Sooooooooooo... we are sadly leaving the beautiful Peru tomorrow so time to catch up on a few of the highlights/lowlights from our last 10 days here.

1) Arequipa Carnival

Seb dances with man dressed up as woman and Katie is dragged in to dance with 8 year old boy! It sucks being a conspicuous white person at a Peruvian carnival! But it was a great laugh anyway!!!

(Click on Katie for link to flickr!)

The streets really came alive as the town celebrated its anniversary... everyone lined the main square to watch the parades of crazy people, horses, llamas, alpacas, goats and donkeys dressed up in all different costumes and some crazy clowns who insisted on pulling us out of the crowd to dance with them, much to the entire square´s delight! The evening continued with one too many pisco sours and some hefty beer drinking and dancing and then the evilest of hangovers that kept me in bed for the whole of the next day! I blame the raw eggs in that pisco sour... Im sure that´s not right!

2) Arequipa - Santa Catalina Covent

This is a really amazing place... a complete city hidden behind high walls since the 16th century and only in the last 30 years open to the public. Now only a handful of nuns reside here but the rest of the convent has been transformed by wonderful relics and antiques to show how it would have looked when nuns lived there. It was a lovely way to while away a few hours wondering through the colourfully painted cobbled streets and poking your nose in all their individual "cells" as they are rather inappropriately called and imagining how the nuns would have lived there in total isolation form the rest of the city and wondeful World around them.

3) Trekking in Colca Canyon

This is an amazing place... over 4000m deep from the top of the highest mountain to the river down below, condors soaring about and sheer cliffs on all sides...

Our enthusiastic landlord, Yarda, from the Czech Republic failed in convincing us to take his guided tour of the canyon with "stop, take photo" oportunities galore... we decided we were big enough and brave enought to do a couple of days trekking without any help! We managed to get to Cabanaconde, the town were you start the trek, with no problem. Although we did manage to lock ourselves out of our bathroom. I had a dodgy belly so it was very important to be able to use the bathroom in the night you understand... After trying to pick the lock for about half an hour (it looks so much easier in the films, wheres that thin piece of wire when you need it?) we resorted to climbing in through a tiny and very high up window then I had to dangle my feet precariously to find the rim of the toilet and not land in it... awesome! Wierdly enough, we had just watched Mission Impossible 3 ... the same sort of thing really, just less bombs and explosions and stuff.

Anyway, we set off early in the morning, all pleased with ourselves that we didnt have a guide and got directions from a local, which took us directly over the edge of a steep cliff... brilliant. Dont we look clever now. An hour of scrambling about on the side of this stupidly steep cliff with a 2000m drop below us and we finally found our way to the place we were meant to start the walk on a very wide and obvious path looking path! We were a little embarassed to say the least, kind of crawling on to the path where others were serenly and smugly walking by, with their guides. Pah!

Down in to the valley we go, steeper and steeper, as the temperature got hotter and hotter. We stopped at the bottom by the river to munch our picnic ... a melon and some peanuts and raisons... mmm yummy. Then it was another 3 or 4 hours walking up and down the other side of the valley. Not as easy as it sounds with frequent toilets stops behind the nearest bush and the temperature at close to 30 degrees. But it was really beautiful, a little stream running along the path carrying the water for the local villages we passed through. With dramatic scenery all around, pretty idillic really.

We found a resting place at the "Oasis" in the bottom o fthe canyon, where there was a swimming pool, food and a bamboo hut to greet us.. nice place to spend the night!

The next day we had to set off and stupid o clock in the morning in order to get back to the top of the canyon to catch the bus back to Arequipa. So at 4.30am we started our slow ascent up 1000m to the top. One hour walking in the dark with only our trusty Petzl head torches for light... pretty cool really!

The bus back to Arequipa took us past tourist condor spot bonanza "Cruz del Condor" which is where we saw the magnificant birds from the bus, without getting up and without paying a penny (smug travellers not wasting money on tours to see big birds!).

