Several countries later...

As you attentive followers noticed i stopped that last blog rather abrubtly (has now been finished if you fancy a lengthy read) as i was offered lunch by a lovely chilean girl at the hostel, and have now fallen even farther behind than previously with this blog number. A catch up is needed and pronto so i shall try to summarise the last nearly 2 weeks of my life, given my rambling writing style i may not be able to restrict myself to bulletpoints but here goes.
So the day after returning from Machu Picchu Magnificence, Sunday 8th Feb, i spent a very large portion of the day trying to have a much needed shower (which meant a fair chunk of time with plunger in hand) then vainly attempted a blog catch up to be interrupted by said chilean and a delicious pasta-vegie lunch which led to spending the evening strolling around cuzco with the 4 lovely chileans going into a couple of beautiful churches and seeing a bit further afield than we had previously. Stopped at a market and bartered myself some $7.50 cuzco pants (yay) then went back to the hostel accompanied by a bottle of havanna club and kola real. Much too late Jon and i made a failed attempt at getting some dinner, missing out even on street food and being too fussy for McD's. Did bump into Andres and Francia from the trek though and chatted to them for a bit.
Monday was check out day because on Sunday we had also spent a heck of a lot of money on LIM-EZE flights as we realised sitting on a bus the whole way through bolivia was not really the best option and we still wouldn't get anywhere in time for anything. This meant to get to our wed morning flight on time we really had to leave Cuzco so it was time to say goodbye to balcon colonial (and it's awful shower). Before setting off on another 20 hour bus ride I got myself a full body hour long massage for 20 soles (being able to say sí, gracias to the millionth massage flyer instead of the usual stream of no, gracias, no gracias, no gracias) while Jon purchased a couple of souvenirs, then we went in search of Cuy, a local speciality. The guinea pig itself was ok but the meal as a whole was a real letdown. You'd think a place that boasts over 400 varieties of potato could at least cook the damn things. And don't even get me started on the "salad". Anyway worth it for the experience but we were left with rumbling stomachs. Farewelled Rolando and caught a cab to the bus station and we were on our way to Lima. Also managed to farewell the cd we'd just burned of all our cuzco and machu picchu photos, hopefully not forever though, aiming for a reunion with it before we leave the continent as it is currently in safe hands.
Arrived the following afternoon after a stream of more weird movies back in the desert. Lima is not a pretty city. Nor does it have a central bus station, you just get dropped at your respective buses small terminal in a not so flash neighbourhood. We then walked for ages to find the info centre going by the not altogether accurate or detailed map in lonely planet to confirm our flight then walked for ages plus forever to get to Mira Flores - the nicer part of town. Decided not to check out the central area. Got a delicious lunch/dinner from a vegetarian restaurant overlooking the park at the entrance to mira flores and a flag lowering ceremony complete with bugle player. Then flagged down a taxi to take us to the airport and our accommodation for the night! Interesting taxi ride, very jovial driver, lima traffic lived up to all we'd heard about it, there was more than a little nervous laughter on my part - and not just about the traffic. But we got to the airport and the driver willingly accepted my donation of 3/4 of a bag of coca leaves which i wasn't sure would make it into BA (plus no more altitude for us so no more chewing the disgusting things or drinking the vegetable water tasting tea they brew). After a few games of cards and a half-hearted attempt to get on an earlier flight we found a corner and settled in for the night with a surprisingly large number of other happy campers. Following morning, with cramped necks, did the whole check-in thing, spent our last few soles (can't get much for 7 soles at airport duty free - could only find 4 fairly tacky beads for it), and flew back to BA. nuff said.
Arrived back at La Casa Fitz Roy, after trying to catch a bus to Retiro that didn't actually end up going there, to discover that not only had natasha gone to iguazu the day before but we'd also missed the ibells by a day. Went and found some empanadas and went to sleep unsure of what to do next.
Slept through check out on thursday so that made the decision to stay for us. Had a very lazy day, leaving the hostel around 5pm for the first time to do some laundry - finally! - then more empanadas followed by a power walk to the galileo galilei planetarium for the 6pm show "Viaja por el Cosmos" (or something similar). Can't say i learned much about the galaxy and whatnot given that it was all in spanish and quite a bizarre experience but i enjoyed being there nonetheless! Maybe uranus was formed by first being a more solid planet that got crashed into by a meteor and turned into a swirling, planet shaped cloud of debris. Or maybe not. Did shed some light on the imagery of some of the constellations, quite imaginative.Cooked some dinner then went for dessert at the delicious old man heladoria which we were still eating by the time the clock ticked over to my birthday argentinian time - good way to start the day :)
Friday the 13th!!!

still not caught up but off to the beach now so will try again later!!