And so to the final chapter....... Arrived in Melbourne to an unseasonal 10 day heat wave of temperatures in the mid thirties. Had no AC in the studio apartment I had rented but as soon as I arrived the nice landlady rushed out and replaced the tiny desk fan with the equivalent of an aircraft propeller, so at least I had high speed warm air! I really liked Melbourne and spent a happy few days just wandering around. I was only a few minutes walk from Albert Park...

I would love to tell you that I fully appreciated visiting Chile, but the truth of the matter was that I was well and truly 'touristed out'. I had booked my first 5 nights in a nice hotel in Santiago knowing that after my full on touring itinerary I would need to relax. That left me with a further 5 nights to maybe travel further afield. Hmmmm.... so what actually happened was after 2 nights at the hotel I booked an extra 5 nights!! Santiago Zoo was within walki...

In order to write these blog entries I refer back to my journal and the photos on my camera to jog my memory. You would think this would work really well, and indeed it would if I actually wrote in my journal every day. The actual sequence of events is more like 'oh s**t' I've forgotten to write in my journal (a whole week was my worst case) followed then by looking at my photos and looking at my itinerary and basically making stuff up. I have decided that writ...

Back from the Inca Trail we had a day in Cusco to recover.This involved a lovely day mooching around the shops and markets with Nicole my best buddy on tour. In keeping with Peruvin tradition, we tried the local delicacy for lunch - yep we ate a guinea pig!! It came I would guess roasted, and already cut into pieces consisting of the head (with teeth prominently showing), and the body in 4 easy to eat portions. After we had taken the obligatory tourist phot...

New Year's Eve - we are in Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca, our first stop in Peru. We had a nice dinner, and I tried alpaca this time it's much tastier then llama ; ) Saw in 2013 in one of the plazas surrounded by fireworks, so really lovely. New Year's Day and we are off to stay on Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. We caught rickshaws to the port and bought gifts of flour, rice, sugar etc for our host families. En route to our home f...