Hope the windblown windbag in the picture doesn't upset anyone but I had to prove I had been there and, no it is not computer trickery although I have to say I had one eye on where the toilets were - re earlier postcard. Since I last wrote they called a road strike down here on the major cities so we had to leave our hotel (having returned across the lake after nearly drowning) at 7.30 pm and drive till 2am and then get up again at 6.am to catch up with a gr...

Imagine your very first question when reaching one of the wonders of the world was "are there toilets on the site?". Well that was me at Machu Pichu.....suffering from my third day of the Inca Two Step or it could have been revenge being taken on me for eating Alpaca two nights before. Whatever the cause it was interesting to run the risk of climbing all of the site with ones mind always slightly somewhere else. None the less, it was worth the fight and the...

Have just arrived in Santiago and am trying to adjust to some serious jet lag confusion as I left Auckland at 5pm on Tuesday, travelled for twelve hours to CHILE and it is now 2pm the same day , Tuesday. And my Spanish only runs to Una cerveza por favor and as I dont drink beer anymore.............. Have been battering around the south and north islands of NZ for three weeks looking at museums, giant Kauri trees and going out on Bay of Island boat but ...

I have been keeping a casual list of the various forms of transport bywhich I have been moving around and have just reached number 24.........and its a helicopter. Never having been in a 'copter' before I wasn't sure how it would feel but the prospect of flying over, and landing on the surface of, either Fox or Franz Joseph Glacier was enough to overcome any concerns I might have had. It was truly magical to gently rise up towards the mountains and then...