3) Cusco and the magnificent but extremely expensive Machu Picchu

Cusco, tourist heaven, but still nice all the same. And we didnt get mugged or robbed or anything!

Did unfortunately surcome to a little organised tour of some of the Inca sights around the city. It would take about 3 years visiting one everyday to see them all... we started at about 1pm and finished at 6pm so you can imagine we only saw a couple, but they were cool all the same. Sachsayhuaman (yes it does sound just like sexy woman, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha how we did laugh and I know we were the first people to say that joke to our tour guide too, but after 30 years of doing the tours he still laughed, bless him), Qenqo, Tambomachay, and Pukapukara. All fine examples of the amazing Inca building skills. I wont go on about it cos its not really interesting until you see it and then you too would marvel at the huge rocks carved to exact size and shape to build walls with no mortar that have withstood hundreds of years of earthquakes and weather and Spaniards stealing everything and knocking everything down.

Then of course, we headed to Machu Picchu after much dithering about whether it was really worth paying the US$73 train ride and US$40 entrance fee to see some more ruins, but really it was something else altogether. Although we must eat nothing and sleep on the streets for the next week to make up for it! The train arrived in a town called Aguas Callientes, at about midday so it was too late to go up to MP so we decided to climb up a small mountain instead... jesus, forget the gym, this walk had steep ladders and scrambly bits and massive steppy bits carved out of the rock and took us about 1.5 hours to reach the top from where we got our first glimpse of the city in the misty distance. Amazing! (Have said that alot in this blog I know... need to look for new adjectives.)

Next day we, and about 500 other poeple who had the same ever so original idea, caught the 5.30am bus to get to MP in time to see the sun rise from Wayna Picchu (another hours steep climb from the main city site... our thighs are bulging by now as you can imagine!) We spent a few hours exploring the site, listening in on other peoples tour groups to try and glean some information from them cos we were too stingy to pay for a tour guide ourselves (god we are such scabby travellers arent we?!) Then we WALKED down the hill ($6 for the bus you know!) and collapsed in a heap at the bottom of the hill, dusty, dirty and very sweaty but content that weve now seen another of the new 7 Wonders of the World!

4) Earthquake

Of course, while we have been having this amazing time traveling about there are lots of people who got stuck in the horrible earthquake. We were really lucky but loads of others were not. In one of the worst hit towns, called Ica, about 80% of the buildings were totally destroyed... horrible. There are loads of ways to donate to the recovery effort if you want to... here´s a link to SaveTheChildren Earthquake fund but there are tons of others I´m sure.

NEXT: BOLIVIA!

Hola from Peru!

(click above for link to flickr)

Started our trip, as most people do, in Lima... another huge, sprawling, polluted capital. However we were actually quite pleasantly surprised by the city... it really isn´t as awful as everyone says! There are a couple of really nice suburbs which we explored during our brief visit. But ultimately, it is just another huge, sprawling, polluted city so we did´t hang around too long!

As it turns out, our chosen route is the one that most tourists seem to follow and has therefore been nicknamed the "Gringo Trail" by the Lonely Planet, but we didn´t know that cos we have the Footprint guide so we´ll pretend that we´ve chosen a really crazy individual trail and try to impress you all with our off the wall adventures!

After Lima we headed south on the incredible "Cruz del Sur" buses which are like travelling first class in an aeroplane... hostess service and cheesy dubbed american movies, bingo and the occasional Madonna music video to keep us entertained... Towards the large harbour town of Pisco. We came here cos we like the drink, but the town is not that great as it turns out so we didn´t stop here, we carried on to the beautiful Paracas on the edge of the Paracas National Park. Our hostal opened out onto the sea and was a really beautiful spot to spend the night. From here we took a boat trip (with about 100 other European, middle-aged tourists, but we won´t mention them) to the spectacular Islas Ballestas which are home to literally millions of birds nesting in huge colonies on the rock faces. Mums and Dads, you would have loved it! Even if you´re not a huge bird enthusiast you can´t help be impressed by the sheer volume of bird shit covering the island! Aparently they harvest it every 5 years cos it´s really good fertilser! Amoungst the birds we saw were a few very cute penguins and there were also tonnes of sealions lolling about too... we even saw one giving birth on a rock...very cool!

