Friday 22nd April - Getting closer!

We're now in Madrid airport waiting for the last leg of our journey back to Heathrow. There's nothing very interesting to take photos of so here is the nun at Mcdonalds in Lima :-)
It has been a fantastic holiday and I have enjoyed every minute (almost!!) - interesting, intriguing, exciting, colourful and contradictory. Sarah, Linda, Emma and Ben have been great adventure companions and I will miss hanging out with them (roll on Sarah's hen do :-) It was too short to get more than a snapshot of Peru and I would go back again in a heartbeat, to visit the places we didn't get to see (the coast, the north, the jungle, lake titikaka, the nasca lines) and to revisit the places we did see, but more slowly and looking more closely at the small things (eg walking the inca trail).
But for now, I am looking forward to getting home, being rescued from the airport by P and spending a nice quiet evening in.

Thursday 21st April - On the way home

We're at the start of the next epic journey. It's 13.20 local time (18.20 UK time), just over 24 HOURS before we arrive back in London. Just said sad goodbyes to Emma and Ben who came all the way to the airport and helped us get everything sorted for the journey...have had such a nice time and they have been so lovely :-)
Pic is of our plane waiting patiently for us on the tarmac in Arequipa with El Misti (volcano) in the background.
Now in McDonalds in Lima airport where Sarah has just stopped 2 nuns pushing in front of her in the queue. Only another few hours before the next flight, to Madrid, and then on to Heathrow...

Wednesday 20th April - Last day in Arequipa

We were all feeling slightly delicate today so decided against the original plan (a 4-hour bus tour round Arequipa and the surrounding area seemed like an unnecessarily high risk activity...) so after a gentle breakfast and the catching of a few rays on the terrace we ventured out into a few of the nice touristy stores (deliberately selecting the ones closest to the hostel).
I bought some things for myself (obviously) and some things for my family (note to family: don't want to spoil the surprises y'all but sure you'll be relieved to know that the hat in the pic was not one of my purchases), engaged in a little light bargaining and generally felt quite pleased with myself.
We packed most of our stuff up ready to go and watched the sunset on the terrace, thinking what a pity it would be not to have snow capped volcanos overlooking us all the time.
In the evening we went out for a lovely goodbye meal with Emma and Ben in the same place we had cocktails the other day. Chicha is the nicest restaurant in Arequipa and makes super tasty food. We shared cuy (guinea pig) pancakes for starters and scallops, and I had alpaca papardelle for mains. For dessert we shared a trio of chocolate mousses and all was yum. Definitely an excellent way to end our stay :-)

Tuesday 19th April - Not in Colca Canyon

All our best-laid plans of condor watching failed :-( Sarah was suffering mightily from the Lurgy of Peru and by 2.30 am it was pretty clear that 6 hours in a minibus was not the way forward. We tried to console ourselves with the thought that we saw a condor yesterday (today's pic shows view of volcanos from the terrace - the condor was flying towards us) (NB condor isn't on the photo! - you need to use your imaginations!). We spent some time googling condors and are pretty sure it was a young female.
Linda was at Emma's school today (only immediate family allowed hence doing the planned condor trip). She found it quite unsettling - there is so much deprivation there, the area is very poor and some of the kids have really tragic backgrounds. The volunteers (Emma et al) are making a real difference but some of the regular teachers, including the head, don't turn up for their lessons, some of the kids don't even start primary school until they're 11, and a lot of them are out working for families all the hours they aren't in school (only 3 hours each morning anyway). The school is outside Arequipa in the desert and is in a very dusty small community. Probably some things need to be addressed at a higher level than a local one before things really start to change for the kids there.
By the end of the day I was feeling pretty ropey too (various pieces of evidence point to the cerviche being to blame all round) and everyone was in bed by 9.30.

Monday 18th April - Arequipa

In today's pic you can see my lunch - super tasty cerviche (raw fish in lime juice) with two slices of cold sweet potato (a surprisingly excellent accompaniment to the limey spicy fishiness). Sarah and I were sharing that and a sandwich but unfortunately I had eaten both my halves by the time she decided it was too spicy so ate her portion as well.
Sarah, Linda and I had a quite cultural day today and went to visit the santa catalina monastery while Emma and Ben were at work (poor things). It is like a tiny ancient secret city hidden away behind high walls right in the centre of town and had the most peaceful atmosphere as you walked around its terracotta coloured streets. The nuns actually had very nice rooms and apart from all the religious stuff I suppose would've been necessary I could definitely have lived there. There are still some santa catalina nuns (aged 18-90) but they live in a new modern bit, which seems like a shame. It can't be as nice as the old bit even if they have more mod cons.
After breakfast we sat on the terrace for a bit and are absolutely convinced we saw a condor flying over. Not that either if us have ever seen a condor, but we happened to have brochures about condors on the table at the time (going to go on a condor spotting trip tomorrow!) and it looked just the same. Apparently they never come into Arequipa but what do the locals know!
We're in bed now ready to nest as tomorrow's trip starts at 2:30 am...aaagh.
PS you may be interested to know that channel 17 is pretty much non stop reruns of Friends with an occasional other American sitcom thrown in :-)

Sunday 17th April - Chillin' in Arequipa

We rolled in from the overnight bus at about 6.30 am and were all feeling the need to settle for a bit. We're now in Arequipa until we start our epic journey home. We started off by asking the friendly hostel lady to wash our stinky gear, then had some breakfast, sunbathed for a while on the roof terrace and ate half a box of chocolates.
We headed to the town market to start on our various purchasing missions. A lot of the shops and stalls were closed because it's palm sunday, but we did manage to get some veg and fish (complete with heads) to cook for our dinner this evening. We also went to book a table in Arequipa's finest restaurant for our last night and were enticed in by the cocktail menu. Ben (Emma's boyfriend, a teacher with the same organisation and also an ultimate fighter) came with us and lead us into bad ways. An hour or 2 and most of the cocktail menu later we were the last punters to leave. In spite of the alcohol we cooked a tasty trout and veggies meal in the guesthouse's kitchen for our dinner.

Saturday 16th April - Cusco

Another early start due to the unreasonable checking out times of our (very chilly and noisy) hostel, but at least there were hot showers which were very welcome, and cinnamon and clove tea and olives for breakfast.
We decided to stick around in Cusco and do some cultural things. We started with the cathedral, complete with audio tour by man with nice voice (still beaten to top audio guide spot by the tour of the forbidden city in beijing, which is done by Roger Moore, especially nice because he thanks you for keeping him company). It was an interesting blend of Christian and Andean - solid gold all over the place, dresses influenced by incan designs, and a roast guinea pig on the table in the painting of the last supper. Outside the cathedral we watched a parade of all the schoolchildren of Cusco showing off their clubs (gymnasts cartwheeling, basketball players bouncing balls and the chess club carrying chess boards under their arms). Strangely it was only girls, no boys were in the parade at all.
After catching the man u msn city match over a sneaky drink in paddy's bar (the highest 100% irish-owned bar in the world!) we decided to cash in on our v expensive tourist ticket which covers some of the museums. In the museo historico regional we saw a nascan mummy with 1.5m long hair, a green hummingbird snacking on fuschias and a rather graphic depiction of the virgin mary with leaky breasts.
We caught a bus round the town to say goodbye and are now on our overnight bus back to arequipa, all dosed up with nytol and hoping for a good night's rest...