Well we are now in La Paz, the highest city in the world. I'll give a brief outline of what we have done since we last blogged.

Yesterday we were in Puno which is on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. We had booked a day trip out to see the floating reed islands of Uros and Taquille. This involved about three and a half hours there and three hours back on a boat. I'm not sure what good karma we had stored up but the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Just going along on the top of the boat was sheer bliss.

The lake is beautiful and the island of Taquille was interesting. We did about an hour's walk there with some beautiful views and had a nice lunch. The floating islands were really not worth seeing - floating souvenir shops that smelt a bit from the stagnant water underneath them. I didn't bother to get off the boat for the second of those islands as it was much more pleasant luxuriating in the sunshine on the boat deck and I didn't have an overwhelming urge to buy woven goods, miniture reed boats, etc..

On the boat journey back the sun was going down and the light was reflected off some clouds. The effect was really stunning. I think everyone was impressed by the sky as the sun went down. By the way, the lake is enormous, it feels like an ocean not freshwater.

We had planned to also visit Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian side and arranged bus tickets to Copacabana. We had been told that it is a nice place and a good place to chill out. We woke up this morning and (good karma used up) it was pouring down. As the bus trundled along to Copacabana we began to wonder if it was worth stopping there if the weather is bad. Plus we have plenty of time to chill out in the more relaxing islands of French Polynesia. About halfway through the journey there was a hail storm and the decision was made. We asked the bus conductor if we could stay on the bus until La Paz and he agreed for a sum that was lower than the bus company had been quoting us. Me thinks we contributed to his drinking fund....still he is happy and we paid less.

I must make a comment about border crossings. We are so used to flying everywhere that the immigration process is almost invisible. But when travelling by bus it feels like something out of a 1950's war movie. You have to do your exiting paperwork and then walk a distance through no man's land (usually over a bridge) and do all the entering paperwork. I wonder what would happen if you exited one country and then they wouldn't let you into the other country.......would the exiting country have you back? Would you be stuck in no man's land?

We have only been in La Paz for a couple of hours and it seems like a bustling place. I'll put up more details after tomorrow.

We have finally left Peru and entered Bolivia. We spent the last few nights in Puno and had a very enjoyable day out on Lake Titicaca. We visited first a reed island. Two things photos don't tell you about the floating islands: first, they stink of the stagnant water trapped in the reeds and, second, they surface is distressingly spongy - every step causes you to sink up to your ankle with worrying water bubbling up aound your sole.

The island was tiny, roughly circular with a diameter of no more than 100 metres, and seemed to be home to three or four families, along with pigs, ducks and a dog. Apparently they are approximately two metres thick and the one we visited had only been made eight years ago.

Next we went to Taquile - a very traditional island where textiles are the main business. The inhabitants seem to spend all their time knitting (the men) or producing thread (the women). As they sit chatting in the main plaza, as they are walking along, their fingers are active. They all wear traditional clothes, including a very fetching coca leaf purse with multicoloured pom-poms along the bottom.

The best thing really though was just being out on the Lake. It is huge and a beautiful blue-green colour (except near the dock where it is covered with bright green duckweed). The water looked very enticing, especially as it was (for a change) very warm and dry.

We were going to stop in Copacabana on the Bolivian side of the Lake for a few days relaxation, but changed our minds on the bus this morning - the weather was bad (there was a heavy hailstorm) and we can relax when we get to Tahiti. So we asked the conductor if we could stay on till La Paz. This only cost 10 soles each (which I doubt went to the bus company).

So we are now in La Paz. We arrived late so we haven't had much chance to look around. But my initial impressions are good.

I feel that I have been neglecting the blog a bit lately. I think that this may be partly to do with having a third person with us and so we don't follow our usual (rather dull!) routine and partly that we have been away on lots of trips that mean that we haven't had the time to keep the blog up to date. So this blog is going to be rather long and maybe boring for quite a lot of people. However it will be my best souvenir of this trip so I do need to put in all the details.

Anyway, the latest is that this morning we took Tony to the airport and he should be in Lima now awaiting his flight back to the UK. I can't imagine going back. I have adapted to life on the move now and to think of waking up and doing the same thing every day is really weird. I guess that by the time that we do have to go back I may have tired of this lifestyle but for now it suits me very much!

