So, still in Cusco and this is where we said our farewells to Delia and Lee who had been great travelling companions, on and off, since Mendoza in Argentina. We had booked our coach journey to Arequipa a few days earlier so imagine our surprise when we got to the coach station only to be told that although our tickets had that days date, the women who booked the ticket on the computor had put the day we bought the tickets as the date we were leaving. So, according to the computor we should have left 3 days ago. But credit to the coach staff, they did a bit of shifting around and got us onto the coach. AREQUIPA Arequipa was a really pretty town, with a fantastic colonial main square where you could sit on 2nd floor balconys and have lunch while looking over the square, a really beautiful setting. In the town itself we visited the cathederal and the Santa Catalina convent, which is a small town within a town. The nuns have lived here for hundreds of years and have now opened up most of the convent to the public but have some quarters closed where they all still live. It was really beautiful and took a full 2 hours to walk round. Also, on the agenda was a visit to see the famous Inca Mummie called Juanita, who was only discovered about 10 or 20 years ago stuck up Mount Ampato, about 6000 mts up. Apparently, in Inca times human sacrifice was quite common and it was usually noble people who were sacrificed, as it was a privilage as you were told you would be sitting with the Gods in the afterlife. The story of Juanita was fascinating as she was chosen when she was very young and when a sacrifice was needed (she was about 14 at this time) she was then taken from Cusco and marched all the way to Arequipa (which is hundreds of miles) and then up Mount Ampato, where she was finally clubbed on the head and buried with lots of gifts for the gods, smart eh!! Juanita was very well preserved as fo rmost of her time she had been buried in ice on top of the mountain, it was only when an adjoining volcano erupted about 20 years ago that the ice melted and she was found. Fascinating story and well worth the visit. Here, we also watched the England/Sweden game, although not very good, we won and the atmosphere was much better as we managed to find a bar with a massive screen with loads of England fans and a Swede. Even though it was draw we managed to win the group so we carried on drinking through the afternoon and evening like the good England fans that we were. COLCA CANYON Just outside Arequipa was the Colca Canyon, which is supposed to be twice as deep as the Grand canyon and where you can see Condors close up. Donna and I booked a 2 day trip which could have been done in a day but was still good. The canyon itself was really impressive and when the Condors came by it was a pretty magnificent beast, to say the least. They came really close and were very majestic in the way they glided past you. They might have come closer more often but we had a group of Yankee Doodle Dandees hollering at the tops of their voices and then screeching as the birds came into view, this only made the birds swoop away before they got near. I`d have thought by the loud tutting of everyone else they would have got the message, but maybe they thought we were all communicating in a kind of `skippy the Kangeroo`language. The trip was great though and we can`t believe 6 months into our trip we are still being amazed by the scenery and the many diverse things to see. NASCA Nasca town was s***e but seeing the lines were brilliant. $40 for a half hour plane ride over the lines was well worth the money, even though I didn`t like it too much as small planes like to move about a lot, Donna loved it and would have paid the money just for the plane ride. The lines are apparently still a mystery on how they got there so many hundreds of years ago but I`m sure if you look on the net you`ll get a few explanations and theorys. We also watched the England/Ecuador game here with an Oz couple who were wearing Ecuador T-Shirts. Apparently, they had spent a lot of time in Ecuador and loved the people that much they felt it only right to support them, yea right, nothing to do with hating the Poms then. All I can say is 1 Rugby World Cup and the Ashes, Sheep Shagger. Actually, they were really nice and gave us some tips on tours and hostels in Quito. ICA and HUACACHINA So having been ripped off once again in peru we were off to our next destination of Ica. Its amazing that in Bolivia, which is poorer than Peru, we felt so secure and thought the people to be very honest, even if they weren`t they hid it well. But time and again in Peru we find that we pay a price for a ticket and they have put a 70 or 80% surcharge on it, it was starting to get us down. So, as with Nasca town Ica was s*** as well, no Ica was worse, as there weren`t even any decent cafe`s or resturants. The night we were there I had a Pizza of assorted meats, I didn`t realise the assortment would be dead dog, excrement and mouse droppings. I ate it though as I have a cast iron stomach from eating dirt and stones when I was a child. Huacachina though, which is a