My superior planning ability enabled me to only take disposable cameras with me (bought at Heathrow – never do today what you can do tomorrow). Some others there had some pictures that they said they’re going to send, so with a bit of luck they’ll be coming soon.

That’s one of the biggest things I learnt when I was away – not how astounding the mountains are, not how shanty the people are, not how lucky all of us in Europe are, but basically how much easier it would have been to take a digital camera!!

Honestly, I used up 2 whole cameras of the Iguacu falls. I think all the pictures are fantastic, but when I’ve been showing them, it goes along the lines of:

A waterfall
Another water fall
Yet another waterfall
Another fucking waterfall
Ooh, some mountains.
A waterfall.
etc.

OK, so it may not be quite like that, but as good as.

The worst bit was coming back to work. After weeks of brilliance, all you get is “Hello. Have a nice holiday? Anyway, if you could just take a look at this for me…” then work begins and the trip becomes just a distant memory.

Next stop, the Himalayas…

As soon as someone sends me their pictures of the waterfalls, I’ll get some posted – there was a dude with a who’d been to Angel, Niagra and Victoria falls, and he said that Iguacu beats them all. No contest. About a month before we were there, there was a lot of rain, so the water level was way up. We heard from some people who had been there before that this was the most beautiful they’d ever seen it.

For the Inca ruins in Peru, we went as part of a tour which was by far the easiest way of doing it, as some of the routes are pretty treacherous. Some of the ruins are in National Parks and they limit the number of people that can go in everyday, so unless your completely sure what you’re doing, you may not get to see what you want.

The only thing which you HAVE to do in Peru is to go on the Inca trail to see Machu Pichu. You can get the bus to the site if you want, but with the Inca trail, you walk along the sides of the Andes on the original trail, going through and past several ruins. You finally emerge from the Sun Gate where, on solstice day, the sun shines through and lights up the lost city.

We got to the gate and there was a sign saying ‘Welcome to Machu Pichu’ and we couldn’t see it. Suddenly the clouds parted and we were confronted with the most amazing view I have ever seen.

The only thing about visiting all these sights is that you end up having a real downer against the Spanish invaders. I know that the British Empire is hardly blameless in history, going round enslaving people and stealing their treasure, but there is hardly anything left in South America – the conquistadors and the inquisition destroyed it all for being evil. The phrase ‘pot & kettle’ springs to mind. All the history you learn about is just educated guess work.

I could go on & on & on & on about it all, but I think I should just wait till I (hopefully) get some pictures sent to me and then I can share the views with you all.

The best thing about coming home?

Getting a pint of cold Stella!!