So we left you in Huacahcina raring to go and push ourselves off high sand dunes in the very nice heat (sorry...promise it is the last time we mention it!) with nothing to protect us but a very old and very small wooden board. It was actually amazing and we´re pretty sure we didn´t stop laughing for the first 2 hours. The trip was a mix of sandboarding and dune bugging. Basically, we hauled (literally) ourselves into this jeep which was a converted truck from the sities that just has a framework. And then you pelt up and down this massive sandunes, flying into the air and just hanging there for a few seconds. We got told to watch out for the skinny driver because he´s a bit mental. Surprise surprise who did we end up with... He´s one of those people who responds to girls screaming by turning around laughing and going even faster. However, we´re pretty sure that Alex was screaming at a much higher pitch than us. Then you stop at various points to lie down, or stand up, when your pushed down a sand dune. I tried to put my snowboarding "skillz" into action and stand up but it wasn´t happening. Sophie stuck with lying down and managed to stop our guide from ever having children by hitting him in a very special place with the board. Nice work Hoyle. They start off pretty easy but then you get to reaaaall steep ones, which are pretty damn scary. not helped by the guy telling you that 2 people had been put in hospital last week a few seconds before pushing me down. Screaming doesn´t help as you get a load of sand in your mouth. tasty. the 2 hours shot by and we were driven to a gorgeous spot to watch the sunset, which was beautiful. A pretty unforgettable experience, which made alex´s birthday all the more special. Jumped straight back into the pool at our hostel to cool off, kind of forgetting that we were covered in sand. oops. and sophie forgetting she was wearing my (non waterpoof) watch that santa got me. Luckily it still works!

Obviously that was our active qouta for one for the first day so we needed to cancel it out with some drunken fun for simmo´s birthday. Predictably he lasted till about 11 when he needed to be put to bed but the hardcore people we were, we were hardly feeling the affects. pretty funny when he tried to chase after some dogs to get back sophie´s scarf with his arms flailing about. not so funny when a dog chased me the next morning as I was going for a shower and i was running about in circles screaming. cant be too careful of these rabies! Not a hyprochandiract at all....

Alex chose to do the nazca lines the next day, but sophie and I were pretty happy with looking at pictures. That meant that we actually needed to use spanish to get to where we were going without relying on alex. It didn´t go too smoothly. But the bus man did try to hold in his laughter when I was flicking through my spanish book at frantic speed and soph was trying to get her electronic translator to work but could only get it to say ridicouls sayings that would not help at all, howeverwe got there in the end (woop woop) and ended up in a taxi with a crazy american telling how he had split up with his wife, but was "fine" despite drinking about 5 cans of beer in a 20 minute journey. Ended up at a little coastal town called El Chaco, where we did a tour of the ballestas islands on a speedboat. We have never looked hotter than we did sporting bright orange lifejacets. The sealions were clearly impressed. It´s billed as a ´poor mans´galapogos´and was lovely, but after you´ve seen a pelican, you´ve seen them all. And there was about a million of them flying around. instead, sophie and I concentrated on more important matters like some tannage. it´s coming along quite well, and no more burn.

Went back to loki in lima to chill out, but that doesn´t quite happen there and we ended up in some club by a cliff that we managed to balg free entry in despite the fact our spanish is non existant. alex wasnt too impressed. I´m sure you are all sick of us showing off about the heat so will it make you feel better to know we felt like we were dying deealing with that hangover in the sun....?

But now the fateful day has arrived. it´s inca time. oh dear god. We flew to cusco today with a group from GAP adeventures and are a little bit worried by the amount of serious hikers here! it´ll be fine though, we´re trying to look professional but its not quite working. We´re in Cusco now, with an altitude of 3,500 and it really does hit you. we got advised that lying down helps, and we´re not ones to shy away from advice so we´ve been taking it seriously and did absolutely nothing today...apart from dress up in our gear and walked in circles round our room to "acclimatise" while singing along to kelly clarkson. goooood times. It has hit us though and we´re feeling pretty tired, but there may be a chance we´re making them up. like we got told that you can find walking tough so I was walking off the plane like a spaceman until sophie told me that that was only at the top. Oops. We turn from being very scared of it all to going mental and jumping around within seconds. but we´ll blame that on the altitude. We´re sure its going to be fine...but it really doesnt help that a lot of people we´ve met have admitted they´ve got the train up. But waterproofs and walking boots are at the ready...will all those many (hahahaha) training sessions at the gym pay off?!

lots of love, keep your fingers crossed for us! (sj)

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