Our last trip was the jungle trip. It was very pleasant for three days and the last day was a bit hairy and in retrospect probably a bit adventurous but at the time I was not greatly amused.

For the first day we took a minibus with eight other people to the first lodge that the company uses. The journey was very long but when we arrived at the lodge I think that we all felt that it was worth it. The lodge was up in the high cloud forest (I hadn't even realised that there are different types of rainforest - doh!) and we were all going to sleep on a large veranda type construction. We each had a bed with a mosquito net and a pillow. We had to use our sleeping bags as duvets. There was a toilet block close by and a separate dining room/sitting around room in another block. There was some very dim and minimal electricity on until around 7pm. Then it was torchlight. Of course it was raining (the story of our holiday) but it didn't really matter. The lodge was by a river and the animal sounds and the sound of the river thundering by were quite loud. It was really quite a romantic setting and despite the night noises I slept quite well. There were lots on insects around in the high jungle and I think that I got a few bites (although nothing compared to the earlier insect bite session at the border crossing). It really was a cool place to sleep.

We had an early start the next day as we had to get up to see the cock of the rock male doing the mating dance. We saw a few of the birds but they don't stay still for very long and so it was difficult to take photographs. After this four of the group went off in one direction (they were on a longer tour) and we carried on with our journey to Erika lodge (in the low rainforest).

The journey involved some river rafting and I think that all of three of the Hedges clan were a bit anxious about this. We needn't have worried though as it was more of a drift down the river (surprisingly swift). I think it would have been classed as a grade one rafting session (embarssingly someone fell in the water! Not one of us I hasten to add.)

The lodge had four rooms on a platform that were proper rooms with four walls, roof and door. There was a kitchen block, a dining room (very basic) and a bathroom block. But best of all, and soon to become my favourite place, was a two level gazebo with two hammocks on each level. I think that I spent most of my time lying in a hammock on the top level. There was no electricity at the lodge and at night it was torches and candles.

I must confess that I did not make use of the shower facilities whilst I was there as they were cold and the anxiety about some animal or another would not have made for a pleasant shower. Besides, we got wet so much in the rain that I don't think a shower was necessary.

At night we had to always use our torches and make sure that we had shoes on as there are quite a few snakes there. I thought the guides were just trying to wind me up but when they told me off for not checking the insides of my shoes before putting them on I realised that they were serious.

The first evening there was an enormous thunderstorm. The river (which was about 150 - 200 metres wide) was very swollen and the current was really strong (a theme which will crop up later).
We sat up on the top level of the gazebo watching the storm light up the river very dramatically with our candlelight and the rain pouring down outside. Even the bats (small ones thankfully) stayed in the gazebo flying around in the roof. I can't describe how cosy and lovely it was.

Everyone retired early to bed but the beds were quite short and our feet hung over the end of the bed. The thing was that you didn't feel that comfortable having your feet hanging over the end of the bed (who knows what might bite your feet....) and when the mosquito net brushed against your face you imagined the worst. With that and the thunder cracking loudly overhead I did not really have a good night's sleep. The next morning we found a dead cockroach on our bed (on Steve's half). We weren't sure how it got there nor how long it had been there........

We were due to do a four hour walk in the morning but the rain was pouring and after about 15 minutes Steve and I came back. We had enough of being wet and muddy on the Inca Trail. We spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon in the hammocks. I had quite a pleasant sleep and when I woke up the sun was shining. The rest of the day was spent in pretty much the same mode (lazing about) and it was really relaxing.

That night as we went to bed I heard thunder in the distance. By half past midnight the thunder was right overhead and woke us up. The rain was pouring down and I couldn't really get to sleep again. There were the same problems as the night before plus the worry that we might get stranded at the lodge (Tony had a flight to catch) and the fact that I needed the toilet but too wussy to go by myself!

