apologies for my absence. i´m not really sure if anyone´s reading anymore anyway! since the last entry, things have been somewhat less relaxed. I´ve completed a whip-round gringo tour of southern peru in less than two weeks and though i´m glad i´ve seen the things i´ve seen i can´t say it was an altogether pleasurable experience. and it cost a small fortune. i never want to go on another gringo tour as long as I live!the peruvians are getting to grips with mass tourism and offer what they think the tourist wants. so you get this weird simulacra peru instead of the real one. everywhere you go you´re confronted with a woman in traditional dress, trailing a dutiful llama. even at the top of a large hill on an island in the middle of lake titicaca, there´s the obligitory pan pipe band, complete with amp. if i see another gringo buffet lunch or hear another tour guide screeching down a mic, (or worse, at macchu pichu they had really loud whistles) I think I´ll scream.
It´s refreshing to be somewhere new. I´m in ecuador until late november and am currently living with a lovely family in quito brushing up on the spanish...
we went to the coast for the weekend (a 10 hour bus journey) but all was worth it. i now know where the expression used for the title of this blog came from. on the way to a natio
nal park island just off the coast, our small boat was surrounded by humpback whales. they were having so much fun jumping right out of the water, in pairs, over and over again for almost an hour! it was like a montage of the best bits of the blue planet played out right before my eyes. one of the best days of my life....
