"We couldn't have been more content with just living and enjoying the moment. Nothing fazed us."
Chloe enjoying the breeze driving down the Highway of Peru
Name: Chloe Neville
Travelled with the bus: 4.12.17-6.1.17
Nationality: Australian
Why are you travelling? I came travelling because I feel every heart is a map of the world and each place you visit illuminates that part of your heart.
How did you get on board? My best mate and I met the bus legends when they visited our hostel in Lima, Peru, for a few nights. They invited us to come for a few days with them to a cool little beach town an hour or so away. It went against the plans we had made but we decided to 'let travel happen'. A month and a half or so later and we walked away from the bus having some of the best times of our lives.
First impression of the bus? B.I.G and badass. The interior is so beautifully decked out with earthy woods and hanging plants.
What was your biggest challenge that surprised you about buslife? The most important lesson the bus taught me was by far how to pop a proper squat. In hind sight I'd been somewhat of an amateur before hand but now I could street pee in the Olympics.
Favourite meal: When Dani and I made the beetroot, tomato, pumpkin, everything mix with flatbread. Bloody unreal if I don't say myself.
My second favourite meal: I have gotta say was when the Frenchies made proper chocolate French toast in Ecuador, om nom nom.
Favourite bus feature? The homemade chess board and utensils. They were just so epic, and so much love and time had gone into making them. And the speakers, provided some of my fav memories.
Chloe & Soph Learning ropes Sophie & Chloe at bus party
Most memorable bus breakdown: It has to be when we got stuck in the middle of bum-!@#$-nowhere in the desert somewhere in Peru. No one was stopping so Soph and I danced on the highway with our tops off and then skipped giggling off to the side when they slowed. Eventually, we flagged down a truck which half a village proceeded to pile out of and line up from the guy fixing the bus from the inside, down and round the side. But nothing compared to the expert and professional mechanic skills demonstrated by Peruvians. All he required was a fork, which he wielded with absolute certainty into the giant engined. After a few sparks, the old girl was up and running.
Best memory from the bus: The day we crossed the border from Peru to Ecuador, Sophie and I stood with our heads out of the sunroof, singing ABBA at the top of our lungs while the most ridiculous sunset lay over the lush trees of our new country.
In 10 years, I will look back and remember. Doing absolutely nothing for two weeks in Huanchaco, Peru, and having a ball. It's where the birthplace of the saying, "Oh no... Oh well came from. I couldn't have been more content with just living and enjoying the moment. Nothing fazed us. I remember the cops wanting to move us on and standing there with these foreign cops and neighbours in a huff, thinking, "wow, if this was in Australia and all the cops were around having a go at me, I'd be completely stressed, but it's all good, it's no worries. All we have to do is go with the flow and move the bus." And it was all good.
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