In the morning the guides said that we were going to leave on time and we all climbed aboard the motorised canoe. The current on the river was very strong and the boat struggled at times. Then all of a sudden the motor made a really loud noise and stopped when we hit an extra strong bit of current too fast. The boat was quickly pulled into the current and was moving rapidly back to where we had come from. The waves on the river were large and threatening to engulf us. I really thought that the boat was going to capsize and for a few minutes that we were all going to die. Not a single one of us had a lifejacket on and even the guides were panicking. They managed to right the boat with the paddles that we had used for river rafting and quickly passed out lifejackets (a bit late one might say).

The crew managed to stop the boat in a shallow bit of water and fixed the engine (took about an hour) and then we made our way back to the village that we had been heading for. The mood on this part of the journey was much more sombre and I couldn't relax until I was back on dry land.

The rest of the journey back was bit of a nightmare involving landslides and four wheel drives that were barely roadworthy (ignition was two bits of wire and when Steve pulled the door shut the handle came off!). However I am not going to write about this as I will get really cross about the company that were operating this tour. I have complained to the company to no avail but am pursuing the matter further.

Our plans are to go onto Puno on Monday. We were going to get the train but have been helpfully advised by the woman at the South American Explorer's club that the bus is faster (!) and has the same views as the train as well as being cheaper. So it's back to travelling by bus. This time next week we should be in Bolivia. Tomorrow we will do a Sacred Valley tour and then it is Au Revoir Cusco (seems like we have been here forever).

One last mention is that we have put up some pictures that Gil and Marlies took when we were on the Galapagos sites. Check here for the photos.

The Inca Trail has been successfully completed. Everything that everyone says about the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu is true.
(1) The walk is difficult.
(2) The second day over Dead Woman's Pass (4200 metres) is very tiring and the last few metres seem to take forever.
(3) The view of Machu Picchu from above is fantastic. It is worth doing the Inca Trail.
(4) The altitude makes the walk very difficult. You are gasping for breath.
(5) Chewing Coca leaves definitely helps relieve the problems caused by altitude.

When you finally get to Machu Picchu it really will take your breath away. No matter how many pictures you have seen, seeing the real thing is still amazing. The two things that struck me most were that sheer size of the place and the beauty of the surrounding countryside. The other thing is that noone can really explain Machu Picchu. You just go, and enjoy. Even the grumpiest in the group were happy (and there were quite a few of us given the bad weather and sleepless nights!).

Tomorrow we are off to the jungle for a four day/three night jaunt. I think we are water rafting tomorrow. We had to go and try our wellies on today to see if they fit properly. Something tells me that there is going to be rain, and quite a lot of it!

Well, the Trail was a lot harder than any of us expected - mostly due to the atrocious conditions and the altitude. It rained every day. Very hard rain, and it was cold. There's nothing worse than trudging along with your clothes soaked through and your legs aching. Except to do that at over 4000 metres.




Trying to accentuate the positive, here are some highlights from the trek:

• Crossing Dead Woman's Pass. This is the highest point on the trail at over 4200 metres. The approach is steep but not too bad, but at that altitude every step is painful. We had to rest every hundred metres or so, despite chewing coca leaves to help us cope.
• Walking into Machu Picchu city with the sun shining. The city is awesome, even though you read up beforehand and look at photos and maps, nothing really prepares you for Machu Picchu. It's a lot larger than I expected and the sheer profusion of stonework styles, buildings, levels, and terraces is overwhelming. Also, I think that no-one really understands the city, that all the explanations are really nothing more than educated guesses and that Machu Picchu is that most surprising thing: a mystery, something unknown.
• The train journey from Agua Callientes to Cusco. For the first time in four days, the skies cleared and we had views of the magnificent snow-capped Andean mountains (for almost the first time during our travels). And as we approached Cusco in the evening, the city was spread out below us lit up and beautiful.
• Seeing the Rio Urubamba in full flood. I've never seen such a torrential river - hugely swollen, red-brown in colour with the most enormous whitewater swells, waves and hollows. Water was being thrown five to ten metres up into the air.

As we sat on a terrace at Machu Picchu, enjoying the sun and looking at the surrounding jungle-covered mountains, it seemed possible that they too contained something as magical as the Inca sacred city. Something unknown and beautiful. I felt the world was bigger place then.

Just a quick note - we all got back late last night after four hard days trekking through the cold and rain on the Inca Trail. Amazingly, the sun came out for the first time when we finally got to Machu Picchu - which was amazing. More details later today after we've recovered a bit and before we go to the jungle tomorrow.

