¡Hola a todos! I should precede this blog by advising everyone that it is the second of the day: I finally find myself with ample opportunity to catch up on some much-needed writing! Cam and I travelled to the Colca Canyon on an overnight bus, arriving in the nearest settlement to the head of the main trail down into the gaping abyss in the early hours of the morning: such transportation, never comfortable, is at least a clever way of saving on a night’s acc...

¡Hola a todos! Once again, I commence with a small apology: after a wonderful birthday week in which the messages of felicitations have been flowing thick, fast and across a range of days, it seems that in my last blog even I joined the trend and forgot the actual day of my birth (thanks for pointing this out to me Dad). The reason for the apparent error is that I wrote the blog on 29 June, the day after my birthday but, I had no opportunity to post it until so...

¡Hola a todos! Firstly, thank you so very much to all of you who have sent me such heart-warming and wonderful birthday messages – I feel very special today! Yesterday was indeed a birthday to remember for a long time to come: Machu Picchu was everything I had tried so very hard not to imagine (for fear of disappointment, as my Canadian friend Corey so clearly elucidated to me those many months ago during that halcyon Cambridge summer); in fact, it was more. ...

¡Hola a todos! Well, here we are again! I am currently sat in a wonderful little café here in the middle of Arequipa, a café with the best cake I have tasted in a very long time (woe to my waistline!) and, better still, free internet access upstairs! So, I thought it prudent to make inroads into my backlog of travel stories while I have such a glorious opportunity – I should no doubt add that I find myself at a loose end in any case, what with the Peruvians...

¡Hola a todos! Wow, what a week I have enjoyed since last I blogged! I am writing this entry from a computer in a wonderfully relaxed café on a bustling street in the middle of Arequipa, Peru’s second city, located in the south-west of the country and the wealthiest centre in all of Peru: it is certainly an interesting contrast to Bolivia! Speaking of which… As many of you might have perceived from my previous post, Bolivia was not my finest of experience...