Well folks, this blog is about a day trip I did on Thursday May 1st as it was a public holiday in Peru for labour day. They seem to celebrate lots of different 'days' here with fireworks and parties which last all week. Even though this was only 6 days ago, I am finding it very difficult to remember......must be that Alzheimer's setting in lol! I made my way to the Plaza de Armas by 8.30 to meet Edgar my tours manager. Edgar is a great guy who works really hard at providing trips to those staying at Patricia's. Edgar is not always easy to understand as he talks English really quickly and while you think you are getting a lot of detail, it's not until you are on the tours that you realise that there ... read more

I am slowly starting to see the connections between the verbs, masculine, feminine and nouns in the Spanish language, but this old dog is having a lot of trouble learning these new tricks. My teacher Luchow fortunately has a sense of humour and constantly tells me I'm improving. While I am desperate to believe him, the reality is more like it was for poor Vanessa in Melbourne - I am just driving him insane. Never mind, I will preservere and tomorrow we will attempt real conversations when we meet in the Plaza de Armas to see if I can really confuse some people. My lessons are arranged for every day this week starting at 3.30pm till 5.30pm, but Luchow was unable to be here yesterday so it was a great opportunity to go with Lauren, Ros ... read more

Yep, just when I thought I had escaped the dreaded altitude sickness it hit me! Icky headache on day 3, which I thought was to do with not wearing my new hat while playing with the kids at the 3-4 yr olds project. Turns out that, combined with an a very unsettled stomach, lack of appetite and tiredness, I needed to slow down and rest. So that's what I did all yesterday and today felt much better. Walked into the main shopping area near our home and noticed how easily I lost my breath due to the altitude. Everyone says it will be fine in a few days so looking forward to that. The 4 British girls and I went into the Plaza de Armas on Monday night to be part of the huge festival that ... read more

So who says flying isn't fun? ME! that's who!!! After dealing with all the emotions of leaving home, the big farewell from Jane, then finding the card she left me in my bag (naughty girl Jane :) ), sitting next to someone in the lounge who was blubbering just like me (lovely to meet you Genna and I hope your wonderful new life in LA is just the start of good things to come), enjoying the plane food (yes I like it!) and watching 3 movies I have had on my hit list, I was really getting into having things under control. Until I got to LAX. Now it wasn't the fact that I don't really like this airport, or that it took 2 hours to get my bags and go through customs. Really, that didn't ... read more

Hi guys, felt that as I was going to keep this as a bit of diary it would be useful to start it off with the craziness of trying to organise myself for this trip. Have just received my renewed passport & used it to get my police check finalised. Typically Aust Post managed to tell me to go the wrong PO to pick it up! So what else is there to do? well not much really.... pack up the unit my desk in melb pack my bag get any injections make sure dog is sorted all documents are sorted probably get a tooth out or root canal job try and learn some Spanish go to a high tea/hen's night/wedding/birthday/ all in Feb get all my finances (not much to do there haha) etc in order ... read more