So next we hopped on another bus south to find this amazing oasis town of Huacachina. It is just like you imagine an oasis would be, surrounded by ENORMOUS sand dunes on all sides, a small lagoon supports life in this tiny village, which is mainly a tourist trap, but a very nice one at that! You can sand board, buggy or boogy board down the dunes, but we just chose to leap about in them like 5 year olds... so much fun! We also took the opportunity to catch up on some serious sunbathing... aaahh so lovely after lots of cold weather to finally catch a few rays!

After a very uncomfortable night bus onwards we have arrived in Arequipa which is at first glance verging on heavenly... we have read that the sun shines 360 days of the year ... who can complain at that! I hope we don´t catch the 5 days of rain in the year! We are staying in a wonderful hostal in a higglydypiggledy town house and plan on staying here for a few days for a festival celebrating the town´s anniversary... there promises to be lots of street parties and parades and drinking and dancing in the streets... quite nice timing on our part!

That´s all for now... carry on below for stories from Chile... now with pictures.

Lots of love from the slightly red-nosed katie and seb xxx

Well hello again everyone.

We´ve had a slightly surreal week exploring a tiny bit of the incredibly long and skinny country that is Chile. Have spent most of it recovering form the most incredible jet lag either of us has ever experienced, but at the same time trying to make the most of our short time in this beautiful country.


We landed in Santiago last Tuesday at about 1pm after 16 hours travelling and a 14 hour time difference and just about 1 hour´s sleep... My sister´s wonderful friends welcomed us into their home with open arms and a bottle of Pisco sour... and another... and another... and another... 16 hours later, at about 5am, our heads finally hit the pillow! Phew!

Needless to say, the next day we were pretty wiped out, so after a quick guided tour of the main sights of the city, we went back to bed! On Thursday we managed a trip to the coastal town of Valparaiso, where we wondered about like zombies, trying to take in the wonderfully higgledypiggledy, colourful houses sprinkled all over the hillsides here.... slums built in and amoungst and alongside huge wealthy mansions and tons of interesting street art to look at. 15 coffees later we still couldn´t stay awake so we hopped on a night bus to travel south to the town of Pucon.

This place was a real surprise... we suddenly found ourselves in somewhere very similar to Switzerland ... surounded by snowy mountains, dominated by a huge volcano and streets lined with cosy-looking wooden houses. We settled into a lovely backpackers and then set off for the natural hot springs and spent a few hours soaking away the long bus journeys and jet lag from our tired old bones!

The next day after the most amazing night´s sleep in the comfiest bed EVER, we set off with a guide to climb up the volcano... as you do! Turned out not to be the best weather for it and although Seb made it very nearly to the top, the icy winds and rain approaching made it just a bit too dangerous to go to the crater. I didn´t make it quite as far but was pleased with what I managed as it was pretty tough climb with crampons and ice axes and everything!!

After another amazing 15 hours sleeping (I dont think I´ve ever slept quite so much in one week before!), we set off on another bus south to the island of Chiloé. It was dark by the time we got here, so we found a bed and climbed into it again!!!! The next day we hoped to see penguins and dolphins off the coast, but aparently they don´t hang around here much in the winter ... d´oh! So as it was absolutely heaving it down with rain ALL DAY, reminding us alot of Ireland infact, we pretty much spent the day curled up infront of the fire in our B&B reading, watching tv and drinking wonderful chilean red wine... it´s a tough life for sure!

Another night bus and we´re back in Santiago now to kill a day before flying to Peru. As I said at the start... it´s been a bit of a a surreal week... as it´s off season there´s not alot going on round here and we seem to have spent to most of the time travelling on a bus from one place to another!! However we will take away with us a warm feeling from all the wonderful Chileans we´ve met, who have been helpful and welcoming here and we look forward to exploring the north on our way back through after we´ve conquered Peru, Bolivia and Argentina!