Hellooooo....for the last time.

Firstly I must say that the photos are all back on now and so i will be uploading more recent ones soon - not on this computer though because it is the slowest, oldest computer ever and the keyboard sounds like a typewriter. I can´t even see what i´m typing until i finish.

This is our last ever blog from our Peruvian adventure!! We are currently in Lima, stopping overnight before our flight to Madrid tomorrow morning. You will know by now (or at least be able to tell from our blogs) that we have had the time of our lives here and are surely going to miss certain aspects:

* The general acceptance of ANY dress sense or style and the hippie-esque freedom of creative expression.

* Daily festivals, music, dance, costume and general theatricality of frequent celebrations.

* The cheap prices...of pretty much everything.

* Being able to barter with taxi drivers...and anyone.

* The children at the kindergarten and orphanages.

* Sitting in a beautiful plaza with the sun beating down.

* The people we have met, especially other volunteers and random Peruvian friends.

* Striking up conversations with complete strangers and the sense of achievement at communicating in a foreign language (and gestures).

However, we are soooo excited about coming home, especially now we have begun our return journey (particularly Rebecca, who has been hyper ever since we arrived in Lima - and discovering she could finally send and receive text messages, combined with caffeine from Starbucks, has not really helped matters). Yeah, that´s another good thing about Cusco - the complete lack of fast food outlets on every street corner.

But back to good ol´blighty...these are the things we realise we appreciate about our homelife in Britain:

* Catalytic convertors (it will be nice not to breathe in the contents of car engines...as much)

* Seatbelts (because you just can´t use them in taxis, unless in the front seat)

* Road markings and adherence to the highway code (because we actually value our lives... having said this, Cusquenians seem to be very adept at driving...in their own ´special´ ways)

* The good old British gentlemen (you haven´t encountered sleaze until you meet SOME - let´s not generalise -´Peruvian men: they just don´t respect women in the same way we do back home and particularly white women have reputations which men think they can take advantage of ... so thank you all traditional gentlemen, we do appreciate you)

* Not having the necessary daily discussions about the consistency, size and colour of poo

* Flushing toilets and ones you can put toilet paper in

* Drinking tap water

* Speaking our mother tongue

* Being in the general majority; not being stared at for being white

* The lack of various random odours in the street, such as llama piss, human piss etc.

* Walking places without getting out of breath because of high altitude (including heart-attack hill - the one we had to risk life and limb slipping down and then climbing back up nearly every day)

* Guinea-pigs as pets, not dinner

* Continuous hot water and power showers (as opposed to the luke warm trickle you were lucky to get in our house)

* Being able to eat food without the fear of parasites (like Penny and Pete) infecting us.

* Proper tea that tastes good with milk in

* Punctuality (Peruvians make being late part of their culture...there´s laid back and then there´s horizontal!)

* Proper sprung mattresses (not pieces of cut-out foam on wooden slats that dip in the middle).

* Doggies on leads (just so that Becky doesn´t poo herself anymore, and then we won´t have to discuss the consistency, size and colour of it)

* Not being hassled to buy everything...constantly.

* Carpet

We hope you have enjoyed reading the blogs and keeping up-to-date with our activities. Thanks again for all the messages...we will be home soon to bore you all again with the same stories and maybe a few extra that didn´t make it onto the blogs.

Adios, hasta pronto...

Liz y Becky x x x x