noirin

well, ive been pretty shite about updating, but it's not been remotely practicalk, up til now i've been travelling with a package tour group and like slave drivers they get us up at 5am each day to go trekking over ridiculously high and steep inca pathways on the side of mountains...blimey i've never exercised at altitude before, i think i must be healthier after the last 3 weeks than i have been my whole life!! it's been painful, often terrifying, including a stint in the amazon camping in jungle huts that have net instead of windows so you can see the bats trying to get in (never knew what goddam noisy animals they were) and hear god knows what screaming in the night...but definitely amazing! now i'm back to the grey skies of lima, and it seems like coming home. it really was a welcome sight to see the sun blotted out again!!

but now we have a new plan of action. mark and i are flying out of lima tomorrow night and landing in miami at 05:30 the next day. then...we are camping!! we bought a tent today and it is bloody amazing! we put it up in our hotel room to practise (hotels here are huge for your money, i love my strong strong currency wooo!) and it's the best tent i ever had! it's a 4 person tent for $70 which isn't especially cheap but it's relatively light, insanely easy to put up and has a really tough cover sheet. wow i feel like a proud momma! but it's just i've never been travelling before, i've never been away from my family over a week, so to travel across continents is just like a crazy dream!

i expect to be seeing some suicidekids while i'm in america now, and so does mark! anyone who reckons they know good campsites, or can lend us a back yard to camp in, or wants to let me know vital cultural information (eg...how much IS a decent tip?? in the uk we give 10-15%, 20% for exceptional service, i've heard this can cause offence in the states?) let me know on here or by using my email! we will be travelling up the east coast from miami to boston over 3 weeks or so...please get in touch! that makes it so much more fun...k, gotta go buy bedrolls...