ho ho ho...ly crap its cold!

Firstly Merry Christmas! Hope you all had fun and festivities with all the trimmimgs.

Made it to Peru. Evetually. Currently in the Miraflores Park Hotel - spoiled ourselved with 2 nights of 5 star luxury. The bed we have here is bigger than most of the hostels we´ve stayed in. (Not that I share a bed with your daughter Mr Nedjar.....honestly.)

Took 4 days to get here. Arctic conditions meant delays and cancllations leaving Canada. Ended up sleeping at Vancouver airport the first night. Missed our connection in Toronto. Forced to spend 2 nights in the "Quality Inn" hotel. Arrived in Lima at 11.45pm Xmas Eve. Proceeded bring in Christmas day at Starbucks in Lima airport. In fact had to sleep there. Yup, I know how to treat a girl...

Vancouver is great. Favourite place so far. Stayed with Ian & Sarah (aka Tommo & Duggs!). Really kind of them. Especially as I had never met them before! Awesome hosts - thanks guys.

Again we brought bad weather with us. The day we arrived the aforementioned arctic weather hit. Turned from mild conditions to minus 10 and several inched of snow. Didn´t mind as instantly turned the place into a winter wonderland - ideal for Christmas. Had to go shopping for warm clothes. Now back pack overflowing.

Tommo & Duggs took us to Whistler the first weekend. Best weekend of the trip so far. Magali as it turns our is an ace skiier. Great technique and effortless in gracefully gliding down the mountain. In contrast I adopted my usual "not pretty but it works somehow" style. How I can have one ski doing a snow plough and the other parrallel at speed and not fall is something Einstein couldn´t decipher. Was about the coldest we´ve skiied in - was minus 20 and then some with wind chill.

Things are the same but slightly different. For eg. "snowploughing" & "parrallel" skiing is called "pizza wedges" and "french fries". They have chips & gravy (a real northern English treat) - but they put some sort of soft cheese on top. Surprisingly, it works.

Got treated to an Ice Hockey game. Are now official Vancouver Canucks fans. Very entertaining: is fast & furious with fighting. Is very amusing. The puck moves too quickly to keep up with. You only know they´ve scored when players jump up & down. You have no idea how the puck has ended up in the net. The fights are bizzare. At random two guys will decide they fancy a piece of each other - even when the play is nowhere near them. At which point they try and leather the living daylights out of each other. The refs (there are three of them) then scate over, not to stop them but to, well, spectate. The other player then do the same. Rather reminded me of playground fights at school. They only intervieve when they fall on the floor. That, apparently, is just taking it too far...

Pleasingly Canadians have old school values that have been lost back home. People are laid back & friendly. They actually talk on public transport. Even strangers. Even saw a "youth" help and old lady on & off the bus. Initally thought he was going to attack her. No one locks thier houses. Going to miss that place.

First impressions of Lima are mixed. Not that pretty, but good night life. Checked into the hotel at 7am ´Xmas day after the night at Stabucks (God bless globalisation). Room wasn´t ready for us, but let us stay in the business centre. Ended up falling asleep in the sofas. After several guests came to use the internet, and complained at seening a snoring, unshaven and smelly chap passed out, the hotel promply decided they did have a room for us afterall. Spent Xmas day exploring Barancos night life. Enjoyed our first pisco sour and ended up bizzarely at a nightclub dancing salsa. Not the average Xmas day antics.

Yesterday, Boxing Day, did our first bit of "blind ordering" at a restuarant. Found a small local place on a side street. Chose it as only had locals in it - didn´t speak a word of English & menu only in Spanish. Did what all good tourists do, smiled and pointed at random words and said "Si" to everything. What we got was what can only be described as 2 plates of fried innards. Mmm. Wished the restaurant had a dog.

We are off to Cuzco today. Are facing a 22hour bus journey to get there. Not really excited about that propect. Will see in the New Year there. Who knows we may see Macchu Picchu and the Inca trail on New Years Day. Have a drink on us!