I watched Jesus carrying his cross around the plaza, being pursued by two Roman centurions whilst his followers wept. As he was being lifted on the cross, covered in mock blood, a man approached me and asked if I spoke Spanish and would I mind being interviewed for local radio about my thoughts on the proceedings. I tried to explain that this was very different to Easter in England where everyone is probably surrounded by chocolate and bunnies right now. But I d...

I had barely left the internet cafe in Pomabamba when I found myself in the middle of a candle-lit procession marking the start of Semana Santa (Holy Week), so I knew then that this was going to be big here and that something interesting would be happening wherever I end up. After a hair-raising bus ride back to Huaraz, I found that the town was gearing up for some of the biggest Easter parades in the country, and I had to move on as all the accommodation was ful...

I stood face to face with a woman on a steep and stony track asking her where I could camp for the night whilst she carried on doing her knitting. The women in the mountains seem to be knitting wherever they are - walking, standing or sitting. Sometimes if the creatures are nearby they look like they are knitting straight from the sheep itself. Where else in the world could I see that? Another trait of the rural Peruvians is to greet me with the word "Gringo". ...

This city comes as a bit of a surprise, particularly when arriving overland from elsewhere in South America. I mentioned the opulence of Peru's past in an earlier post, but one walk along the sea front and modern district of Miraflores soon dispels any myth that there is no wealth here today. That doesn't go for the whole country of course, but there is probably more personal wealth in this metropolis than in any other city I have seen so far on this continent. ...

I'm sitting by a small oasis lagoon watching the sun fall behind the huge sand dunes - the ones that I climbed yesterday, and sped past the day before in a thundering dune buggy. That was great fun, like a roller-coaster ride through the desert, after which we made our way back towards the oasis on sand boards, hurtling down steep hills on our bellies. It ain't no Goa, but this village has been a good place to recharge the batteries and swap tales with other tra...