We don’t get our house back until 29th December so we’ll continue to be travelling dineens until then! We have a fabulous few weeks planned staying with family and friends and catching up with lots of the people we have missed. And of course celebrating Christmas!!

Thank you so much to everyone who has stayed in touch this year. There have been times when we’ve felt a long way from home and it’s always been really warming to read messages from you all.

Anyway, take care everyone and have wonderful Christmasses We look forward to catching up with you as soon as possible.

Yes, we do feel sad that it is nearly all over. It has been the most amazing year for us and it’s hard to believe it’s coming to an end. However, we also feel so happy to be able to sit here feeling sad that it is over – so much better than feeling sad because we’d never done it.

We’ve had a good last few days. The boat trip around the Ballestas Islands was cool and we got to see my favourite birds of all… PENGUINS!!! They are just so cute We also saw flocks and flocks of pelicans which were great too. There were more birds around the islands than I think I’ve seen in the rest of my life put together (downside of that being that we got shat on!).

Lima isn’t as bad as we’d expected but at the same time it’s not up there with our highlights of the year either. We’ve been staying in Miraflores which is the touristy, more upmarket area and it’s been very nice. We treated ourselves to a posh meal out last night at a lovely restaurant overlooking the seafront. A perfect end to a wonderful year

One good thing is that we have finished with overnight bus journeys, the last one being the worst we endured as it was nonstop switchbacks all the way from Cusco to Nasca, to prove how bad it was Carol filled a sick bag very near the end. Nasca was worth the effort though as the hostel was nice (with a swimming pool!) and the flight over the Nasca lines was amazing. We have jumped out of larger planes this year which meant that again the sicknote felt unwell but this time the bag remained unused. After Nasca we spent a couple of very chilled out days in Huacachina, an oasis in the middle of sand dunes near Ica. Again we had a swimming pool at the hostel so it was a lovely place to spend some time. We took a sand buggy tour yesterday which was really good fun especially as we got to do some sandboarding, this was great fun for me however poor old Carol didn´t have enough padding in the right (very tender) places and now has an amazing swelling which is currently a lovely shade of bright purple, I am trying to get a photo of it to show everyone but she is none to keen to have it on display!

We are now in Pisco, which itself is an absolute hole but mercifully we decided to stay just outside in a nicer place called Paracas. We are staying right near the sea and as we haven´t seen the ocean since mid Spetember I indulged in a seafood soup today which had a crab the size of my head in it, this again made the sicknote feel queasy. Tomorrow we hope to see the Ballestas Islands (Poor Mans Galapagos) before heading to Lima, which is where we fly from in only a few short days.

Katie, Sam and Simon left us this morning to fly to Lima so we’re feeling all alone now
We have had such an amazing couple of weeks though! After the 4 day trek to Machu Picchu along the Inca Trail we then headed off to Manu, in the Amazon Basin, for 4 days. It was a 12 hour minibus journey that started at 4.30am but we drove through Cloud Forest and got to see a couple of Woolly Monkeys which were very cool! Then the final part of our journey was by motorised canoe along the Madre de Dios river to our lodge.

The first evening Katie and I were quite horrified when we all had to put on wellies and head torches and head into the jungle to look for spiders, snakes and other vile nocturnal creatures. It certainly felt very adventurous for us both. Luckily I have a face net so no minging bugs were going to get me. The lodge was cool and we were relieved to see we had ensuite bathrooms and mosquito nets covering the beds. No electricity though, just candles (we pretended we were in Pride and Prejudice blowing them out to go to sleep).

The next morning we had a 4.30am start so we could travel up the river to the Macaw clay lick to watch the parrots. We then had a 5 hour walk through the jungle trails looking for birds, insects, plants and monkeys. It was incredibly humid and the guide had told us we’d only be 2 hours so we weren’t best pleased with him. Grrrrrr. After that though it really picked up and we had a fabulous afternoon watching monkeys by the Machuwasi Lake.

The next day we had another 4.30am start (bloody birds, why do they have to get up so early?!) and then later in the morning we punted on rafts on the lake which was fab! Then on our final morning we had to get up at 3.30am to start our drive back to Cusco via the viewing hut for the Cock of the Rock birds (National bird of Peru). They are magnificent birds with large disk-like crests and bright red plumage. Personally I didn’t think they were worth missing out on half a night’s sleep for though

Yesterday we celebrated Carols 30th Birthday at Machu Piccu after completing the Inca Trail, it was a fantastic end to a great trip which was enjoyed by all.

The trek was amazing and I can´t begin to describe it ( I have put a few photos on flickr though). Machu Piccu was initially covered in cloud but it soon cleared to show just how amazing it is.

I don´t have much time now as we have to pack ready for another early start (4 am) because we are heading off to the Amazon.

