"Kolca" the Koala, following us around the Colca Canyon.








Rob outside our bedroom door in Arequipa. This was the most beautiful Spanish hacienda. The rooms were set around many courtyards.











Truck accident on the way from Lima to Huancayo. Our bus trip took 8 hours on this very winding road.








Gayle and Maxine overlooking Pisac. We all walked up to this point, then down the other side.








Dennis, Gayle and Maxine on the road from Puno to Cusco. We took the Inca Express (great bus trip).







Gayle and Dennis' final night in Peru. What a great night.








The view from our bedroom window on the Isle de Sol at Lake Titicaca. Got very sunburnt here.

Photos

Here are the children at the school in Huancayo dressed up in the gorgeous knitted garments that were donated by everyone in Australia.







These are the foundations and first floor of the new school that we have been fundraising for over the past 2 years. It has been wonderful to see all the work we have put in actually coming to fruition at long last.







Maxine and Gayle show off the new uniforms that were donated last year for the primary students as they headed off to secondary school.

Photos????

Sorry everyone, but the photos didn't show up. I will try again tonight when Cassie is here to help me on her computer.

You will never guess!!!!!

Last night (Monday) we arrived home in Melbourne. Our plan was to travel the south island of New Zealand, but if you have been watching the news, you would have seen that New Zealand is in "freezing mode" due to a cold blast from the Antartic. We stayed in Åuckland for one night and the following morning we were at the airport ready to fly to Christchurch to pick up our motorhome (for a 2 week tour of the south is.). All flights to the south is. were cancelled as well as roads etc, so we rang our "trusty" travel agent Frank and we were on a Qantas Flight home to Australia by lunch time.
Cassie and James had a delicious LAMB roast ready ... you just cannot beat a lamb roast after what we have been eating!!!! Today we are off to see Kate, Chris and our darling grandson Owen. I believe he has grown so much. Can't wait to see him.
We should be back in Benalla by the weekend, and look forward to seeing all our friends.
Our last week in South America was great. After our trip to the Colca Canyon, we did a few tours around Arequipa, visiting agricultural areas, volcanoes, old Spanish towns, monastaries, churches, museums etc. The area around Arequipa is Spanish orientated, not like the rest of Peru, which is mainly Inca/Spanish.
We then flew to Santiago in Chile. This is usually a 3 hour flight, but it took us nearly 6 hours as the plane stopped at two airports within half an hour of each other - one to go through customs and one to pick up passengers. A long flight but we are so glad we didn't bus it, as we had planned.
We arrived in Santiago to riots... the students were protesting against education policies. The whole town was full of police with armoured vans etc. On the whole, we enjoyed our two days there.
We went on a walking tour for a day and were getting ready to have dinner, when we thought we had better check our flight time for the next morning (Sat). We were shocked to read that our flight was leaving that night (Fri) at 11.50pm. What a rush to organise our packing, taxis etc but we made it.

We do hope you have all enjoyed our blog and thank you for your comments. I'm sorry there were hardly any photos, but some Incanet shops we went to were very old and slow, so here are a couple of photos of the children at Esperanza.

Peru is coming to an end.....

We are now is Arequipa. This is the first time we have visited this town and we love it. So clean and vibrant. There is so much to do and see that we have decided to stay a week then fly down to Santiago, Chile, instead of the two and a half day bus trip. The last two days.. Sat and Sun... we went on a tour of the Colca Canyon. This was awesome. At one stage we were 16,000 ft above sea level, sourrounded by magnificent volcanoes covered in snow. These volcanoes are all active and the last one erupted in 1995 or thereabouts. Also there have been many earthquakes in this area, but life still goes on.....
On the tour we went right into the centre of the canyon and many many condors were flying over head. These birds have a wing span of three and a half metres and are the second largest bird in the world. The largest being the albatross. This was a sight to see.
There are many small villages along the way and most of them do not have power. Their main source of income is agriculture as water is plentiful but not my idea of life. On the Saturday evening our tour guide took our party of 25 to a restaruant and dance show. This was a typical Peruivan night of fun and laughter with the Peruivan dancers getting everyone involved.
Today, Monday, is a day of rest, sleep in and washing, before another tour tomorrow of the outskirts of Arequipa.
We only have a few more days here in Peru, then we fly to Chile and head for New Zealand next Saturday.
Thank you to Cassie and Betty for their comments. We are so happy that you enjoy our moments on the blog. If you still cannot comment, then either comment on facebook or email us on.. rob.max@hotmail.com.
We would love to hear from you. Bye for now. xxxx

Travelling South towards Chile

Here we are in Southern Peru at Arequipa. We have not been here before and find this place very clean and very old. Our accomodation is a 16th century Spanish villa with huge dome ceilings and beautiful garden settings around many courtyards. Absolutely fantastic. The price for the room is around $65 Aus a night. Fairly expensive for here but well worth it. It is a shame Gayle and Dennis are not here as they would have loved this place... a bit like Cusco on a grand scale.
The last two nights we have been in Nasca. We did not fly over the lines as we did that two years ago, but we did visit many museums and the plantetarium, which explained the heritage listed Nasca lines. We also viewed the Milky Way, Southern Cross, the Moon and Saturn through a large telescope. You could see the rings around Saturn and the craters on the Moon. We are now planning to buy a huge telescope and leave it at our friends house in Tatong to watch the stars at night. ha ha.
We travelled here overnight by bus (cheap accomodation) but were very tired this morning as the trip was nine and a half hours. Today was a day of rest... very hot days and cool mornings and nights.
Will continue next week. Love to you all.