We had a lovely few days in Iquique. Rented some kayaks to see if Olympus’ waterproof promises were true or false!

Since Christmas we have made a brief excusion north from Arica into Peru. We got the train to Tacna and then bussed it to Ariquipa, a nice city in the south of Peru. The next day we traveled on to Cuzco, the old capital of the Inca civilisation. Cuzco is a strange one, most of the city is cobbled streets and steps. There is a mix of old Incan stonework and buildings, mixed with spanish built churches and huge cathederals.

Hellooooo. Apologies for lack of blogging but we've been busy beavers! We're also a camera down. I misplaced it after the mountain biking trip. We were brought to an animal sancutary for dinner and were warned the monkies liked to rob shiny things so I think a little family of monkies are playing with my camera as I type! A fine Christmas present no doubt. Anyway hurray for travel insurance, I'll purchse a new one soon.

After the scariest bike ride ever we spent two days in Coroico. We then hopped on a bus to Rurrenabaque. The trip was yuck, worst one so far so hoping they wont get any worse. Once in Rurre we headed into the Amazon Rainforrest for a few days.

We stayed two nights in La Paz before going out to Isla Del Sol, an island on Lake Titicaca. It's said to be the birthplace of the sun in Inca mythology. We were disappointed to see the sun setting at 7 o'clock! We were out treking the island with an Israeli girl and boy did it get dark fast. Anyway we got back to the hostel in one piece (after asking nearly every local for directions!.

So we said goodbye to Bolivia just before Christmas and snuck out to the coastline for ‘holidays’! We spent the last week in Arica, Chile. It’s a nice little touristy town and Peter even got to go kitesurfing on Christmas day. He described the local instrutor as a bit of a cowboy. We took it real easy the past few days. Enjoyed the novelty of a swimming pool and cable tv in the hotel. Christmas dinner was a little depressing. We had lunch in McDonalds and dinner in this dodgey diner!</p>

today we did the so called “worlds most dangerous road” mountainbike trip. its a popular tour from la paz to corico along a wet, dusty bumpy road through waterfalls and jungle with a 400m drop on one side. I think its a 3000m descent over the 60kms. it was savage, mountain biking may be the no wind answer to kitesurfing! I did the whole thing, and trish did all but the two hardest sections. We dont have any photos because we were too busy keeping the bikes on the road to take any, but a full cd of photos taken by the guide is on its way to Sligo.

OK Sucre is a fairly big City in Bolivia, it used to be the capital but not anymore. The main attraction we went to here was the Cretaceous Park - a dinasour museum/theme park. They found loads of dinosaur tracks here in a Quarry about 50 years ago.