The end of South America

After Machu Pichu we spent a few more nights at the Point hostal in Cuzco. After staying up all night on our final night the time had finally come for us to move away from the land of the Incas. We hopped on a train South to Puno and Lake Titicaca and found ourselves a nice cheap hostel where we met a cool buddhist guy (about our age) and his 40 year old 'friend' who he had met on his travels. The youing guy was so chilled out he very nearly sent me to sleep while talking to me.
After a few days Lake watching and the like we packed up our various belongings and hopped on a bus for 20 hours to Huacachina via Ica. Huacachina is a beautiful little desert town surrounded by sand dunes big as mountains with a cool oasis in the middle of it. Our hostel, amazingly, had a swimming pool (with attached bar) which we dived into on arrival before we went sandboarding (the pool that is).
Sandboarding, for those who don´t know, is a sport where you either strap your feet to (if you're good) or lie on top of (if you're us) a board and then fly at about a hundred miles an hour, or so it feels, down huge sand dunes. (Max still has a sand burn now). It was amazing fun.
We stayed in Huacachina for a few days, chilled out, climbed some sand, ran down some sand and then left at five in the morning on the 3rd day to go to Paracas, or more accurately Islas Ballestas where we saw pelicans, penguins, sea lions and loads of other birds and whole heap of bird shit that was once Peru´s main export. It was a great morning, topped of nicely with 20p egg sarnies on the waterfront.
After the morning was done we hopped on a Perubus to Lima and found ourselves a nice Israeli run hostel (very friendly) to park ourselves for the last night. Our aim of seeing Lima in a day was slightly inhibited by the Hostel having Pro Evolution Soccer 6 on the playstation, but at least we got better at that.
The next morning we did actually manage to remove ourselves fromt the hostel and see Lima. It´s a really lovely place actually, especially the old colonial centre. We also had a lovely lunch (green rice for me) and some brown lemonade. After a coffee by the sea front and our usually daily debate, this one especially heated, we got ourselves a delicious chinese meal in Miraflores (the posh part of Lima we stayed in) and headed to the airport.
It was at the airport that we faced a dilemma: Leftover currency. So we spent it all on Donuts, i mean who wouldn´t and the problem was solved. The flight to Santiago was quite interesting, we met a lovely columbian woman who was flying to meet her new fiance in Santiago. Once in
Santiago airport at about 6 in the morning and with about one hours sleep, we all felt a bit rough, Benjie still managed another donut however.
About 6 hours later and we were right bang in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in Easter Island. It´s an amaizing place, huge grass covered esxinct volcanoes at each end, woods and desert in the middle, a magnificent coastline and 20ft rock heads all over the place.
We camped right on the sea shore in a campsite and we could hear the Pacific crashing against nearby rocks all night.
Day 1 in Easter Island consisted of:

-Renting bikes
-Cycling to the other side of the Island (20km)
-Max getting a puncture
-Me offering and starting to walk back (stupid me)
-A horrible realisation about 5 hours in that the way we were taking back was actually too long on foot.
-Hitching a lift with a grumpy family
-Arriving back safe and sound after seeing some graceful wild horses roaming the land and experiencing one of the quitest and most naturally beatuiful places i´ve seen combined with a weird and interesting history of creating huge rock faces facing into the Island. It was great.
On day two we climbed a volcanoe and looked into its old crater lake, it was well cool. Me and Benjie sneaked in a drink at a harbourside bar before dinner (same pasta 3 nights in a row on the bloody expenisve island) and a film at a local hotel. It was called Rapa Nui and was produced by Kevin Costner, it was great.
The next day we flew out of Easter Island all happy and content and arrived back in Santiago in the evening in time to find a nice cheap hostal with a slightly mad receptionist.

We woke up early enough for our free breakfast on the morning of the 4th and headed into town to see some sights. The centre of Santiago is beautiful, quite similar to Lima in its colonial architecture. We spent some time wondering around the city before we hopped on a funicular railway which stops off at the zoo which hugs one of Santiago's hillsides. The zoo was great, it had a jaguar, lions, tigers, polar bears and loads of other cool creatures. 2 quid well spent we all tought!
And now? I sit alone for the first time. Max, Daniel and Benjie have left for India and i go New Zealand tomorrow.
It´s been an amazing month- sorry the accounts haven´t been more detailed, there is so much to tell and so little time. (especially when an evil woman is sighing at how long you´ve been on the computer...hope she can´t read english...)