Everytime I look at a map of our travels I feel amazed and a bit smug. We are currently in Cusco in Peru having left Quito by bus on the 23rd of November. We´ve covered a lot of miles. Our final day in Ecuador was spent climbing up to the snow line of the mighty Cotopaxi volcano. The snow line lies at 16000ft, about the height of Mt Blanc in Europe, and we hauled ourselves all the way to that mark. To go further we would require special training on the glacier and much warmer gloves than either of us had brought.

The terrain was interesting to say the least. Volcanic ash/gravel 20ft deep covered the sides of the mountain interspersed with ancient (and some not so ancient, the volcano erupted last in the late 1890s) lava flows that varied in colour between the oily black of moltren rock from deep in the earths core, through the brown tinged crimson of molten rock that had fused with molten iron, to the uneven brittle glacial rock and sand. All this above visible lava flows reaching right into the valley and beyond. Above you you could sometimes see the perfect white triangle of the snow covered summit through the clouds. Climbing was tricky, not just because you where trying to make progress in the equivelant of a giant grey sand dune but also the altitude meant that exertion was uncomfortable and you could only struggle up 50ft before you had to rest and allow your head time to stop feeling dizzy. The base station, such an easy looking climb from the comfort of the carpark, seemed to crawl up the mountain away from us and our exertions. But we did reach it and had very welcome mugs of hot chocolate before going to view the (receding) glacier.

That evening I was determined to eat the local speciality - Cuy, or guinea Pig to you and I. After a recommendation from our friends Merle and Bonnie whom we met on our volcano expedition (Hello) we went to Mama Corinders and I ordered a big steaming plate of rodent. What can I say? What little meat there is on those little critters is like the brown meat you get on chicken legs but much softer and the taste is somewhere between pork and chicken. I can´t say I enjoyed it. I ate a crispy ear, nibbled both legs and tried to scrape something that looked like meat of the ribs but I had to give up. Perhaps if they stewed it, or even better, curried it. I could go for a Cuy Balti.

Ecuador had been fun and now we had to go on to Lima. We booked a ticket to leave at 2am on the 22nd of November. Unfortunatly this bus was cancelled allegedly because of trouble on the border of Ecuador and Columbia where the bus was coming from. We were put on a bus to Guayaquil the next day after a frantic taxi dash across town (we were given 40 minutes notice that this was the bus we needed) with the idea from our bus company that we could transfer there onto a bus to Lima. This did happen in the end but not without angry conductors trying to throw us off as our bus company hadn´t told them we were coming. Only the intervention of a very nice gentleman saved us. We arrived in Lima unmolested and only a day late.

In Lima we were met by Sian, a friend Lauras who very kindly took us on a tour of Lima the next day along with her friend Jesus. Whilst there we sampled the best Cerviche ever (raw fish ´cooked´ by the acidic qualities of lemons and limes, personally I couldn´t stomach it but Laura is a huge fan) had Pisco sours (again, Laura loved it, I drank beer) overlooking Lima Bay and went to the best Peruvian family restraunt ever. We visited the catacombs under the Monastry of Francis of Assisi which were beautifully and tastefully decorated with the skulls and bones of some 25000 dead people.

Though there is not a great deal to fill your time in Lima the food is great, the weather varies in an amazing way around the area and the people we met were great.

Chris