First things first, we are alive. contrary to some extraneous reports.Obviously working 5 hours a day has been a little taxing and we´ve been a bit a slack on the blog updates. I´m not sure how we managed to do anything when we had full time jobs at home. The orphanage has been really enjoyable, hard work and an eye opening experience. We are working about 5-6 hours a day, 5 days a week. We barely see each other from the moment we arrive to the moment we leave ...

Even for us the trip to Colca Canyon required an early start, we had to be up and at them at 2.30 in order to get to the bus station for our 3.30am bus. Having bagged the back seat we snuggled down in our sleeping bag for the 5 (turned out to be 7) hour trip, via Chivay, to the town of Cabanaconde (try saying that at 3 in the morning!). Colca Canyon is one of the deepest in the world and is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon so as you'd expect there was some prett...

After the medical adventure in Nasca we headed down to Arequipa to visit the specialist and get the all clear. We also intended to spend a few days relaxing in Arequipa although it didn't quite work out that way. Arequipa is Peru's second largest city, although it's a lot smaller than Lima, and in the central area it has quite a European colonial feel to it. The buildings, despite not being that old due to earthquake damage, are very grand and the main square, Pl...

Regular readers will note that we didn´t leave Nasca on Friday night as planned. Well we`ve had a little adventure that changed our plans somewhat and resulted in me spending a couple of nights in a Peruvian hospital (no there weren´t any Peruvian bouncers involved). I had been suffering a little for a few days, basically since we left Lima, with headaches and a fever and also a few tummy troubles but being the brave soldier that I am I´d continued to hurtle ...

Leaving our relative luxury in Lima was pretty hard but we headed to Ica and spent a day or so in what is pretty much a desert town where the amazing sanddunes that surround it are the main highlight. We were there during the two day Peruvian independence holiday, so it was heaving with people, which made it tricky to find a hotel but excellent for people watching. Driving through the massive sand dunes and sandboarding were a lot of fun, even though our driver ...