...y yo estoy aqui! (borracho y loco)...

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Some might say it is a pointless gesture writing a travel blog...what with the whole point of my trip being to stay (relatively) in one place.....but I am both lazy and busy and until I get the chance to write everybody an highly individual, deeply personal and searingly witty email of their very own this will have to do......

So...today I celebrate my two-week Peru anniversary. Woo! Break open the cerveza (again).
Only just arrived really...yet it feels like I´ve been here forever. Not in a bad way, of course, (I have many months ahead of me until I can legitimately be cynical about my time here)...but in a really good way. I´ve been reminded of why I loved being here so much and what pushed me to come back throughout the last year - and my lovely romantic dream has become a reality. Yes, I admit, it was a shock to actually get here. When you´ve pictured a place and a culture and a people so often in your mind for a whole year it does come as a surprise to encounter them again. And to realise that they appear to be exactly the same.

(And there I was hoping that all the men had grown taller and more attractive in my absence.........)

I was more nervous than I anticipated actually coming back here - I think the impending panic of having to get a job finally hit home just before I left. The excitement that I knew I would feel was therefore somewhat tempered by brief flashes of "holy crap what am I doing?! why don´t I just get a normal job and life a peaceful life in the english countryside with two precocious but angelic children and a dashingly handsome shepherd-like husband?????"
But of course, the lure of the Peruvian shepherd was far more appealing....

It´s definitely been a speedy two weeks. After a death-defying bus ride, a whirl of re-introductions, a small amount of Peruvian-snogging, several TERRIBLE hangovers and even a (successful) job interview I feel like I´m definitely settling in. Whilst I haven´t had time to visit all my old projects yet, the kids I have seen are just as lively and mischievous as ever and (contrary to the long-held belief that Cusco is a veritable rabbit-warren of indentical-looking gringas) they ACTUALLY remembered me!!
The family are just as I remembered - affectionate, forgetful and generally welcoming and wonderful. Cusco is beautiful - I´ve been exploring new parts I never visited before and revisiting old haunts - and even the non-beautiful parts seem beautiful somehow. Oh and I have also rediscovered my ability to spout trite and somewhat cheesy bullshit. Excellent! I must have found myself again. I knew I´d left myself somewhere.......

Rose-tinted glasses aside, the job I´ve been offered does only pay about 10 pounds a month. A month. Now I know maths is not my strong point but even to me that doesn´t seem like the most feasible of budgets to live on....But for the other 11 hours of the day I still have the opportunity to work other jobs, give english classes, sell my soul to the devil and my body to the nearest shepherd.......
I have not come this way to fail to achieve my goals. I will find other jobs - I will find more jobs! - and I will find projects to get involved in and NGO´s to shamelessly pester until they let me join in their game. There we go - there´s nothing like positive thinking!

Right. That´s me done with my first rambling and somewhat incoherent account of life in Peru. Generally speaking - life is great, stomach is strong(ish), optimism is high....
Tonight however I shall go home and mope unashamedly as my date has stood me up and my salsa-dancing feet have nowhere to go.....
Love you all lots, hope you´re all well. Any of you religious types - say a prayer for me (as it appears I am the only heathen in a country of non-heathens). Adios for now xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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