Hello all!

Ok, well first of all I'm sorry that it has taken so long to post this first bit, but lots of travelling + very very slow internet access has meant that it's been a bit tricky to get things started, but here I go.....

Well, things started on an interesting note when arriving in Lima after approx. 20 hours of travelling to discover that KLM had lost everyone's bags and wouldn't be returning them for a least two days. A bit of a bummer considering that we were supposed to be leaving Lima in a day in a half to start our trek. Luckily my lovely sister was flying in from Japan that evening, so she lent me everything I needed until we finally got our bags back two days later, in Huaraz (about a 7 hour bus ride away), where we were starting our trek.

We then spent 4 amazing days trekking in the Cordillera Blanca- which were breath-taking (one of the mountains on the way had apparently once won the "most beautiful mountain in the world" prize...didn't know such a thing existed, and wouldn't be able to judge, not really having seen that many moutains, but it was pretty awesome). It was fairly hard work, getting up to 4,300 m at points, but completely worth it. Unfortunately, my poor sis had pretty bad altitude sickness, so we came down a day early (I wasn't expecting to be doing 30 minute obs that soon into my stay!), but thankfully she was ok once we started to head down.

We then headed to Arequipa, in the middle of 3 volcanos, which was gorgeous, completely built out of volcanic stone, and then onto Colca Canyon, where we went condor-spotting & stayed overlooking the Inca terraces (anyone remember the 1980s cartoon cities of gold? Kat, surely you do?!..had the theme tune in my head the whole time).

From there, we travelled to Puno and spent a day on lake Titicaca, which was incredible. The Uros people live on the lake on islands made completely of reeds, which float on the surface of the lake. They have to be continually renewed, and only last 15 years, when they then have to start making a new island. It was a completely surreal experience walking on them, knowing that all that was between you and the surface of the lake was a few metres of vegetation.

Well, I'd better say bye for now, as I'm running out of time, but next time- Cusco, Machu Picchu and my introduction to Peruvian hospitals....

Hope you're all well, lots of love, C xxx