I think I have been struck down with sleeping sickness. I am very tired and the urge to take a siesta is overwhelming! Tony seemed to side with my siesta suggestion but Steve insists that we stay awake so that we get an early night tonight. He is right as we have to be ready for the tour at 5:00am tomorrow morning.

This morning we went to Sacsaywaman. It was very interesting and we had quite an informed guide showing us around the site. He must have seen us walking up the hill (out of breath!) and followed us up there to try and sell his services. Obviously he was successful.

When we decided to have lunch Steve was surrounded by all the restaurant touts waiving their menus at him. Tony and I were stood back a bit and it was quite funny to watch Steve trying to choose a place. He had nominated one of us to be the obvious group leader tomorrow!

Tony arrived in Cusco yesterday and it was like Father Christmas arriving. We had sent a shopping list and the goodies turned up with him. It is amazing how excited you can get by a new pack of cards and a nailbrush! There was also a bonus surprise of a domino set and a Sunday Times newspaper.

Tomorrow we set off on the Inca Trail for four days so will be out of touch. Hopefully we will make it without too much difficulty.....

We are now in Cusco where we will be meeting up with my brother in law, Tony. It will be nice to see Tony as Steve and I have started finishing off each other's sentences! We need fresh blood!

We haven't posted a blog for a while as we haven't really seem to have had the time nor energy. Still we are now acclimatised and raring to go. Tony arrives on Monday morning and we set off on the Inca Trail on Wednesday. There are many people trying to sell you the Inca Trail and in the end we chose SAS as they have a good reputation (worth the extra money).

I reckon you need 24 hours to acclimatise to the altitude here when arriving from sea level. I don't think anyone would be able to honestly say that after a few hours they didn't feel the effects. You get a light headache that seems to hang around for about 2 or 3 hours after you have arrived. A good nights sleep and plenty of water seems to cure it though. The only other noticable effect is that when walking around if you have to go up hill you get out of breath a bit quicker than you normally would.

The Inca Trail is going to be a very strenuous walk and after Sangay National Park I have decided to splash out on a porter to carry my possessions. I shall carry my waterproof and water and that is it. You have no idea how much heavier each kilogram feels when you are really tired and walking at high altitude. Besides by hiring a porter I am distributing my tourist money amongst the economy.... It is not expecially cheap but I reckon I will be glad I spent every cent when we reach Dead Woman's Pass at 4200m height. The high pass occurs on the second day and apparently this is the hardest day and is very steep. Day three and four are much easier. I am dreading day two but then my enjoyment of trekking is rather perverse. The sheer misery when the going gets tough is wiped out by the sheer joy of reaching your target. Every walk I do two thirds of the way up I wonder why on earth I do it and that I am never going to do it again. Then at the goal the sheer exhileration is worth every painful, laboured step! Also you feel like you have really earned the views and appreciate them all the more for the effort applied in obtaining them.

We have also been having a look around for jungle trips. We had found a few that we liked and went into the last recommended tour agency. She had the tour that we wanted (and it is not cheap) and then started telling us about the volunteer programme that they run at one of the lodges with the Indians. Basically you work for 4 hours in the morning clearing trails, remeasuring trails, marking the trails, sanding and varnishing the lodge accommodation for next high season, working in the garden, repairing the bridges, etc. and get the services of a guide and your lodging and food at a reduced rate (although I think the lodging is quite basic). Her enthusiasm was very infectious and that afternoon we went back to volunteer for a week.........So much for the luxury tour! Still it should be good fun (at least that is what I keep telling myself). If four other people sign up for this then they will organise our transport there (bus and boat) privately. Otherwise we have to go by public transport (buses, trucks, boat) which can take two to three days. Someone who speaks Spanish will come with us to help us find the right transport as although I have grasped some basic Spanish I would not feel confident deep in the jungle trying to get to the lodge. I think the whole thing will be a challenge but also an adventure. I am still astounded that we have been talked into this.

