apologies for the pequeño delay in the appearance of this blog - harry and i ran away to an internetless little village for a week. an internetless little village which has since been almost completely destroyed by the rain and subsequent floods. when we were there the main bridge, along with its surrounding homes, had already collapsed from the january rain, but since then things have just got worse. we were looking in the newspaper yesterday at photos of the local shop where we bought all our supplies last week. it´s now completely flooded. it´s so scary what nature can do. the school is organising a collection for the villagers, and as students students we´re doing our own little bits of [beer-related] fundraising, but it obviously won´t go that far, and it´s hard to escape feelings of sadness, helplessness, or a combination of both.

not to put a downer on things though - we did have a really fab week in taray. it was great to have a little break from the hustle and bustle [read: people selling stuff in the street] of cusco, and we went away with a really good group of people so have made some more excellent friends, most of whom are dutch, and have therefore introduced us to an excellent array of drinking games. lessons last week were in the morning, so we had the afternoons free to explore the surrounding ruins, go for little hikes in the hills, and drink the most incredible hot chocolate that i have ever tasted. i did the latter five times in one week...i figure i can pass this off as a philanthropic attempt at supporting local businesses. we stayed in a house owned by the school, which had a lovely area for relaxing with hammocks and a pool table, and even two cheeky sheep, who felt free to wander into the livingroom whenever they fancied eating the houseplants. needless to say, i liked them a lot.

on our first night back in cusco we had a proper night out, peruvian style. what i mean by this, of course, is that we went out to eat guinea pig - the local delicacy. after the necessary comedy photographs [they serve it whole, totured-looking-face and all] we gave it a go, and it was...well...fine i guess, though maybe this is just because we washed it down with plenty of red wine! it´s been nice settling back down in our little home-from-home...meeting some of the new arrivals and being re-acquainted with our adopted parents [larry and maureen from canada...heroes.] we´ve even started learning the PAST TENSE this week, something more exciting than you could possibly understand after three weeks of speaking spanish like children.

we only have two weeks left at school now, so most of my free moments are being spent with my nose firmly in the guidebook, planning the route we´re going to take before we come back for the inca trail at the end of april, when, we´re promised, it will have re-opened. as much as harry and i are loving cusco, i think we´re both really excited about getting on the road and seeing some other places. the only problem seems to be just how many ridiculously fabulous things there are to do in this continent...five months is starting to seem very short indeed!

anyhoo, i seem to have picked up a little cold from all the rain, so i´m off to practise my medical spanish at the farmacia, in an attempt to get some cough syrup so i don´t keep annoying harry through the night!

love to all, and keep the news coming our way - it´s lovely to hear even the most banal home-related things out here! xxxxxxxx

p.s. photos to come, when the internet is being better-behaved...