Drawn by a Star

Here I am back in Peru and I wanted to quickly let you all know that I am fine, but so exhausted - I will briefly explain. So many of you in Spain helped raise an amazing amount of money for the Universal Heart restaurant's chocolatadas for the children and older people and your efforts have funded the whole thing! Mission in progress ... The chocolatadas are going ... are going ... 4 or 5 a day ... but we are going to the most incredible places, to the remotest of villages in the highest of places ... driving up mud roads in mist and sunshine ... pickniking beside rushing rivers. We've had some hair-raising adventures getting our minibus up mountains and down valleys. It is all dirt track roads, single file and crossing bridges that you wouldn't believe you'd get a car over! Our days start at about 5am and we're in bed about 8.30pm! I am absolutely knackered!! So more when I can, but love to you all and thanks for what you have done for all these people.

Lake Titicaca After the whirlwind of meeting Ivan and his theatre troupe and the chaos of the streets of La Paz, I was heading for the tranquility of Lake Titicaca for a couple of days. Oooohh! what bliss to leave the crowds and be beside this totally amazing sacred lake. My guide turned out to be a Bolivian archeologist who spoke 5 languages, including Japanese. Gael, this guide, took me to visit the sacred Isla del Sol, on Lake Titicaca, where 4 virgins were sacrificed each year by the Incas on the summer solstice in the sun temple. So much happened during these 24 hours at the lake, including being drawn into the ancient ceremony of car blessing outside Cocacabana cathedral! Bless! Lines of vehicles wait outside the cathedral every day, and the priest blesses each one and their owners. Familes drive here from all over Bolivia and make altars in front of their cars outside the catherdal. They believe the Black Virgin Mary of the town will work miracles. After the priest has blessed ...

18th December 2009 Bolivia – chaos and clowns Oooooohhhhh! BOLIVIA! Oh my god!!!!!! I have never ever been so challenged or so stretched in my life! So many things have stretched me in the last 7 days; I don’t know where to begin to share this adventure with you. When I arrived in Bolivia in La Paz the stories of the terrible scams in the streets left me terrified to go out of my hotel for the first two days. Then I met a lovely Australian woman (who'd just walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain) who said she'd felt the same when she arrived, but now she loved La Paz. So I took heart. I bought a huge, beautiful bunch of blue flowers for my hotel room for 10 English pence. My hotel bedroom became my sanctuary. The hotel was complete luxury at 40$ a night. The food was the most delicious I've ever tasted in my life. The chefs made me special dishes every night. Supper would cost about 5 euros for 3 courses, all cordon blue, each dish a work of art. The contrast to...

Photo by Washi Gibaja, a friend for life.. A friend asked me two days ago how I first landed in Peru. It's a long story, and this isn't it!  But the question promted  a search  to see if I'd blogged about it.   I hadn't, but discovered this,  my very first ever blog post, written soon after arriving in the country that would steal my heart.  That was 9 years ago, pre Facebbok ( for me), pre cancer, pre Brexit, pre Trump. I've added some photos, sadly lots of the originals have got lost, so I've added a few from Pinterest to 'paint' the bigger picture..    Happy Easter dear friends.  Love coming over the mountains to you all wherever you are, and hugs to those having challening times.  Os quiero mucho. Having been buffeted by altitude sickness for the past week, last night everything changed ! It coincided with a huge storm and torrential downpour over the fascianting city of Cusco where I've...