I'm in Syria - Damascus, to be precise. There were lots of unnecessary panics on the way (had I forgotten my purse? Was the ash going to get in the way? etc etc.) but Rescue Remedy helped, and I arrived at the hotel soon after midnight last night. I wanted to leave again straight away when I saw the room and the sanitary facilities, but it was too late at night. I slept very little, and was woken by the slightest things - rain (which I really didn't expect - I th...

It's hard to believe that I came back from Peru over 3 months ago - a longer time than I was away. All the positive feedback I received from blog-readers (thank you!) has encouraged me to write and to take more photographs. I've had an illustrated article entitled "Conch Shells in Cusco" published on-line (www.synergise.com/tales/tale1108-south-america-peru-cusco.php), but didn't get anywhere in a Guardian competition in which my daughter Madeline w...

I'm actually writing this instalment in Leicester, having had insurmountable problems with technology in the airport at Sao Paulo (and a very odd man in an internet cafe in Lima!). I've just uploaded 3 albums of photos, but as usual I'm really frustrated - offexploring has now deleted the option of rotating pictures. There are a couple that I've left on anyway because I like them so much, so please lie on your side to look at them! I left Chiclayo on Thursday 30...

I´ve managed to find an internet cafe with CD drives, so I could upload 3 albums of photos - Zorritos and the dry forest, catacaos, and Chiclayo and around. But the website won´t let me rotate pictures today, so I haven´t been able to use any that were sideways (to use the technical term!). The craft market in Catacaos was disappointing. Most of the stalls were selling the same, often tacky, goods, but I found a shop selling some lovely semi-precious jeweller...

Sorry about the email alert yesterday, when there was nothing to read! Updating the blog has proved really difficult this time. I´m in the third internet cafe I´ve tried today, and have managed to upload 4 albums of photos, Zorritos, Ollantaytambo, Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu. Let´s hope I can save the text as well. On Weds 15th I set off from Cusco on a 2 day trip to Machu Picchu the idea was to arrive at 6 a.m. on the Thursday to see the sunrise. NonPe...