Besides phoning the airline every couple of hours we have been trying to see as much of Cusco as possible, its a really interesting city with lots going on. The Inca walls and ruins are fascinating, the masonry is really amazing. There are lots of impressive churches and other buildings from more recent times so we have had plenty to fill our time with so far.

One thing that is noticeable here is that everything is geared up to extract as much money from the vast number of tourists as possible, i.e. there is lots of hassle on the streets offering massage, food, drugs, pictures with baby alpacas and almost anything else. Also you have to pay to get into everything under a complicated system on tourist tickets which involve handing over lots of soles for seeing a variety of attractions, some like the ruins and museums I don´t mind paying for but you have to pay to get almost every church in the city which is disappointing as they are a real highlight of most South American cities.

We have just been on a 3 day trip to the Colca Canyon. We´re currently staying in Arequipa and visiting the Colca Canyon is the thing to do from here. However, it´s actually over a 4 hour drive away. The part we were headed for was even further (6 hours) so we were picked up for our trip at 3am (ug!) on Thursday. It seems crazy. A bit like staying in Winchester to visit the Lake District
Anyway, apart from the early start the trip was excellent. We trekked for over 5 hours on the first day down into the canyon and then up a bit to our accommodation for the night. Our group consisted of 4 Spanish speakers and 6 English speakers and was really good fun. Just as well as the 6 of us were all in the same room/shed for the night.
On Friday we walked to the oasis in the middle of the canyon and spent a couple of hours lazing by the swimming pool and eating lunch. But then came the tough part – the steep walk out of the canyon. This was one of the hardest walks I´ve ever done and one couple even hired mules to do it on. The part of the canyon we were in was 1,500m deep (Ben Nevis is 1,344) and we managed to walk up in 2 hours 20 minutes. Our guide said it usually takes around 3 hours so we were well proud of ourselves.
We´re now back in Arequipa having a lazy Sunday. We´ve booked a night bus to Cusco for tomorrow night to give us a couple of days to sort things before Simon, Sam and the Woozit join us on Friday. Yay!!!

We had mixed feelings about leaving Bolivia. In some ways it´s been one of my favourite places this year as it feels like an adventure travelling there and there are some amazing places to visit (e.g. the salt flats and Isla del Sol). However, while I love the fact that the people have their own distinct culture, their customer service is appalling. Service with a smile is a completely unknown concept and the people working in shops and restaurants are nothing short of rude! It´s a real shame as some of the people we´ve met have been lovely. Also, the Bolivian hygiene isn´t the best. For example, we bought some packaged cheese off a market stall that also sold chickens. The lady serving had her hand up the chicken, pulled it out and gave us our change with bits of raw chicken on it. Eugghh!! We then had to wander about trying to buy more things just to get rid of the minging chicken money.

We are currently in Copacabana on Lake Titicaca, it is a really chilled out little town albeit with very expensive internet so I will keep this brief!

We spent one day walking to, then a day hiking around the Isla Del Sol. This was a great chance to get some experience hiking at altitude ready for Peru. We had a great time and it was really nice to do some walking as it has been a while.

Tomorrow we move to the Peruvian side of the lake. Hopefully the internet will be cheaper and we can upload some more photos.

These are dried llama foetuses. They are abundant on stalls around the witches market here in La Paz and are used as a lucky charm when you are building a new house or, as Carol insists, as a tasty mid-morning snack.

La Paz, as has been the case since we have been in Bolivia, is a really exciting place. It´s much less developed than Chile or Argentina and it feels great to walk around places and take in all of the sights, sounds and smells. The tastes have been good as well; if you can get it in Tescos I highly recommend a llama schnitzel.

One thing that hasn´t been so great is the journeys in Bolivia. The buses have been very uncomfortable, crowded and hot and the roads, especially in the south, are often not paved. Therefore we weren´t really looking forward to our first overnight bus trip here. Due to the lower costs we took the liberty of booking on to a full cama (fully reclining seats, the height of luxury in South American buses) bus and initially it looked good as it was an old Argentinian bus and the seats appeared comfortable, however the luxury wasn´t really there at all. For a start my seat was broken, so the seat back wouldn´t stay in position therefore the angle of my seat was determined largely by the incline of the hill we were driving up or down at the time (there´s a lot of hills/ mountains around here!). Also the toilet was broken, this was problematic on a 12 hour journey. They had over booked the bus so there were people sleeping all the way along the floor of the bus which meant if you did want to get out of the bus on the odd occasion they stopped then you trod all over a few poor Bolivians.

Having said all of this we arrived on time and in good spirits, we have found a great hostel and are really enjoying being here. Tonight we are going to visit a British-Indian restaurant that has been recommended – I am hoping that it´s not too authentically British-Indian and that I get to sample an alpaca vindaloo or perhaps a condor tikka masala.