So here I am in the City of Kings, South Amercia´s only seaside capital city and the original home of Paddington Bear (although no-one here knows who the hell PB is which I find pretty disturbing!!). And once again I´m wasting time waiting for yet another wonderful nightbus for another long journey north. Actually I got to Lima a couple of days ago and it's ok here -in fact, I really quite like this place. My Lonely Planet tells you that Lima has a reputation for pollution (but so does any big city), that it´s frenetic (but hey I've survived La Paz) and that it's very dangerous - well like me the Lonely Planet writter has obviously attempted to have a wax here... Let me just say that if you ever find yourself lying on a gym workout bench in a loft in Lima which is above a hairdressers and then some girl approaches you with a battered old metal saucepan of hot wax and attempts your bikini line with a big wooden spoon while the whole world and his wife glance up from the street below through the big big window that hides nothing... RUN!!!  So, other than a tramatic wax we attempted shopping in Miraflores (rubbish), visited zero museums in Centro but did find the city's oldest bar, and ate great seafood by the sea in the very bohemiem bario of Barranco which is where our hotel is so that's good.

Pre Lima was the Nazca Lines (which is where I think I last left you). At bloody last we hit zero altitude and I could breathe properly again not to mention eat again, walk again without passing out and at last the toilet became less of a friend. So, in Nazca, we took flights over the Nazca Lines as it's really the only way you can view them and it was pretty cool especially the tiny little areoplane. For interested parties, these lines are spread over 500 sq km and are made up of a network of 800 lines carved into the ground/sand and include 300 figures such as a spider, monkey, condor, parrot and hands and trees. No-one actually knows who constructed the lines but it's guessed that they date back from around 900 BC - mind you I actually think that as one of the line drawings is called the Astronaut we're really looking at construction no earlier than the 1970s (or someone, somewhere is having a laugh).

After Nazca it was on to Huacachina which is a lagoon village surrounded by huge sand dunes. Dune Buggies and Sand Boarding were the order of the day and it was totally wicked. Can you believe I've now done sand boarding 4 times and still only progessed as far as my tummy to get down the dunes... I will stand one day I promise.

Right next on to Pisco (which made me smile - obviously). Of course we visted a local distillary (and tried lots of the stuff) then spent a night in a beach resort on the Peninsula de Paracas followed by a morning visiting the poor man's Galapagos called Islas Ballestas which is packed full of birds (watch your head) and very smelly sea lions, but the pups were soooooo cute so smell forgiven. And then on to Lima...

Tomorrow we hit the beach and I tell you what after weeks of cities and mountains I can't bloody well wait to hit the sand and the sea.

Well I'll love you and leave you now, got that wonderful bus to catch.

Buenos Noches amigos xxxx