ok Part 2! well after another hellacious overnight bus jouney (actually it was pretty good, cruz del sur, 3 meals and a film in english..luxury!) we arrived in Lima (Again) where i promptly sampled the KFC, McDonalds and Burger King within a 24Hr Period. Jo wouldn´t let me go to Chinatown in fear that she may not be able to remove me once i´d stepped over the threshold of a chinese restaurant, god forbid we found one serving Dim Sum....(hmm dim sum, my thoughts are constantly with you..) we decided to actually see one of the sites within Lima this time (besides fast food places) and paid a visit to the pre inca site Huaca Pucllana, which although it had recieved extensive reconstruction, it was still very interesting. We discovered that all historic sites within peru must house at least two peruvian dogs... These dogs are so ugly that they were almost extinct 20 years ago (ugly to the point of extinction......eke)...so the government made all historic site have at least two dogs to preserve the species...."you want to stay open...must have ugly, hairless peruvian dog..." although some of the dogs aren´t totally pure breeds..i.e bald.. and sport an array of interesting mohawks (big market for these dogs in camden me thinks...) so leaving my fascination of the peruvian dog behind, we decided to head down to Pisco, to try a pisco sour and visit the ballista islands (poor mans galapagos..yep thats me!)...our plans were torn to shreds when the hostel manager nicely informed us (as unlike the rest of the world we hadn´t quite heard) that Pisco has been destroyed last year in an earthquake and was now a lawless rubbly heap..FYI... so therefore we would have to head to Paracas which turned out to be a tiny finshing village with approxiatly 20 buildings and 50 dogs all on heat...my hostel could be described as under renovation i.e i had a great patio, which was really the other rooms on that floor that had yet to be fully constructed..the electric wires where the light fittings and plug socket should had been were nicely taped off (very considerate)..all except that shower which for some reason delivered a small electric shock everytime you tried to turn it on....NICE...however there was running water... so after visitng the Balista islands and seeing lots of boobies (and clear your mind of all dirty thoughts!! i mean the birds...the flying things which are called boobies) and seals, and cranes, but NO Penguines, they must have been out to lunch....we then went on our most boring tour to the national park....save yourselves 20 soles..Don´t go...nothing to see...BORING.... We left our fabulous acomadtion after only one night and headed to Ica, wine making district of Peru....also most criminals per capita aswell....ok, not a true fact but probably! some scum bag tried to steal my bag in a bar, thankfully i´d just met up with a friend of Mr Goakes who dabbed the git and roughed him up a bit till i got my bag back (i know, i know... there is quite a bit of people getting roughed up in this trip but none of it by me i assure you!!) NOTE - Peruvian wine is pretty grim, i´d stick to the Chilian stuff if i were you....Blah.. and to move speedily on.... we got a bus to Arequipa, as a stop off to break up the 30 hour journey to Cusco only to find out that Cusco was being blockaded and if we wanted to go to Machu Pichu we would have to leave soon as the blockade was down for 3 days for peace talks....... Note- worse bus ride in history...Arequipa to Cusco...local bus...soooooo cold that ice was forming on the windows inside the bus....locals kept wandering up and down the walkway looking for bags (and one of them was a granny!!!) some guy made a grab for jos bag but luckily i was awake and gave him some verbal..so i didn´t get any sleep during our 16 hour hell as i stayed on bag watch...aswell as freezing solid in my seat... unfortunatly when we arrived to Cusco we got told that the blockade would go back up the next morning and unless we wanted to spend the next month in cusco we should leave upon the next available bus.... so after spending 8 hours in Cusco...and seeing some very not so interesting public protests and demonstrations outside the court house...we headed to La Paz, Bolivia (the only place apparently not being blockaded!) the last bus that tried to get through the blockade was shot at by protesters, which resulted in the police shotting protesters and the protesters aiming a bit better and shotting the police officers...the whole gory episode is available as always on YouTube... OK, so we´re wimps and didn´t want to get caught in a gun battle between police and protesters...or get stuck on one side of the blockade and have to walk 26 Km through!....do you realise how much my bag weights...not mean´t for carrying!!!!!....and yes i´m lazy....i admit it! so, once again i´ll say goodbye until...La Paz - Part 3 (this also includes a segment on Rurrenbeque....so stay tuned)