Cusco is lovely. Really pretty and we spent most of today wandering around the city looking at various must see sites. We didn't actually go into the museums as we will do that with Tony when he arrives. The quality of food and accommodation here is the best that we have found in our whole trip. We had a delicious lunch today in a nice restaurant on the main square (stuffed pepper, soup and bread, choice of chicken or steak, tea) for s/7 (approx 1.40 in sterling). Also English is quite widely spoken here. It seems that as you move south through the South American continent English becomes much more common. In Ecuador it seemed like hardly anyone spoke English. Also in Northern Peru it was much less common (hence the baic Spanish that we have acquired out of necessity).

I must add in one little thing that I should have put in the Nasca Lines blog. Apparently it is not uncommon for people to get air sick as the planes are small (4 - 6 people including pilot) and quite old and they bank quite steeply as you circle the lines so that passengers on both sides can see the planes and so that you can get good photos. Anyway the guy organising everyone assured us that if we got air sick there were plastic bags for us to be sick in. Well the bags were those really thin transparent ones that you use to put your vegetables in at the supermarket in Britain. They didn't look like they would contain much and you would be able to see everything. The only outcome of being sick in those bags would be to make yourself even sicker and to induce your fellow passengers to be sick!

We have been too busy acclimatising to the altitude and enjoying Cusco to have posted a diary entry for a while ... sorry to everyone,

Anyway, Cusco is great - a very attractive Plaza, good Inca remains and good facilities like restaurants and bars. The Plaza is surrounded on two side by two storey colonaded colonial buildings, whilst on the other sides have a fine looking cathedral and equally impressive Jesuit church. The surrounding mountains are excellent - if often clouded over.

The only complaint we have is the number of street traders trying to sell everything postcards, fingerpuppets, pottery, ponchos, alpaca jumpers, shoeshines, Inca trail trips etc etc. In a 20 metre stretch of the Plaza today we were approached over 25 times. I wonder how they make any money really - the competition is so intense and I have not seen a sale being made at all. Most of the sellers are young kids, usually boys, some of them no more than four or five. Yet they are often very bright, fluent in English and funny. You get the feeling that if they'd had the opportunities of someone born in the UK, they would be making great lives for themselves. Whereas here, they've got dealt the bad hand and are just trying to survive.

Tony is arriving here in two days and we have scheduled a rigorous program of activities (photos and descriptions of most of these are here), including a walking tour of Cusco, a trip to the Sacred Valley, the four-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and possible a trip out to the jungle in the Manu Biosphere Reserve. We've even scheduled in a couple of days acclimatising ...

We have decided to leave Arequipa earlier than expected as the weather has not been too great. The mornings are okay but the afternoons are rainy and quite cold. This is not the weather that will lend itself to good walking. After the Sangay National Park experience we are not taking any chances.

We went around to several tour agencies yesterday and they all seemed to be offering the same old tour which didn't look very impressive. When we asked what the conditions were in the canyon they were evasive which confirmed our suspicions that it will be muddy and wet. We are going to have a look around the city today and then catch a flight to Cusco in the morning. It is a little disappointing as a few days walking in Colca Canyon was one of the things that I was looking forward to but we'll just have to do it next time that we visit Peru.

Some things that I meant to put in earlier blogs but forgot follow next. They are really small observations that are not in any particular order.

1) We went to the supermarket in Lima and in the fridge were whole guinea pigs (skinned). I have to say that I don't think that I am a squeamish person but that made me choke a bit. After all, you don't see a whole cow or a whole chicken in the fridge. I suppose if you eat meat you should be able to accept it but still....

2) In the supermarket in Trujillo they put large colour photographs up on the wall of people who are not welcome in their store. No messing about there then!

3) When we were in Sangay National Park I saw a side to Steve that I have never seen before. Yes, he was very able around the campsite. Made fires, got the tent up, got water for us, etc. I couldn't believe it was him - and we have been married for a long time! Goes to show that you never completely know everything about a person.

4) Society here seems a bit macho - or at least more so though than in England

5) There is a big gap between the well off and the poor. This was especially noticable in Ecuador. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground and the gap between the two seems quite large. You either have money or you don't.

6) Steve and I are actually quite punctual people. This has become apparent as we turn up to catch our buses at the appointed time but they never turn up on time for no obvious reason. We thought that we were never going to get out of Nasca.

