well hello readers! Another three places ticked off with Lima being all that is left for us in Peru before we fly to Argentina. Starting where we left off, Arequipa! Arequipa was a cool place, one where we chilled in the sunshine and playing chess, alot. The city was nice, looked good at night, and had many cool churches etc, and a huge monastery, huge! Apart from the city though, we did a 3day 2 night trek in the Colca Canyon (the world´s second deepest canyon, the deepest being its big brother). The trek was really cool, introducing us to variety of other travellers, and showing us the depths of the canyon. The walking was often hard, either constant up or downhill, or in rocket high temperatures, but rewarded us with some fantastic scenery. On the second day, we didn´t walk for long, as the idea was that the short walk would take us to Paradise! The idea was spot on, as we arrived mid-day at an Oasis type place, right in the bottom of the valley, with a palm trees, shacks to sleep in, and a pool!. The pool was sweet, and I spent all afternoon in the pool getting burnt, while amanda was sensible and applied suncream. This place was really cool, totally unaccesible by car, with supplies being brought down the hill by mules. Anyway, the third day saw a very early start to hike back up the hill before the sun got chance to make the walk even harder.

So after the trek, we spent another couple of days in arequipa, before heading to Nasca. Got to Nasca, and bang....the pilots who run the nasca lines flights were on strike due to some new government legislation. Soooooooooooooo we had to find something else to do, as there aint much to do apart from the infamous nasca lines. We did however find a swimming pool at a hotel, though both times after we´d paid to get in, clouds came and spoilt the day both times. on our final day, the pilots stopped the strike an agreed to fly. The only problem was that they decided to up the cost of the flights. this we decided we were not going to bow down to, so we simply caught a bus out of Nasca, never having seen the lines. Oh well.

Next stop was Paracas! Small town right on the sea front, with two big draws / 1 the island trip, and 2, the lovely weather. We did the Isla Ballestas tour on our second day to the islands which they call ´The Poor Mans Galapagos. The trip was only two hours and all over before 10:30 am, but neverless was very good. We´d only been in the boat a minute or two when a pod of dolphins appeared at the side of our boat for a few mintues. After this surprise we sped out to see the Candelbra (google it), and then the islands and all their abundant wildlife and bird poo! So the bird poo smelt, but who cares when on the rocks are loads of penguins, sea lions, vultures and other birds. And when we say lots, we mean lots. there were so many sea lions and pups. Needless to say we took alot of pictures! Following this tour, we spent the afternoon in the paracas national reserve, taking in some good views, and then unfortunatley seeing lots of dead sea lions, as one of the places was where currents converge, and as a result, deposit dead sea lions on the beach. Oh well, thats nature. On our last full day, we hired kayaks and mooched in the bay, and then had a sunbathe on the beach, as following this, it looks like it´ll be inland places and cities for a while.

The trip goes on !