I´ll probably regret starting this, seeing as I´ll now feel obliged to finish it, but anyway, here goes...
So I´m currently sitting in a swankyish hotel in Lima - all paid by completely useless LAN Peru airline - having spent 7 solid hours shouting at airline staff last night, watched 79 channels of Peruvian cable TV (the highlight being Street Fighter with Van Damme and Kylie) and now, at long long last, in my pocket I have boarding cards to get us home to Heathrow.
Amusing. Sort of. Not really very amusing at all. But at least I´ve found a computer with no login password in the Business Suite. Not sure whether I should be in here, but anyway, at least now I can I waste my time on the interernette, and then we can go back to the airport to start shouting at people again. It´s therapeutic.
We´ve been in Peru for 3.5 weeks, exactly to the split second... wait ... wait a bit more .. and ... NOW! That was exactly 3.5 weeks. Shame you missed it.
Peru is really good. And I mean really good. Far better than lots of other places. I´ve been to other places (I´ve even been to Germany) - trust me, they´re all rubbish compared to Peru.
I will mention something about birds soon.
Maybe.
Dfferences between our last visit and this one are the following:
1) I now think that Machu Picchu is utterly terrible in every conceivable way. I´m ashamed I ever thought otherwise.
2) The new field guide is spectacular and makes birding there 45,000 times easier for visitors than before.
3) I now fully understand why you should wear suncream.
4) Every individual employee of LAN Peru should be hunted down and kicked in the nuts (even the female employees).
5) We saw lots of different birds and also some of the same ones.
6) The price of staying in Cusco has increased in 3 years by a factor of 6 (I don´t know what that means).
7) I now think that Peru is even better than I thought it was before.
8) And I thought it was really good before.
9) I´ve now seen the bird that I wanted to see more than any other in the whole wide world and beyond.
10) I was amazed to discover that another bird we saw turned out to be even better than the one I thought was going to be the best that I mentioned in point 9).
So you know what´s coming (and thus know not to visit this thread ever again), here is a summary of our trip:
1) Lima
2) Santa Eulalia valley
3) Tambopata - Explorer´s Inn
4) Machu Picchu
5) Abra Malaga pass
6) Cusco
7) Poshest hotel I´ve ever been in (for free)
8) The hotel I´m in now which isn´t all that posh but costs a fortune (we´re staying for free)
And did I mention that LAN Peru are total baxtards?