Not a very interesting blog but we haven't really done very much in the last couple of days.

Yesterday we arrived in Arequipa after catching the nightbus from Nasca. You may recall that we had a long wait for the 9:30pm bus. Well we managed to kill the time and just after 9pm got our luggage out of the luggage store at the hotel and went out onto the street to excitedly wait for the bus. A man came up to us and asked if we were waiting for the Arequipa bus. We said yes and he said "Oh it won't be here until 10:15pm at the earliest and as it is Sunday it will probably be more like 11pm". When asked for more detail he said that it was because people like to go to the beach on Sunday. I presume from this bizarre explanation that he meant that all the people going to the beach would lead to an increase in traffic and not that the bus driver liked going to the beach and so would be late for work.

Anyway we arrived in Arequipa in the morning and it really is a pretty town. The weather was beautiful and our hotel is nice and in a great location. We had a wander around town and were inundated with people trying to sell us tours/guides to Colca Canyon. Around the main square we were also beseiged by people trying to get us to eat in their restaurant (good natured but a bit wearing after a while). We decided to sleep on it as we are taking a few days here just to chill out, get our laundry done, etc. etc.

One task that we have had to address is the luggage one. When we checked onto one of the buses they were weighing all the bags and charged us for excess luggage! We had been feeling for some time that we had too much stuff. We had planned to get the train from Arequipa to Cusco but it is not running and so we have to get a flight there. There is no way that they will let us take the 10+ kg excess that we are carrying at the moment. We have had a long hard look at everything and have nominated some items to be thrown away (not worth the cost of sending them back) and some will be travelling by the rather expensive DHL service. We are going to take the stuff over to the DHL office later this afternoon.

Our guidebook assures us that the climate in Arequipa is perfect. Sunshine 360 days a year and only 150mm of rain every year. As we walked around town experiencing the lovely climate we felt very relaxed and were making the usual comments "This is the life...", etc., etc. Later that afternoon it started to rain and by the evening it was really bucketing down. It looks like we picked the five days a year that it rains! This morning is beautiful weather once again but I spy clouds in the distance. Our trip out to Colca Canyon is weather dependent so our itinerary may change. Watch this space!

Note to Tony : we will still be at Cusco airport to meet you!

The last thing that I wish to say today is a big Congratulations to Brian and Gema Cunningham who have just had a baby girl, Rosa. I have had a look at the pictures and am feeling very broody! She is really lovely. For those that know Brian and Gema the url of Rosa's pictures is here.

This is my first attempt at a blog to my brother (Steven) and his wife (Linda) round the world site. My name is Tony Hedges, and I am due to fly out to Lima on Sunday the 10th of March. I actually land in Lima at 00.44hrs the next morning! I am going out there to deliver new supplies to Steve and Linda, and to take some stuff back. After their first attempt at camping, you can't blame them for thinking that perhaps they took too much stuff!

I am looking forward to meeting them in Peru. Peru is seen as a very exotic location for a holiday, but other people in the UK. Perhaps for "exotic" read "wild!" I have had all my jabs, 2 in each arm. I was talking away to the nurse, I think I said, "I'm surprised, it doesn't hurt!" When she sneakily stuck me with the 3rd jab! I thought, "you sneaky bugger!" I better not go on too much about this, because I told her about the web site, and she may get around to reading this, so I suppose I better say she was very knowledgeable! I have started on my anti-malaria tablets. So far, although the nurse was very thorough in explaining all possible side effects, I am as fit as a fiddle. I managed to sneak a peak at my medical records, last time I was ill enough to present myself to my doctor was 1994!

I have organised to meet Jean-Paul at Lima airport, he is going to pre book my flight to Cuzco for the 12th. It takes off at 9.30am, so if all is well, it should reach Cuzco at 10.30am, I say this, because Steve and Linda promised to meet me at Cuzco airport, and I am pretty sure they will read this entry!

I hope this posts ok! This is my first attempt. I will blog more in future - you have been warned!

I am at a stage where I am trying to think hard what I might have forgotten to get, but as the time to departure moves ever closer, it becomes increasingly hard to think what else I might need? I think I have everything, but there is bound to be something I forget!

