11/01

Hola, buenas dias/tardes/noches.....whatever the time may be with you all. Que tal?!

Well here i am.....starting the last leg of this mammoth journey, or at least what felt like a mammoth journey when i first set out. I only have a couple of months left now, and cannot believe where the last (nearly) 7 have gone. I nearly didn´t get here to the s. of am. though what with the SCENARIO (i dont think i had ever experienced the true sense of the word before this point) of a few days that i had end of New Zealand and first couple here. Between battles to get money back from bus companies which had overcharged me and who´s eftpos machines were (conveniently?) out of order, resulting in me running around auckland in my last hour before having to leave for my flight with a wad of cash to pay back into my new zealand account in order to transfer to my uk account to access over here....then forgetting i needed my passport for transfers and having to run back to the hostel for that....to then arriving here to find my mobile phone not working and feeling completely lost, lonely and very much like the only English speaking bod on the entire continent (in other words, a very melodramatic and self-pitying SCENARIO!)

Anywhoooooo, here i am and despite returning to that familiar and pleasurable state of mozzie-attack herpes that we had become so fond of in asia, all is FANtastic. They have lots of avocado here, mediocre beer, FAB Pisco (a speciality whisky they make in the region between Nasca and Lima) and lots of beautiful knitted poncho´s which i have my eye on but my size-and-weight-of-a-slightly-overweight-toddler-backpack reminds me that purchasing another item of clothing would not be a good idea for my back, my already bulking-up shoulders or my wallet (only marginally missed the excess backage fines on the way over here)!

I am just about getting by with my Spanish skills which go as far as `hello, how are you? I´m English, i don´t understand...can i have a beer please?´ So....i´ve got the important things down to a t and did manage to have quite a long conversation with an old Peruvian dude the other day. Of course, by conversation i mean he spoke at me for quite some time while i stood there confused and only occasionally piping in with `si´, `no´ or ´no entiendo´(i dont undrestand!) he didn´t look like he had any beers on him so i didnt get to practice my `ùna cerveza por favour´! No, but seriously i was quite impressed with how much i understood, if saying anything back was a struggle. He was asking where abouts from England i was from, and if i lived near a beach; was talking about how in south america they dont learn English in school very long as compared to over in Europe; how first and foremost they are Spanish, then South American´s....all sorts of stuff, and i left with a glow of pride at having understand a fair bit, plus a sigh of relief at having escped as i have no doubt that despite the fact that it must have been the most one sided `conversation´he had ever had, he could probably have gone on all afternoon!

Anyhow i am now in Nasca (home of the famous lines) killing time as we are in the most remote hotel with nothing to do. After having spent a couple of hours clearing out my backpack and washbag due to a shower gel explosion and another half hour or so hunting down a pesky cockroach in the bathroom i am now footloose and fancy free to fill you lovely lot in on my current scenario over here on my latest continent. Soooo........tales to tell, tales to tell....hmmm?! Well we went sand boarding the other day, which was interesting to say the least. Approximately 100times better than in New Zealand as the dunes were much higher and they let us attempt a run standing on the boards, which, as you will see from my pics, was in my case less standing and more sitting...but at least i tried, and gave everyone a good giggle in the process! Whilst your admiring my sandboarding skills you might also notice a few arty-farty colour accent pics, a new trick i have learnt on the trusty canon and which i am now obsessed with. I am just treating you to a few, but will overload you with colour-accent-tastic pics when i am back!


16/01

Hola again!!!

Sorry to have taken some time to get this up, i am also attempting to post pics but as the internet likes to move as slowly as the people here i am not sure how long i am going to be sitting in this internet cafe!

Feels like so much longer than just a few days that i was last writing, as so much has happened. After Nasca (where i was writing the first bit of this) we moved onto Arequipa (BEAUTIFUL town...in fact the second largest city in Peru but very quaint colonial town feeling, also about 2300ft up in the mountains so my first stroll around the centre was quite disconcerting when two blocks had me out of breath.....here´s hoping i make it back from Machu Picchu eh?!) on THE most luxurious and impressive night bus i have ever experienced. Im telling you i almost felt like i was gatecrashing business class on a flight. Bus stewardess and everything!

So i gave in to the weight of my bag finally and have literally battled with my terrible spanish skills this afternoon to get a parcel sent home...keep an eye out mum, should arrive in a couple weeks with a birthday prezzie for you also, so crack it open and enjoy! Also gave in to the purchasing temptations - way too many awesome alpaca knit goodies, so i have replaced my home-made-from-flight-socks-ankle-warmers with AWESOME alpaca wool ankle warmers which i now cant get enough of and which saved my legs from freezing the past few days up in colca canyon which is about 4000ft above sea level. Unfortunately they dont make any alpaca wool goods to help with the poor state of gringos´heart lungs against such altitute, so i found myself almost at death´s door after about 200metres of a walk we did on the first day. (Almost) everyone else was in the same critical state, which made me feel mildly better though still slightly concerned about the inevitable Inca Trek. We are all kitted out with coca sweets, toffee and leaves which apparently help with the altitude....?!

Now back in Araquipa and strolled a fair way around the city this afternoon without feeling like my lungs were going to burst and my heart was going to explode of my chest...so all good! Also fantastic to be off the rollercoaster which was our bus ride on the way back from Colca Canyon. I was very close to going completely insane as the longer we drove the more i was convinced that they had picked out the worst roads in the whole of Peru to take us along, bomping it along them and then throwing in a stinky loo and gross flies just to add insult to injury. I obviously smelt similar to the vile toilet as the flies were particularly besotted with me over anyone else on the bus. Nice. All the same, Colca was stunning and we had a great time up there in the middle of nowhere; enjoying the thin air, the incredibly short locals, great food, awesome hot springs and mysterious 3soles 50cents (equivalent to about 1 USD) port wine!

Having to put these pics on the blog 6 at a time as the poor thing has a bit of a paddy if i overload it. Anyhow, go ing to attend to some Facebook business and then head back to the hostel to rest my tired altitudeded-out head....i will hopèfully speak to you m, d, loid, jimbob, joe before i commence the treaturous trek and, fingers crossed, again when i get back down!!!

Okidoke fellow gringos, te quiero,

Vic

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