Hi Everyone,

We hope that all is well :-)

Following Machu Picchu, we took it easy in Cusco for about five days. We mainly spent it eating, reading and resting which was nice. I also had my chakras cleaned by a shamanic healer which was an interesting but worthwhile experience. Kevin became increasingly in love with the local vegetarian restaurant and increasingly hairy. People now literally stop and point at him and children are in awe of him. We also went for a day of white water rafting. It was fun until we became life guards! There was a point where you could climb out onto the shore, up a huge rock and jump in. Several people decided to do this, and the three from our boat jumped in and suddenly remembered that they couldn't swim (despite wearing life jackets and in water they could stand in, they all panicked and flapped around terrified). Kevin dragged them all into the boat and I calmed them down a bit, though I think Kevin could have just draped his beard over the edge for them to all grab on to.

From there we returned to La Paz to experience the Death road mountain bike ride and for KJ to play golf at the highest course in the world. Luckily he survived both days of adventure and places both these days as some of the best of the trip.

From KJ: Death road was amazing. The road is named for the amount of workers who died building it. It is a gravel road that is cut into the side of a mountain. It is only 3 meters wide in parts and has a straight drop of 300+ metres. So the essence of death road is to jump on a push bike and hurtle as fast as you can down this road dodging cars, rocks, corners and pot holes. You start at 4,700mt above sea level and finish at 1,200mts. The first 23kms is on a paved road where by you just crouch over your handle bars and scream down the road at 60+Kms overtaking trucks etc. You then turn off onto death road where we were given a quick brief (whilst in the clouds and only being able to see 10mts in front of you) and were informed that someone had died 4 months earlier as they lost control and rode off the cliff and fell 300mts. Great. We then jumped on our bikes and spent the next 3 hours having an absolute blast. Was then lucky enough to play on the worlds highest golf course. Amazing that they have a course, considering the surrounding barren landscape. The round wasn't too bad, just a little difficult as there were no distance markers and the caddy gave you a club that he thought you needed. Also doesn't help that the ball travels further so you have no idea what club is needed. Was a great experience and glad that I did it.

We then left for Arequipa to meet up with our traveling family, Pip and Derek, who we last saw in Rio. It was so nice to see a familiar face. We had a ball over the three days. We went to a monastery where the three of them jumped the barriers to sit on and touch hundreds of year old relics (I thought the place was creepy so didn't want to touch anything), we went to the movies and ate lots. We tried to see the new Thor movie, but after being assured that it was in English with Spanish subtitles, it was in Spanish. Luckily a young employee let us see Gravity in 3D which ended up being pretty good. We had planned to do a day trip to Colca Canyon but the three amigos got 'slightly inebriated' playing beer pong with some Spanish veterans and were in no shape to make the 3am pick up. Kevin and Derek found peace in the fact that they had already seen condors for free and much prefer to view condors that don't take your money or your ham and cheese sandwiches (yes, ham and cheese sandwiches according to Derek). These debacles did mean that we ended up at the same Pizza Shop three nights in a row. In the end, we didn't even have to place an order as the owner new what we wanted.

Christmas decorations have been very interesting. In La Paz you could have your kid's picture taken with Santa and his reindeers and a random velociraptor propped up on crutches. Or maybe you would like your picture taken at a border crossing with a fake white horse draped in flowers in front of a rubbish tip..?

Aside from Christmas, One of the themes of this fortnight has been the unfortunate placement of p%*#ography!? We have seen pictures up at border crossing offices, in offices where they take you for random drug checks and in phone booths. They sell 'Bali DVDs' in Peru. Whilst walking down a quiet, picturesque street in Arequipa, the man that obviously sells just porn DVDs had lost many of his movies, and though the discs had been removed, the street was strewn with VERY graphic pics of giant you know what's doing you know who...

Anyway, today we are flying to Lima for a couple of days before we head to the US. We are looking forward to snow, carols in English, Christmas markets and the smithsonian!