This is the second time that I have tried to do this blog as the first time the blog did not post. Arrrgggghhhhhhh!

Anyway, after catching a very nice nightbus from Trujillo we spent two days in Lima. Lima is an enormous city and has many of the traits of large cities. We found Lima quite expensive compared to other places that we have visited. However, when you think about it, London and Paris are expensive relative to other towns and cities in England and France so we shouldn't have been that surprised.

We stayed in a quite nice suburb called Mireflores and I confess that we spent an hour or so looking around a very swanky department store in Mireflores comparing computer prices with the rest of the world. Very sad! We also noticed in the same department store that they were offering extortionate 'pay over several months' options on many items in the store. I think that the worst one was pay today $329 or pay 36 installments of $36! They weren't all this bad but were all excessively high interest.

We took the bus to Nasca (en route to Arequipa) and arrived at about 4pm yesterday. It was just madness when us and one other couple got off the bus here. There were lots of people trying to get us to stay in their hotel. For a few minutes we had a taste of what it must be like to be famous. We couldn't even get to the luggage hold to get our backpacks as there were so many people waving bits of paper in our faces and calling out to us.

I think if it weren't for the Nasca lines there would not be much here at all. The phrase one horse town fits Nasca. Unfortunately for us there is only one bus that will take us from here to Arequipa and that doesn't get here until 9:30pm tonight. How we will use up 8 hours is a bit of a puzzle. However we both agree that it was worth stopping off to see the Nasca lines. They are a mix of geometric shapes and lines and animal shapes. Personally I think that the animal shapes and the geometric shapes and lines are unrelated as there are reasonable explanations for the geometric ones but the explanations for the animal shapes range from the downright ludicrous to the just about vaguely plausible. I also doubt the age of the animal shapes.

I can see that if you did believe in aliens and UFO sightings that you could see the Nasca lines as proof for all and the alien explanation is one that is doing the rounds (definititely falls in the ludicrous camp). Steve and I have disagree about the lines but you can make up your own mind. Here is a site about the Nasca lines.

A quick mention about the landscape on the way here. Real desert and very dramatic. A very pleasant surprise.

Anyway, Arequipa here we come (after another long bus journey!).

We've been travelling and rushing about for a few days, so this will be a very fragmentary entry into our progress log.

Lima was a big, chaotic sprawling mess. Too many people and too much traffic. Still, the only person whio actually tried to con us out of money was an American with a story about having his pack stolen and needing some money for a phone call. Whilst this was initially convincing, we soon realised that every suggestion we made that did not involve actually handing over cash was quickly deflected. We got away - and saw him, not five minutes, later talking to another gringo.

We went to see the Gold Museum. This is a private collection of perhispanic gold and weapons of the world. The person who put together the collection was clearly somewhat obsessive. The collection is like a fevered dream where things happen over and over again.

For example, any normal person would be happy with one or two representative samples of Chilean silver stirrups. Not our collector who felt the necessity to have three cases of the things each holding about 250 examples! And in the same room - stirrups, saddles, spurs (over 1000!), some guns and so on. And room after room after room of the stuff.

The precolumbian gold was exactly the same. Once you became a supplier to the collector, you had a job for life.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, we went to the Museo de la Nacion. This shows the history of precolumbian people in Peru from Prehistoric times up to the Incas. There's some very good ceramics, interesting reproductions of things we'd seen in archaeological sites, and some slightly "Blue Peter"-ish recreations of life in old times.

We had a quick look around the old town of Lima (a World Heritage Site) which was okay, vaguely impressive in the Plaza de Armas but all a bit underwhelming.

We were both glad to leave Lima and head to Nazca. The lines are definitely the only reason for visiting this place (I think Linda was joking when she suggested they had been created by the current populace to provide a tourist attraction.) The lines and animal shapes themselves are intriguing but the suggestions of their origins are all a bit unconvincing - ranging from landing fields for spaceships, shamanic guidance systems or a giant celestial calendar. I think really we just don't know.

We're off to Arequipa tonight to regroup, rest, do some laundry and hike in the Colca Canyon. A fuller and more coherent entry then. (PS Forgot two plays I've read - King Lear and Two Gentlemen of Verona.)