First things first..........thank you everyone who has been so kind as to remember my birthday, especially those of you who were good enough to transpose the numbers 5 and 6. Had another adrenalin packed day on the 25th as we (group of four, plus our guide and driver) set off from The White City (Arequipa) named, not because of the stone which features in its buildings, but rather that the Spanish founded the place and wanted to make it clear that it was not to be the home of the indigenous native! The road out from there to the coast takes the traveller across the Alti Plano which is as close to the surface of the moon as one can imagine with nothing to see from horizon's edge to horizon's edge. NOthing but brown dust, sand and small boulders and then..........as if by black magic, small buildings begin to appear all around. Built of just six levels high and four wide oof breeze block, these buildings purport to be the 'homes' of the poor of the nation who have been led tobelieve that if they occupy these plots of land for five years they will become the fulltime owner. The fact that these lands yield nothing but despair and stand miles from the nearest township seems only to point to the desperate need of the people to have something of their own. Going along the bus (we are now on a 30seater) swung around the tops of canyons bordered by nothing resembling a barrier or fence so that the prospect of ending my birthday before it began seemed a pretty real prospect on several occasions. Eventully, and almost without warning the Pacific Ocean appeared and we were then flying along cliff tops three hundred feet above the seashore but now below us, and just above the wave tops, were flights of pelicans and boobies.........swooping and gliding across the breakers. I can hardly remember seeing anything so graceful in nature as the sight of those (the most cumbersome of birds on land) pelicans floating over the water. And to complete the avian picture, above us flew a dozen or more buzzards seeking any small creature that might move below them. MId afternoon found us in Puerto INka (find it on the map if you can) on the edge of the sea and the evening ended with a special three kinds of milk (?) cake which my travelling companions had provided for my birthday celebration. If I had ever been asked where I was most likely to be spending my 65th birthday I would never have imagined that it might be on the shore of the Pacific Ocean "somewhere in Peru" but when the sun set and stars emerged it was as fine a birthday as I could have wished for. Thanks again everyone for thinking of me. Love Gordon