small Oasis in the middle of massive sand dunes 5 km from Ica, was beautiful and we decided to stay in a beautiful hostel here for 4 days just chilling out. You could go Sandboarding here or dune buggying but we just lay on sunbeds and soaked the sun up like a pair of Lizards, brilliant!!! TRUJILLO Our next town was Trujillo, which has a lot of Pre Inca ruins there and, according to the travel book, was well worth a visit. Our journey here was via Lima where we only stayed for about 4 hours to get a connecting coach. The reason was that everyone we had met said Lima was a dump and there were lot of storyies of drug planting by the local police who then slapped you around a bit and told you if you didn`t give them a $1000 dollars then you were going to prison where you would be shagged by Mr Gringo Arse Buster in the very dingy shower room. So, we didn`t bother going to stay in Lima. The hostal in Trujillo was owned by a Brummie who had lived here for about 10 years and prior to that had lived in Papau New Guinea, helping the local business`s with their accounts. You meet some stange people travelling around. He was also a tour guide and we booked up to see the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon and also the famous Chan Chan temples dotted around Trujillo. I must admit it was interesting but we were starting to tire of ruins and needed a rest from it. The worst part about Trujillo was the England Portugal game, I`m only going to say one thing RONALDO, you F&&XXX, %%&&&, s***BAG. We watched it in the hostal with about 5 other English guys and an Aussie. When we got to penalties I just new what was coming next. I could have cried, nearly did but, kept a stiff upper lip. It didn`t help when the aussie guy said, `òh well, theres always next time`, yea, well how about f*** off!! Trujillo town was OK, nothing to write home about but a lot less crummy than Ica and Nasca, and a lot less intimidating. As I said we were abit fed up with ruins so our last stop in Peru was to be Mancora, a beach resort. MANCORA The trip here wasn`t without incident, they never rerely are in Peru. We booked the coach in Trujillo but it wasn`t until about 12 midnight. The Brummie was pretty good about it and let us stay in the hostal until 11.30pm. The hostal was very much a family affair and it was very homely but our room was anything but. The room had a double bed which actually filled the room itself but the worst part was the adjoining bathroom and toilet had no door, so when one of us wanted a dump the other had to go for a walk. I know we`ve been going out with each other for 5 years now and probably know all there is to know about each other but even that sort of closeness still doesn`t make it an acceptable to watch your other half having a dump, I mean there are web sites for that. Anyway, back to the coach journey, we left the digs at 11.30 with an Austrian, who turned out to be a mountaneering guide working in Peru who just so happens was going to mancora for a break as well. After about 5 goes trying to talk to him in the taxi, I just gave up. Some people just don`t have communication skills and he was one of them. Even Donna said she would have given up after the 3rd attempt. When we got to the bus station it was locked, so we all looked around and I banged on the big metal doors. Then just down the road a man poked his head out of a doorway and yelled at us to go in that way. So, even the bus stations are locked up for safety at night here, great!!!. The bus came and we were off. We arrived in mancora in the morning and for the last 2 hours of the journey I had been speaking to a really interesting aussie guy. He had been working in the US for that last 5 years as a long distance trucker, he only went out there to see what it was like and then stayed for 5 years. In the past 6 months he had met another Aussie guy who bought a boat, that had slight hurricane damage, and decided he was going to sail it home. He asked the trucker if he fancied joining him and that was that. So, having sailed down through the Carribean, through the Panama Canal, they then decided to moor up in Ecuador so they could travel down to Peru to see Michau Picchu. The Aussie trucker then told me he was now getting into the swing of things with sailing as he had never been on a boat before this. I have to take my hat off to these sort of people as he was so blaise about it, but a great, genuine guy. They are about to go over the Pacific, through the French Polynesian Islands and eventually to Oz. Well, as i said we arrived in mancora in the morning, got some brilliant digs by the sea and just sat on the beach for 6 days. There wasn`t a lot else to do here, which suited us fine. We just got up every morning, lay on the beach and then went out to dinner each night. No trekking, no ruins, no being ripped off, just plain relaxing. The only energetic thing we did was watch the wind surfers, who looked pretty good to me, but then again I don`t really know whats good and whats not good, but I was impressed. This was a great way to end Peru and Donna could start to work on her tan for Galapagos, women!!!