b***** b*****. Forgot I was supposed to update for our first proper day in Arequipa I have been more than lazy about doing this blog!! It really ought to be purely Antoinettes!!

I was accused by someone (who will remain nameless) of lowering the tone in my last entry so I will attempt to keep this clean. Ahem.

We set off early on to book a trek into the Colca Canyon and possibly white water rafting but were soon getting bored to death by various travel agents....something must get lost in translation but when you only ask for the price you dont expect another blow by blow account of the trek you are booking onto considering they are in essence all the same.

We grabbed lunch in a kebab shop because we consider ourselves to be dead classy and eventually secured a place on a three day trek.....by booking through our hostel which we had left 4 hours previously!!! Something tells me our time management had let us down.

Having finally got our place sorted we went off to the market as Antoinette had a craving for hoodies and both pairs of underpants i had brought on this trip were dirty and i needed supplies.......We really need to learn how to haggle!!! I paid well over the odds for 3 pairs of boxers with ´stripper´ written across the top. Our new roomate dan had suggested showing some skin and trying the garment on would be a good way of impressing the peruvian woman and lowering the price. Faced with the prospect of showing everything i own to a busy marketplace for the sake of few pence I decided against it, and as ant rightly pointed out had i have done the price probably would have doubled.

I was therefore left with 3 ´large´pairs of boxers which are so tight they are cutting the blood supply off to my legs and other areas. I daren´t cough too hard for fear of becoming impotent!

After our shopping spree we came across the local hospital opposite which were numerous shops offering back alley medical procedures.....Harley Street it wasn´t. Ant and I were almost pressganged into once place offering a discount on IVF!!!!!!

Feeling peckish we went out to a chicken place recommended to us by Dan and picturing Nandos size portions both ordered half a chicken and chips in a cheap restaurant. Im not sure what they feed the chickens over here but Im pretty sure most athletes would not be allowed to consume the substances for fear of being booted out of the sport. There was enough food for six people let alone two and Ant took one bite of hers and wrapped completely. Undeterred and looking to do a good deed to asuage her guilt she had the waiter bag up her chicken and went in search of beggar.

Why is it that during the day you cant move for fallin over these people but when you actually want to give something away they are nowhere to be seen? Even Ant´s speculative cries of ´Beggar´ didn´t work. We finally came upon a lady who accepted the food with a beaming smile, although she was probably fuming when she realised it didn´t include a drink!

We returned home, Ant feeling much more happy and prepared for our trek into the canyon.

Much love to all. Mike x