In the end, leaving my hostel proved to be a bit of a drag. Coming to South America for the very first time, I expected there to be a certain period of settling in, where getting to meet people would take some time. Instead, however, I was thrust into the company of some charming fellow travellers, first by means of alcohol, and then by getting to know them a lot better, so?much so that?I now consider them as real?friends, which is suprising when you condsider?I only actually met most of them at this time last week on my first day.??I?m not entirely sure - though I think I probably do know - why saying goodbye was so hard.

However, leave I had to due to the start of the tour, as mentioned previously, which?ll take us from west to east, all the way over to Rio de Janeiro on the?Atlantic of Brazil. There are a lot of Brits in our party, which I?ve found in the past?to be a?deterrent of foreign travel, but everyone seems to have become pretty friendly?reasonably quickly, which is a nice thing to have. Indeed, as I write now, I?ve just come from our lastest outing?into the town having left?the group plus?tour leader, a Peruvian lady called Barbara, a little tipsy from a couple of birthday celebrations going on at the moment...mind you, this is probably just as well seeing as we?re headed for a night bus to take us through to our next destination, Arequipa.

The tour leaves us seemingly constantly on the move. Indeed, it?s strange thinking that we?ve only been on the road sice the beginning of the weekend. This is probably owed to the fact that we?ve already been to many places and participated in many activities, so much so that to recount all of them here would take far too long, considering I have a bus to catch in about half an hour. I can but tell you the highlights for me have been a trip to Ballestas Islands near Pisco for a bit of penguin and sea lion spotting, a flight today over the ancient?Nazca Lines - I felt a little sick after this one, and a spot of dune buggy riding and sand boarding in the town of the Huacahina Oasis. Needless to say folks, I have photos of all of these things and this is just the beginning of the adventure...