again, still have not climbed machu picchu but i am going to, next week. its a jungle trek with mountain biking etc. fun!

so i t hink i got as far as Arica, it really was such a strange little experience, there was a three layered bed and the weird canadian man slept in with us, i was a little scared that i may wake yup with one of his creepy rubbery toe shoes next to my face. (i didn´t). so we crossed to peru which wasa bit of an experience, as ever. i think with hermione and me there is always a story involved- you have to get a taxi to cross the border so we got up super early on the sunday morning to do so. of course we had ñeft it completely to the last minute as we enjoyed chile so much so we had one day to get from chile to cusco. we left at 9 am, found a funny little taxi and crossed the border sharing with some crazy little lebanese man and a chilean couple. the lebanese man was insistent that we guess where he was from, but he just kept getting offended when i guessed every country in the middle east before lebanon. it was a bit of a rubbish game to be honest but he was quite ineteresting and esaid he wasnt allowed to return to the lebanon, he now runs a ´shoe´ shop in chile. so we crossed the border, hermione and i had inevitably taken as much food as we could from the hostel and forgotten to eat it. we tried to smuggle some oranges and pizza across to peru. i guess we sort of did it on purpose really as the men with guns got so so excited to have to remove our illegal items, hilariuos. we arrived in peru. we had no set plan. obviously. i had mentioned something to some people we met in chile about meeting for lunch in Arequipa (we ended up not getting there til 7pm). anyway, Tacna bus station was a complete experience. there were women everywhere with HUGE bags filled witht htings to sell. we wnet to the toilet and the doors were about 3 foot high because peruvians are so small. the toilet noises were foul, hacking and flemming, diarrhoea etc. i was excited to use these toilets! we wandered around for ages trying to find the right bus station and then when we eventually did we got told that because it wasa sunday there were only two buses, one nice one which left in 7 hours and one ´super economico´ bus which may or may not have a toilet. it did not. that was a fun 7 hours driving through the desert and not drinking any water through fear haha. we kept stopping in random little places and at one point a policeman came on, took our passports and left. it wasa little odd so we asked some man who sadi it was fne, it made me realise how terrifyingit must be to travel southamerica if you don´t speak spanish.

sow e arrived in Arequipa and i obviuosly hadn´t planned ahead and got peruvian money, i had to beg the (thank goodness male) toilet attendant to let me in for free, i think the look on my face probably gave away my need. we found a bus to cusco, again we went for the cheapest option, which with hindsight when an 11 hour bus journey costs you less than 5 pounds it probably isnt going to be luxury, it probably should have beena giveaway when the bus driver himself told us abut 25 to be careful of our things and that everyone would try to rob us. we then spent what was probably the most uncomfortable 11 hours of my life, we were right at the front and there was a whole in the window so itwas FREEZING, the tolet was new levels of rank and then man sleeping next to us had a broken nose and a huge splint and breathed like a troll. i was very proud of myfoool proof system of putting my valuables in my sleepingbag. i only left one out which wqas right at the bottom of my rucksack, my little camera and i later found out it got stolen. sweet! (im really sorry ellen, it was in your camera case).

along the way we stopped in this randome place where some tiny peruvian woman was sitting at the side of the road with about 7000 massive bags, i mean massive. the bus infront stopped and she speedily ran and put all the bags in, there were lterallyu so many, and then she just jumped into the hold and the driver shut her in! very funnny.

we arrived in cusco very early and checked inblah blah blah. the altitude was a major shock and we both slept for ages. i pretty much love cusco, apart from that it is so touristy its incredible. its really old and has so much history. inca sights everywhere and massive old catholic churches etc. i cant believe our luck butwe have managed to come the week leading up to the Inca sun festiva´l, Inti Raymi. its so exciting and every day the main streets are filled with dancing and singing and parads, all a build up to the festival. the city is alive!

we met up with matt and matt here, two guys i went to school with aso they have been showing us around abit, even took us to an english pub (sin!) but it has marmite. dilemma. we have now come with them to a little towna bout an hour outside of Cusco to an orphanage that we heard about through our spanish teacher, its so beautiful out here, amazing peaceful.

we also got taken to the Sacred Valley by a friend of a friend. unfortunately hermione and i had gone out the night before and after 4 hours sleep it was a bit of a shock scrambling around Inca ruins and climbing mountains in the blazing heat. it was beautiful but when we got back to our hostel we completely crashed out and ended up watching 4 films in a row.

im trying to think if anything else major has happened. a collection of the usual embarassing/hilarious moments that seem to follow me in life. one in particular made me laugh so much i was on danger of wetting myseld. we were in the orphanage and the short cut out includes jumping over a whole/giant ravine. i was very cocky abouth the situation and i jumped, hit my knee (and ripped my trousers) and then fell into the swamp below. i probably could have stopped myself getting completley submerged in unidentifiable brown sludge had i not been laughing so much BUT instead i fell all the way in and literally could not pull myself out for laughing o mcuh. pretty soon all the kids from the orphanage had come over and were laughing. i was just standing calf deep in what i hope was mud in hysterical laughter. matt tried to pull me out an he nearly fll in. haha when i everntually got out i had to walk into town to get the bus, then take an hour bus and then walk back to the hostel squelching through my shoes and with ripped jeans. still getting sporadic bouts of hysterics about what had happened. classic.

Mum this one is for you.. we were in the hostel bar the other night getting dinner and there was a really irritating group of stag weekend men obviously out for some fun. i went up to order our food and before i knew it, hermione had made a friend. i sat there for ages in obviuos irritation that this unwanted man was sitting with us. there was a man across the room staring over and laughing. i came to the conclusion that he was either a friend egging this guy on, or an onlooker laughing at him for being so obvious. i took a gamble and decided on the latter and rolled my eyes at him. wrong. they were best friends and before i knew it we were surrounded by these men, all telling us to be so so careful of peruvian men etc. (they were peruvian) and saying how beautoful we wer eblah blah and just generally being very annoying.i could handle it until my food came, then they all started staring at me and watching me eat. mistake. then i got really grumpy. one of them then started asking hermione in front of me why her friend was so cranky. lets just say, we didn´t make a firm friendship. so i should probably go now. my hostel in oropesa awaits me. there are brown stains on the walls and wierd lumps and hairs in my bed. i actually really like it.

goodbye from peru.

x