I've procrastinated hugely over this blog entry and now have left myself with a giant amount of stuff to cover since last time when I wrote from northern peru with darren still within my digestive system.

Our next stop was the capital Lima after another one of the surprisingly comfortable south american overnight buses (legend has it the best are in Argentina and not entirely different to first class air travel!). I couldn't really decide whether I liked Lima, I think probably not. It's very big (8m ish people), almost always overcast, and not really awash with tourist sights. My first day was a feat of extraordinary sightseeing as I knocked off almost all at once. I found most things less interesting than The Book had explained and only pretended really to be interested in some monastery I went to and the spanish inquisition museum which I understood nothing of as it was in spanish. I was interested in the bull fighting museum however but after starting to walk out the town centre in its direction I turned round because I was passing too many people in dirty clothes and/or less than a full complement of eyes; seemingly heading to a dodgy part of town. With still 2 or 3 more days to kill in Lima I had to fill the rest of my time doing runs along the coastline and visiting starbucks to drink cappuccino grande's. Starbucks was outrageously expensive by peruvian standards with the large cappuccinos setting me back almost the cost of a main meal each time but I cared Little. I went 4 times (it's still cheaper than at home).

My peruvian guide on the tour Giuliano is a Lima-ite so was in his element in the city. He took us to this brilliant seafood restaurant which was allegedly the regular haunt of many a peruvian european based professional footballer where we not only dined like kings but also got numerous free pisco sours from the owner who was a friend of Giuliano's mum who was also in attendance. Later on Giuliano took me to his house which he said was outside the city 'in a swamp'. It turned out better than it sounded and was in fact in quite a well-to-do neighborhood. We cruised around in his 1993 south american volkswagen golf in quite seedy fashion as he was on the look out for girls and eventually found a couple he knew in a pizza restaurant. Unfortunately they didn't seem to interested in him and neither did another girl he called using one of their mobile phones. After bumping in to the seafood restaurant owner and another random old bloke we ended up back at old bloke's house an hour later drinking his whisky!

The following morning Giuliano's gran cooked me up a breakfast and I was forced into using my spanish which only really is passable in hotel/restaurant/bar/internet cafe situations. Luckily I managed I few sentences only the lines of 'I'm 27 years old', 'have one brother', 'live in england' etc and excelled at pretending to understand what she was saying such that she commented on my fantastic spanish to Giuliano when he emerged.

Since Quito in Ecuador our tour group had been very small (myself and 4 others) but we had a big influx in Lima. After 3 weeks travelling together it's been a good bunch, all people in their 20's or early 30's and all the usual nationalities you encounter while backpacking (english, aussie, canadian, kiwi). However one of the new joiners happened to be a Malcolm, and I have had to share a room with him. I have certain preconceptions about Malcolms (tell bad jokes, horrible haircut, limited social skills etc) and these all rang true with this Malcolm, perhaps 4 or 5 fold! It's generally been a horrible time and the only rays of light I can draw upon are an incident in the Colca Canyon when a llama spat in Malcom's face and he returned to the hotel room in a right huff, and watching the extraordinary attempts the other members of the tour group go to not to sit next to him at the table when we go out to dinner. Luckily I'm now shot of him as I finish on this tour here in La Paz whereas Malcolm continues on with the others with whom I sense general dread at the prospect.

First stop after Lima was a place called Paracas, also on the coast, and the launching pad for boat trips to the Ballestas islands. Paracas had been completely flattened by a big earthquake they had in peru in august last year and not surprisingly was a bit of a building site. Giuliano had noticed that everything seemed to be a bit nearer the water from when he last visited and the hotel owner told him the quake had lowered the whole town by about 50cm! The following day we did a boat ride out to the islands which have been dubbed 'the poor man's galapagos' which was very true indeed. Not only did the islands smell very badly of s*** due to the millions of birds that live there but also we could not get out the boats to try and touch/taunt the sea lions. I wanted to bring Colin the inflatable crocodile along but he too was prohibited.

Post Paracas we hit the town of Nazca from where it was possible to do the Nazca lines flight. The Nazca lines are these bizarre patterns made in the ground by some ancient peoples (possibly incas, I can't remember) that are completely indiscernible at ground level (some are 200m long) and only really viewable from the air. Nobody know how or why they were made but my favourite explantion from one historian was that they were incan running tracks. I liked the astronaut te best and also the monkey. I thought that if the Peruvian tourist board had a good sense of humour the would create new nazca lines in the area that the senic flight would go over in the shape of perhaps an ipod, microwave etc. Also in Nazca I went on a run from the hotel and got chased by wild dogs, this isn't the first time this has happened to me o a 3rd world jog so I reall must start to take heed. Nazca in fact features in the new Indiana Jones movie (absolutely terrible by the way) which we saw here in La Paz. Giuliano was particularly disappointed with the peruvians featured in the film being dressed up like mexicans.

The day after Nazca we drove an hour or so to a very deserty place here we did a brilliant couple of hours riding dune buggies at extreme speed up and down the sand dunes, every now and then stopping to lie on a plank of wood to 'sandboard' down increasingly long and steep slopes. I brought colin the crocodile on this particular outing to slide down the dunes on but he wasn't quite as effective as the boards.

