Greetings to you dear readers of this 'ere blog. Since we last met we've covered over 1000km, visited three cities and have reached our last port of call in Peru.

We left Puno and lake Titicaca behind as we boarded the first of our trips on the brilliant Cruz del Sur. This is a monster of a bus, and by far the best we've been on. With huge spacious seats that almost go flat you could be in business class on a plane.

(Central and South America are the lands of the bus. What few trains there are are merely for tourists and are generally slow and uncomfortable - or have seriously weird/camp shows a la the Macchu Piccu express!)

Anyway, this trip was the start of our return leg to Lima and the first stop was PERU'S second city, Arequipa. Known as the white city; Arequipa is a ,u@h nicer place to go than Lima. For us though it was a base from which to explore the vast Andean Colca Canyon.

The primary purpose of our two day trip was to spot condors but the journey to get to Colca was every bit as amazing.

After acquainting ourselves with our tour mates (Including a lively couple from Ireland, Jam and Laura, who were doing a similar thing to us but heading to NZ), we headed out into the Peruvian Highlands, up to altitudes of 5000m.

To combat the effects of this we were shown how to chew coca leaves with some kind of salty volcanic rock just to help grind the leaves up a bit more. Apparently this helps to stop headaches and nausea. Hmmm. One numb tongue later from chewing coca cud and I'd had enough. It was disgusting, Perhaps some day an enterprising individual will come up with a better method of ingesting coca. I dunno.

Anyway the five hour journey flew past as we stopped to se ever more breathtaking Andean scenery. My favorite was the final pass before dropping down to our overnight stay at Chivay. Not only could we see the snow capped mountain from where the Amazon begins but there was THE cutest 3 month old alpaca (no idea what you call a baby alpaca, anyone?) We've got a video that I bet you can't help watching over and over. It was almost enough to stop me eating an Alpaca steak that night. Almost!

Sadly that was the highs over for the day. What followed was a string of either disgusting or highly embarrassing events.

Firstly, we had to change hotels when the room we were given had clearly not had the bed sheets changed. Looked like a hairy ape had been sleeping in it the might before.

Then later at the prearranged traditional dinner @I wa dragged up kicking and screaming to perform a bolivia dance dressed as some kind of dreadful cross between Michael Flately and Flash Gordon. The photos and possibly video if we can get that bit working will give you a giggle.

Needless to say the only way to cope with this was to drink a litre of sandra asap. Which had rather painful repercussions the following morning.

So it was that we set off (con monster hangover - our Irish friends had scooped out an Irish graffiti bar which seemed like a great idea at this time) for the canyon and hopefully our date with the condors.

We were not to be disappointed as a little after we arrived several of these huge, graceful birds were wheeling around deep in the canyon beneath us. As the morning warmed up and the thermals rose, so too did these magnificent birds and soon they were rushing so close overhead you could hear the woosh of their massive wings slicing through the air.

Sadly for me all this looking about was taking its toll. Safe to say I was feeling like death in the arrid heat of the canyon. What I needed was a lie down, but fearful that one of these majestic vultures might mistake me for dead and peck my eyes out, I sought refuge in the bus.

T got some great shots which we'll upload later. Soon it was time to head back to Chivay for lunch then Arequipa and the Night bus to Nasca.

Nine hours later we arrived and were whisked off to the local airport for our flight over the Nascan Pampas. Probably the biggest map on earth, the Pampas is home to a stunning array of laser straight lines, trapezoids and massive bizarre representations of religiously symbolic things like astronauts???? This is a conspiracy theorists dream, though actually the truth behind the lines is far more fascinating than the alien nonsense. Way beyond the scope of this blog but brilliant reading none the less.

The flight was a merciful 35minutes short. I have always fancied that I would have been a brilliant fighter pilot but the nausea inducing turns over the Nasca lines set me straight on that one.

Back on the ground we set off for a PreIncan Necropolis which had brilliantly preserved mummies. This was a bit grizzly as they had sacrificial gifts of headless babies and the decayed remains still had hair on their skulls. But it was fascinating to see all the same.

Our schedule was so hectic that by 11am it was time to shoot back to Nasca to catch the bus up to Lima.

In total I think we've spent about 24 of the last 72 hrs on buses so we we're glad to reach Lima and get a shower and bed for the night. We found a restaurant which served Sashimi and Tofu sushi as well which was a real treat.

In a few hours we're due to fly to Santiago, Chile. Where I for one will be improving my knowledge of Chilean vino. Who knows, T might even let me visit the Mountains for some snow boarding if I'm lucky.

Till next time mateys, stay safe and keep talking to us.

Nixon.