Just finally washed out the sand from every bodily orifice. We´ve spent the last 2 weeks driving endlessly along the Peruvian coast, breaking 10 hour drives with random beach camps and some incan cultural injections.

After leaving Ecuador, we traveled to a deserted beach resort in Punta Sal for a 3 night beach camp. Kidneys were flooded with a tremedous amount (esky full)of dirty vodka and mango nectar in a cloudy (but tasty) punch. All of us did take a nasty "punch" to our dignity, as half of us ended up starkers in the surf.

A few days later winding through the Peruvian coastal desert we landed in the capital of Lima. What a very dodgy city. Riss got attacked by some crazy enraged man holding a bible. It was luckly that 3 riot police dressed in their robocop gear ran over to relieve us from a possible human rabies bite. One cop stuck his shinny boot up his rectum while the other only fractionally missed with his haymaker night stick manoeuver.

Theft is a huge problem in Lima - mainly due to the slash and scurry technique. This was evident by the size of the black market on the frindge of the city centre. It stocks fresh stolen items from tourists, particularily cameras and ipods. Each digital camera comes with no manuals or charger but comes preloaded with holiday snaps of the original owner. Ipods too come with an original playlist.

We were glad to leave Lima and venture (with all original belongings) south along the coast to Huacachina. An oasis town on the frindge of some massive sand dunes. It was mental. Homemade dune buggies with 5ltr chev motors rocket-ered us across the desert to the tips of some rather large sand mountains. From here we swapped machine for sandboard - we ate alot of sand and my mouth still feels crunchy.

After sandblasting my forearm skin from my right arm, we pitched camp under the stars and drank the night away on pisco (Peruvian moonshine). Next day we drove to Nasca to catch a small 4 seater balsa wood plane to view the famous Nasca lines. What can I say...it was a bumpy ride. Moments after banking the plane in right angles through turbo jet thermals and plumeting troughs, Riss vomitted in the back seat of the plane. Not just once, but twice. Whereas I was more concerned about where we were heading as the pilot kept turning around midlflight to see the tap of spew whilst other small planes were flying below and above us?!

We eventually left the coast for the long drive to Arequipa in the andes. Quite a test on the senses as we left sea level to a high 4,800m. At the highest point we jumped out of the truck and ran 50 metres. It was like goliath threw 2 bricks at my chest and punched a low blow to the intestines. I was sucking air like a hoover for the next 15 minutes.

Apart from that, altitude sickness hasn´t really hit me. The only problem are some random blood noses and the need to blow my arse trumpet every second minute. The low pressure must cause the fartus vesselus to expandus or something. Anyway, poor Riss, I´m like cooking a dutch oven every night.

So we are now in Cusco. Tomorrow we begin the 4 day inca trail to Machu Picchu. There´s 23 people in our group, however we meet our 27 porters tomorrow - dunno how the math works. Exciting stuff, it´s gonna be emotional.

So long for now amigos and amigas. Adios, hatton.

P.s. We´ve uploaded some pics too of Ecuador and Peru (just click on the tab).