Going back in time again. Kathmandu.

 Those famous Buddha eyes.

 This was a temple on Durbar Square, a Unesco protected site. In this temple resides a living goddess. We were permitted a brief glimpse of her. Sorry no photos allowed.

 One of many mask shops.



 Durbar Square

 Yipee! Momos! A Tibetan speciality filled with Buffalo meat. A nice relief after a week of curry.

The view from our hostel

The real lifesavers of this journey. Our 1 dollar face masks. Useful for air-con, pollution, high altitude, excessive heating, and so on.... and don't we look cute? The colours match our passport covers too.

Down from Puno to Lima.

We took a night bus, with very comfy seats down from Puno to Lima. A marathon 24 hour journey.

We woke up at dawn to the alien landscape that the pan-american highway runs through, with desert and mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. Unsettling and beautiful at the same time.

Later we passed through Nascar, although we didn't have the opportunity to see the famous lines.

Next time.

Now we are settled in a lovely hostel near to Lima airport recovering from high places and getting ready for our flight tomorrow morning to Mexico.

It's amazing how precious a peaceful place and a hot shower can become.

Kiyomi played her first game of Pool tonight, and did really well, and we knocked around a ping-pong ball for a while and hung out in some hammocks. Nice place, with the usual Peruvian hospitality, friendliness and warmth.

Altitude sickness and a very big lake.

Kiyomi is a superstar!!

She suffered really bad Soroche, or Altitude Sickness during our time at Lake Titicaca. Some 3800 metres above sea level. It was really scary and hard going for her at times. But by taking it slow and with a little bit of help from local herbal remedies, she made the trip to the floating islands and to two solid islands on the lake.

We had a lovely homestay on one island, and lived with a local farming family, and enjoyed local food. In the evening we went to the village hall and tried some local dancing, Michael wearing a poncho. Very Clint Eastwood.

Michael also had some symptoms of soroche when trying to sleep. A series of short breaths and then his breathing stopping before suddenly gulping down a lungful of air. But that was very light compared to what Kiyomi went through. Well done her!

Titicaca is truly enormous. It disappears off the edge of the horizon in every direction. The distant mountains look like they are floating there.

We tried the local speciality of Alpaca, very yummy. They don't just make great sweaters.

But glad to be down at sea level now.

Titicaca.

Safely arrived in Puno on a very comfortable bus from Cuzco.

Suffering the effects of altitude sickness at the moment. Kiyomi is sleeping it out.

Puno is higher than mount Fuji in Japan at 3800 metres above sea level.

Tomorrow we we depart on a 2 day island tour into the lake, staying with local residents tomorrow night.

Off to get some sleep now.

Padlocks stolen...

more details soon.

We're okay and probably all our things too, but finding it quite bizarre that our security system for protecting against theft, was itself stolen.

It's a funny old world.

La la la!

Machu Picchu

WOW!

We arrived safely in Cuzco, after a brief stop in La Paz in Bolivia. It looks beautiful in the morning as the sun is rising, we took a taxi ride to the airport that winds round and up the edge of the bowl of the valley.

Then after a terrifyingly late bus to Ollantaytambo we managed to catch our train to Machu Picchu Pueblo.

The landscape during the bus journey was like a mixture of Tuscany, the Scottish highlands and the Norwegian mountains. Peru is very beautiful.

 Very nice train full of friendly Americans, and cute airline style food served in baskets. Michael is developing a taste for Inca Cola.

We woke up before sunrise this morning and headed up to Machu Picchu.

It truly is an amazing, breathtaking (in many senses of the word) place.

We spent many hours wandering around there marvelling at the gorgeous views. Then we decided to brave the climb of Wayna Picchu. Truly a challenging and precarious climb. The views from the top were astounding.

After we went to the hot springs here to soak our tired bones.

Taking the evening train back to Ollantayambo tonight.

Very tired.....again. Zzzzzzzzz......

The curse of the backpackers.

Well, one day after we went to Iguazu, 2 tourists died there. And we heard from our tour guide yesterday here in Buenos Aires that the whole airport here broke down, all communication systems kaputt.

So we are beginning to get a complex that we are cursing things.

Anyway we will go to the airport today and try to get our flight to La Paz and then onto Cuzco in Peru. We are a bit worried about altitude sickness, we bought some medication here, let's see what happens.

We had a nice time yesterday in Buenos Aires, visiting La Boca (there's a guy there who really looks like Maradonna) and San Telmo. We found a wonderful locals restaurant and tucked into some steak and pasta. Later we visited the bizarrely grandiose Recoleta Cemetary, with some of the tombs bigger than Japanese houses. Then we tried an amazing caramel (dulche de leche) ice cream.

After that, and all the excitement of the last two weeks, we fell asleep at 2100 and didn't wake up until 800. We guess we were very tired.