Have you missed me?

I realise it´s been a while since my last blog, and I´m sorry. This may end up being a shortened version, but I will add more later.

Where to start? We had 2 days to kill in Lima by ourselves. First impressions weren´t too great, as everywhere looked like shanty towns. Felt really bad going through poor areas in a brand new fancy car. Got over it quickly though! We didn´t do that much as we were still a bit jet lagged, but we did take the time to go to Miraflores beach, which was nice.

On the 30th we met up with our tour group. It turns out that we´re in a group of 34 plus driver and huide, and everyone is really nice. I´m a truck packer, which gets me out of cooking duties for the whole trip. Score! The first night we went to a restaurant to get to know everyone. I must admit it still took me over a week to get to know all the names! Merle and I had an early night as it was an early morning the day after.

On the 31st we headed to a place called Huacachina. This is basically a town on the outskirts of the desert. In the afternoon we went round the desert in DUne buggies which was an awesome experience. They went down near vertical drops of about 30-40m. What a laugh. After a while we stopped so we could try a bit of sandboarding. This was also great fun, apart from the time when I took my camera down with me and went hurtling off and broke it! Put me in a bad mood for a bit, but I got over it by the time we watched the amazing sunset. That night was Hogmany, so we had a great party in the middle of the desert drinking Pisco Sour and some concoction we made up. We all slept under the stars too. I was the last one up, and ended up sleeping on the sand without my sleeping bag.

The next day was a rough one, due to all the hangovers. To make matters worse, we were at Nasca, so most of us did the Plane trip over the Nasca lines, and quite a few were sick! Some of the pictures are amazing and the theories on what they are there for are really interesting. Didn´t do much that night.

NExt day was the trip to Puerto Inca. On the way we stopped at a cemetary which had mummies that had been well preserved by the dry conditions. That was quite cool. Puerto Inca is a small beach resort where we camped that night. I spent ages in the water jumping waves and trying to body surf them, with no luck I may add!

From Puerto Inca we headed to Arequipa. Arequipa was quite a cool city, but a few of us tried to get our cameras fixed and he made them worse. Will we ever learn? The main centre of the town is really nice. We went to visit Santa Catalina mosastery which is a little village in the middle of the city wher about 200 nuns stay. It was really nice there. We also went to visit Juanita the mummy. Juanita is the worlds best preserved mummy, and it is easy to make out her fingernails, skin etc.. Only problem was she was being restored while we were there. We did get to see another mummy which was just as good though. We all went out for a meal and I had Alpaca steak. It was yummy! Really cheap too. I got a huge steak, veggies and potato for about 3 quid. That´s where we had the massive banana split in the photos.

From Arequipa we headed to Chivay, with a stop at the Colca Canyon, supposedly the worlds deepest canyon. We could see the rver 1800m blow us, which was quite scary! Chivay is a really small town, but we took time to go to the hot springs pools. We had beers while in the 40 degree pools, which was great!

From Chivay we headed to Cusco. On our first day we did a tour taking in Saqsay Waman (pronounced Sexy Woman!) ruins, Ollyantntambo ruins and the Sacred Valley including Pisac. Pisac is a small village known for it´s markets. I must admit I spent a bit too much there, but it was worth it. That night all the Inca Trail trekkers left us and the remaining 7 headed back to Cusco. We met up every day for meals. Cusco is really cheap to eat in. We were able to get a 3 course meal for less than a quid, and they were really nice. Wish it was like that back home! WE contemplated a trip to the amazon, but turned it down due to money constraints. One day we went to the pub to watch Arsenal beat Liverpool 6-3.

On day 4 of the Cusco stay we got up early to go to a village called Aguas Cliantes, also known as...................................... Machu Picchu. The village is only a 30 mibute bus ride from the famous site. I was extremely excited for days beforehand. Despite it raining for the first 4 hours we were there, we had an excellent time. I was never dissapointed. We were guided round the site for an hour, learning about the Inca culture, and by the time the tour was over, the sun had come out, and we could see Machu Picchu in all it´s glory. Machu Picchu means Big Mountain, and there was a Huanya Picchu which was the Little Mountain. It was climbable, but looked a bit too dangerous, so we wandered around taking pictures of the Lamas and getting our Passport stamped with the official Machu Picchu stamp. I can´t begin to tell you how much of an amazing experience it was, and I highly recommend it to everyone I know. So dad, stop saying you want to go and get off your arse and go! When we got the bus down to the village again, we were followed all the way by a little boy running along with us. He must have been shattered, as it was a long way! That night we just had a meal in a local retaurant and got the train back to Cusco.

The next 3 days in Cusco were pretty uneventful, as Merle was pretty ill. I just lounged around and watched football on the tv for a whole day. It was great. I must add that didn´t neglect here, and I was forever checking up on her and runnign errands to the pharmacy and shops.

This morning we left Cusco for Puno, which is a small village on the edge of lake Titicaca. We have a great few days ahead of us, so I´ll have to keep you posted when I get the chance.

Oh, Donations can be made to the Craig Souter Poverty Fund, PO Box.......... Nah, just kidding!