail before heading downhill by bike, raft and boat from the edge of the Andes into the Amazon basin. Find out more…

Computer Hacking, South American Style

My image of computer hacking as a malicious activity designed to cause chaos and destruction took a bit of a bashing recently. The historic rivalry between Chile & Peru has plumbed new depths because of an argument over the local tipple, Pisco. A round of tit-for-tat infiltration by nationalistic computer hackers led to fly-postings on government websites about disputed sea boundaries, seafood and Pisco. My favourite was found on the Chilean National Emergency Office website:

“Nobody can match our ceviche (citrus-cured fish) and Pisco, or equal their quality”

Fighting talk indeed. One of Michelle Bachelet’s (Chile’s new president) first tasks will be to patch up the rocky relations with her northern neighbour, Peru. What’s interesting is that there are some serious issues affecting relations between the two countries – border disputes, arguments over fishing rights, even questionable arms sales and yet it’s the rather Quixotic battle over Pisco that gets temperatures rising. If you don’t believe me, go to the Peruvian Embassy website at www.peruembassy-uk.com and there on the right hand menu alongside links for ‘Political’, ‘Art & Culture’ and ‘Trade & Industry’ is a link for ‘Pisco is Peruvian’. Find out more?

Online Holiday Videos

We continue to film our destinations in order to put ‘taster’ clips up our website. Click below to watch the films. Please let us know what you think as we want them to be of use to you in choosing your holidays. Chile and Brazil are coming soon!

Picos Family Holiday
Peru
Ecuador

News from the Pura Team

We have recently appointed an operations manager to make sure that we maintain the high quality of our holidays as we continue to grow. This will bring our team in Brighton to five.

Another addition to the team comes in the form of little Benjamin, born safely to Thomas and Linda on 29th November. He may also be unveiled at the Destinations Show in a shameless bout of political exploitation.

One of our guides and founders, Xabi Etxarri, has just published his first full volume of poems entitled ‘Antologia del nomada’ (Anthology of a nomad). The book was launched in Chile and is, as Xabi puts it, ‘vendiendo como churros’ which translates as ‘selling like fried dough sticks’. Apparently, this is a good thing. Fear not, his poetry is rather prettier than his prose – it’s in Spanish but if you want a preview, click here.

Free Tickets – Destinations Holiday Show

Destinations Tickets – free tickets. If you are going to be in London between the 02nd and 04th February, why not visit us at the Destinations Travel Show at Earls Court? The show is open 10 – 8pm on Thursday and 10am – 5pm on the other days. We are on stand LA42, near the entrance. This year we will be have an hourly programme of talks, slideshows and videos of our holidays. For free tickets, please email tickets@pura-aventura.com telling us how many & where we should send them.