The Colca Canyon was the next on the agenda, according to the Peruvians the deepest in the world (something ridiculous like 3.5km deep at some points). We got a local guide from the city of Arequipa from where we bussed out to the canyon itself and stayed in a really nice lodge/hotel place (the scene of the Malcolm-llama spitting incident).The Canyon itself was very spectacular, especially at the point we went to to spot condors. Condors are huge vultures with wing spans of 3m and a load of them usually appear at a now tourist infested place about 8.30am each morning to glide around on the thermals. They were bloody annoying to take pictures of as they refused to stay still but after a while i managed to get a couple of passable shots. While Giuliano and I were wandering around we came across a Peruvian pop star shooting a music video at the condor spotting place. I jokingly suggested to Giuliano to ask them if I could dance with her and to my surprise they not only agreed, but also filmed it! I think there's a pretty good chance I will have been edited out the final cut however.

After driving back to Arequipa (unfortunately we missed a really violent riot in the city only by a few days which would have been good to see) from the canyon and overnighting there we flew to the city of Cuzco to embark on the small matter of the inca trail trek and Machu Picchu. Cuzco was lovely, old buildings and stuff like that. The rest of the tour group were all set to do the inca trail proper having booked the tour earlier than i had and obtained the requisite permit. I however was put together with some people from other tours to go off and do the 'Lares trek' which is in a nearby valley. Unlike the inca trail, this trek doesn't finish at the Machu Picchu site itself but instead is supposed to have nice views, be less crowded, and have the significant advantage for me that Malcolm would not be there.

The trek was excellent, if a little cold (on the second night my legs were still cold despite wearing two pairs of trousers and pulling my two spare t-shirts over my thighs) and we had a great guide called Herrman who explained lots of interesting bits and bobs to us. My trek was a day shorter than the inca trail the rest of the group was doing so I had to rendezvous with Giuliano and get a train up to the Machu Picchu town the night before visiting the ruins itself. The next day was a very early start so that we could reach Machu Picchu for sunrise and beat the crowds. While the ruins themselves were not overly impressive but the setting very much is. The incan town clung to the side of a mountain and is surrounded by other huge peaks that are all covered in jungle. The big mountain thing that you see often in the photos that overlooks the site is climbable so myself, colin the crocodile, and some members of the tour group made the stiff climb to the top. The views were incredible but disappointingly the Machu Picchu police that seemed to be around every corner seemed to take considerable exception to an inflatable crocodile being there. I had to blow him up in secret spots and then quickly manage a couple of photos before they pounced. Much to everybody's confusion there was a dog at the top of this mountain that didn't appear to belong to anybody.

After Machu Picchu it was back to Cuzco to watch the champions league final and have a few post trek drinks before heading south to the very grey town of Puno to go on a trip on the very blue lake Titicaca.

The lake is the highest navigable one in the world (3800m ish) and it was crazy to think that you were so high up yet somewhere so flat. The locals are trying to get people to vote on the internet to make it one of the modern 7 natural wonders of the world which I thought was a little ambitious for a lake but it is very pretty nonetheless. A bloke called Manuel took us off in a boat and we mooched around the lake for a few hours and then visited an island where people try to sell you stuff. Later on we went to a local community for a homestay thing with a family. After being given a very musical welcome by the local band and numerous hearty handshakes we were paired off to go with a family. Unfortunately this meant I was with Malcolm so I had to head off with him and my host father and brother to their house to get settled in. Shortly after a game of footy was organised between us and the locals at the school. We lost 4-3 which was disappointing but was rather inevitable given that the rest of my team was made up of australians, canadians, and girls. I scored an amazing volley but was a little out of practice and not able to win the game single handed.

That evening our families dressed us all up in the traditional garb and our group and the whole community (about 100 strong) packed into the little school hall for a bit of a boogie. Given that it was also my birthday I was expecting to be suitably embarrassed in some way, shape, or from. I was made to dance in front of everybody with one of the local women for a few more minutes than I was initially expecting, I even slipped in a few justin timberlake moves to impress the locals*. I was then presented with a cake which we I gave to all the kids (it was a coffee one so not sure if they got much sleep that night) and then a present. One of the kids came forward with a small bag which, when he got closer, started to move. I knew immediately what was contained within so I pulled out the white, and quite vociferous, guinea pig and paraded it before everyone. It was the kid's pet so i had to give it back. I thought my ceremonial duties were then over but it was not to be as I ended up getting a 'feliz cumpleanos' hug from everybody in the village! The next day we left the homestay, saw some floating reed villages on the lake and then drove to Bolivia.....

I'm currently in La Paz, where the air is thin (planes landing here have massive wheels because the hit the runway so hard), the food poorly cooked, the traffic fumes quite horrific, and where there is an incomprehensible number of opticians and dentists.Contary to the behest of my mother, myself and some of the others from my tour group went off to cycle down 'The World's Most Dangerous Road' earlier this week. This particular road snakes along the side of a mountain, is only about 3 or 4 meters wide, made of gravel, has huge drop offs on one side, ridiculous 90 degree corners, and used to be a major thoroughfare until the government built a proper road nearby. I tried my hardest to avoid macho urges and maintain a sensible/safe speed and hence I am writing to you now. The company we used lost their first customer only last month on the ride when some bloke basically rode off a cliff although they do think he probably had a heart attack (did he cardiac arrest before or after realising he was in a spot of bother i wonder!).

I'm going solo between now and flying out of Rio on he 23rd June. Current plan is to do a trek in the mountains near La Paz starting this weekend and then heading south to the salt flats (very flat, white area) next week. After that I will need to start journeying east via bus/train east towards Brazil and Rio.

Right I'm off to buy a t-shirt I've seen now which has the Bolivian President's face on the front. Evo Morales is chummy with the outrageous Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and also a bit of a football nut. Rumour has it that he sometimes appears in the Bolivian Premier League for one of the La Paz teams....I really must investigate further.

I've uploaded a load of photos too. They all look a bit underexposed and dark on my computer here which is a bit worrying as they looked fine on the camera.

* that's a lie.