¡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. ...