What is it with the city and the pouting-prostitute look? One girl (bless her) had a split so far up the back of her skirt that her thong was showing – I can’t imagine how that paints a good professional picture (unless of course she’s that kind of pro).
Floating Uros Islands of Lake Titicaca
3,810m above sea level, and yet just as sea-like, Lake Titicaca is an apparently normal place. The view of the snow-capped peaks across the lake in Bolivia seem strange as those mountains appear so small, until you remember that you’re already 12,000 feet up! The Uros islands are a bizarre blend of reeds and rope, unfortunately a little contrived but charming nevertheless.
Onto Amantani and a (chilly) night with Portanata, our friendly Quechuan ‘mummy’ who runs everywhere 
and boy can she dance the night away! Then an early start to Taquille for the world’s earliest lunch before a leisurely sail back to Puno and the comforts of a hot shower and a duvet.
Colca Canyon
A bumpy ride to Colca took us to 4,900m before ‘dropping’ us down to a mere 3,400m in the Colca Valley. An evening in the hot springs with a crisp drink or two was heavenly…
We got up to trundle our way along the Colca Canyon, including a short hike along to Condor Cross lookout point. Here we were blessed with a view of 3m wing-spans gracefully soaring over a canyon that was over 3km deep! Peru showing off again
Arequipa's volcanoes
From Lima to Arequipa, and moving on and up the wow-ladder. Arequipa’s been beautiful across the board, from the all-pervasive view of El Misti and it’s siblings, to the parque central and monastary.
Onwards to Colca
Arrival into Lima was somewhat dulled by our bags having been lost in transit… and even more so when only one turned up the following day! But, just in the nick of time as we’re flying out to Arequipa, we find the missing bag lying in LAN’s office. A celebratory piece of cake I think
As for Lima, it’s a strange place. Much like you’d expect a very large South American city to be: dirty, busy, crazy… but it lies in perma-fog and never rains. The ruins we saw were interesting, but somewhat lacklustre, and the city wasn’t dissimilar. Two days was enough me thinks.
Lima's post office
There’s a downside to travelling so much for work, and that’s the fact that a two-day weekend just isn’t enough. It’s really not enough time to wash and dry clothes, clean, and do everything else you can’t do during the week. Oh, and relax!
Fortunately, Claire is wonderful and I’m a lucky boy.
The SLC and HMRC are numpties… The entire process flawed in its very design…
As a student loan recipient, I make payments via PAYE of 9% above £15,000.
Flaw 1 – My final payment is almost certain to be an overpayment, unless by remarkable coincidence my balance is exactly equal to 9% of my salary over £15,000.
The SLC have no idea what I’ve paid until HMRC tell them at the end of the tax year.
Flaw 2 – I’m being charged interest on a balance that is 11 months out of date.
HMRC only remember payments made by the last employer of the tax year, so if I change jobs or if my company restructures itself, some proportion of payments will be ‘forgotten’.
Flaw 3 – I’m making payments that HMRC conveniently forget about, and then don’t tell the SLC about, pushing my imaginary balance even further out of alignment with reality.
The SLC will wait until HMRC tell them at the end of the tax year to figure things out, like if you’ve been overpaying for the past 11 months… or the SLC will take proof of payments, but only via post or fax: the latter having proved itself useless of late due to being unreadable.
They’ll then notify HMRC to stop taking payments, who’ll then notify my employer to stop taking payments.
Flaw 4 – This process takes “up to a couple of months”, taking even more money that I already don’t owe the SLC.
The woman at the SLC helpfully suggested I ring back in a couple of months if payments were still being taken, despite the fact that I’ve already paid off my loan. I wouldn’t be so annoyed if it weren’t for the fact that my repayments aren’t exactly small.
So, my advice to any other ex-students repaying is:
It would all be unbelievable if it were not our government. In a brewery. Sober.