London bound

And so, for those of you who still remember who I am, I am finally about to embark on my journey back to England (shock horror, it cant be true?!). Despite the morning drizzle here in San Fran, i will try to bring back some Californian sunshine. Home, here i come!

old friends, new lives, same smiles

And so here I am at my final stop in California before returning to London, catching up with old friends some still in the East Bay and Berkeley and some who have moved into the city.Sailing in Berkeley Marina

Having a bbq and chilling at Ali's new place in Berkeley
Hanging out in Costco with Olivia (some things never change!)With Hannah, post dinner, trying to take a nice in-car photo (just for old time sake)
Reunited with my partner in every crime, Olivia, who let me crash on her very comfortable couch in her cosy Russian Hill apartment.

let´s take bob to the beach

Final few days in Peru spent at the beachside town of Huanchaco, catching some rays, playing in the waves, surfing and listening to a nice bit of bob at la playa. We stayed at a little haven called Naylamp, right on the beachfront which had a really tranquil campsite complete with hammocks, chocolate cake and the odd tortuga moping around, ideal.Sawyer with our little friend the tortuga!We got overly excited by the recycling of kitchen scraps!La playa, in all its glory. Each day we would find a relatively uncrowded area only to be slowly engulfed and surrounded by Peruvian families, very entertaining.

Sunset, sunrise, sunset, sunrise......

There was even a carnival complete with decorative floats (including wave woman above), brazilian dancers and an interesting set of Simpson characters in the parade.

After daily visits to the local market and cooking for ourselves everyday (supplemented by a few beach snacks) we decided to splash out on the last day and go for dinner. Our plan of having lots of the Peruvian famous Ceviche failed when most places were shut so we settled for a little hole in the wall place which had great 2soles (50p) veggie burgers, complete with mostaza, ketchup y aji picante (peruvian spicey sauce) yum!

me and my bros

Dedicated to my two guardian angels Tim and Sawyer, fellow wwoofers from Tunuyan who i travelled up through Bolivia and Peru with...fun times boys!

A celebratory ´drink´ after bumping into Tim in the street in Copacabana...well we thought it was beer but it turned out to be a malt energy drink inconveniently labelled with a beer brand! We eventually found real alcoholic beverages a little later, thankfully.

Day spent wandering around Lima, searching for the China town market region and trying to escape the loud hustling bustling city streets. Here we are at the main plaza, lovely.

Breakfast stop...Boys : "I want pastries"

Nati contemplating getting one croissant, Boys : "Let´s get 5....each..."

I didn´t have anyting to do with this photo...hence no comment...Sawyer.

Machu what now, omg the llama

Not much to say really, absolutely incredible ruins at the incan city of Machu Picchu. After arriving first thing in the morning the whole site was engulfed with mist and cloud but gradually the sun began to rise and the mist mostly cleared giving us perfect vision of the whole ancient lost city.Much time was also spent fussing over the cutest little llama happily wandering around and providing endless entertainment to the surrounding tourists...CUTE!

No sun on the isla del sol

Views of Lake Titicaca from Isla del Sol, a short boat journey across from Copacabana on the mainland. Unfortunately there was so sun in sight when we arrived but we still enjoyed exploring the little island and visiting some of the ruins on the North side.

Sorata...ooo llama

After spending a few days in the crazy capital of La Paz and satisfying our shopping desires for Andean crafts and textiles we quickly moved on to the lovely tranquilo town of Sorata set within lush farming vegetation and rolling hills with the imposing snow covered Llampu mountain in the background. Here we did a day hike out to La Gruta de San Pedro, a large cave with lots of bats and underground river resembling the Styx from the underworld where the lovely Ricardo steered us along on a little pedalo boat (5 bolivianos well spent!)
Friendly faces along the way...