a peruvian perambulation

so i left BsAs in a slight rush having arrived 4 hours late and decided on a long picnic in the park, leaving a whopping 35minutes to pack up. I succeeded in getting to the airport over an hour preflight (if not 2.5) but unfortunately had also accidentally stolen the keys to the sanchez elias and had to entrust them to the taxi driver to return which, thankfully, he did. on arrival in Lima i managed to get a taxi colectivo with a family of 7 crammed in the back to my hostel which was palatious if far out for $20 soles. bargain.

Quick run around the nearby ruins, the catacombs, cathedral and into chinatown and i was off again to Huacachina to lose my footing, repeatedly, sandboarding in this oasis town. I would upload some pictures of my bombing down these massive dunes but unfortunately i also managed to lose my camera in the rush to the bus station. easily biggest loss thus far, even if it is a 4x6 vaguely phone shaped piece of black plastic. I miss its presence in my pocket! To really grind the salt into the gaping wound i´d sacrificed 3 hours of prime sunbathing time to upload them to CD pre-dune buggy&boarding. Not to worry unduly i chatted up a friendly enough israeli whose now working at Loki here in cusco so will raid her photos!

In Cusco I was pounced upon by a sickly Eleanor at the absurdly nice Parriwana hostel after a brief spell in the computer room (recognised by the trademark hairflick and shoes i´m told). Whilst a reunion with Sabrina took a little longer as she´d managed to hitchhike her way across to Colca into the arms of Chescie who I sadly missed (riduculously late bus...). Chicken soup, a pisco sour or two and a few of our 9 room-mates and sleep didn´t alude us for long! Next day having herded still sicky eleanor around largely closed churches we fortunately chanced upon Los Perros (which i recommend to anyone) and stayed in its cosy embrace with all the chifa and alpaca meatballs you could possibly desire for far too long, not aided by the book exchange!

Crack of dawn, chomping down my veggie omlette on toast whilst tying up the shoe laces and running down the stairs to the distinctly unimpressed tour guide for our sacred valley tour, we were unprepared for a long days ruin running. Taking in the ruins at Moray, Ollantytambo (waylaid in Inkabucks), Chincherro (beautiful painted church) and Pisaq (late after our sprint to the sun temple) in addition to trigo soup and a milanesa at the truckers stop in Urubamba we really maxed it out getting back to nursing duties around 8pm in the evening.