¡Hola a todos! "What is this?", I hear you all ask, "a third blog of the day - surely not!". Alas, I am so far behind in my blogging, so eaten up with guilt and shame for having allowed myself to fall this far, that this is precisely a third blog of the day, although - as ever - when these little gems will actually make it into the aether of the worldwide web is anyone's guess. This blog should at least, in hopeful theory, bring us as f...

¡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 ...

¡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 mor...

¡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...