But you know, I’m feeling kind of lazy at the moment, so I’ll describe things in the way of a five year old. That might make for less typing:

The jungle was dead brill!!! There were big snakes and we caught piranhas except I didn’t coz I’m a vegetable and so don’t do fishing and we had bats and a python in the roof of the lodge. The toilets were dead stinky too and coz they don’t have proper plumbing like what we do in cities and everything the showers were cold which was horrible in the morning. I think I heard French people squealing about it. And there were these two nice English people and they were called James and Caroline and they gave me some of their wine and I got a bit tipsy!

I don’t like mosquitoes. They bit me. A lot. Little bastids. Oh sorry I’m not supposed to use words like that.

I was really really sad leaving South America. It’s so beautiful and nice and the people are great. I’ve got lots of new friends there and I think a little piece of my heart will always be with that continent, and with Peru most of all. I’ll be back.

Hmmmm… the five year old’s style is lapsing. Still…

As for New York City. What a place. It’s not really the assault on the senses that I expected. In fact it feels almost exactly how I expected it to, only quieter, cleaner and more polite. Shockingly expensive, however, but I stayed at the Chelsea Lodge in West 20th Street which was an almost but not quite reasonable $99 for a room with a shared loo but your own shower and basin. But it was very clean and charming, and it seems that for New York I did very well, so I shouldn’t complain. I did try to stay at the Second Home New York, as I stayed at Second Home Lima for my last couple of nights and thought it was brilliant. And relatively affordable. Oh well, maybe next time.

But it’s an interesting one about accomodation when travelling in a group. Essentially you need to settle for the lowest common denominator, or it’s unfair. Either that or the wealthier need to subsidise the poorer, but that’s not necessarily a feasible option given pride and so on. And there’s also the desire to stay in areas that may not be as attractive to you, but it’s important to cede to the group so long as everyone gets a say now and then. I thought we all worked beautifully as a group, but I’ll admit blowing $75 a night on a hotel room was a luxury I really enjoyed :o)

And it was still cheap compared to NY!

And then… it was home.

That’s it. The end of the trip. Done.

But don’t despair too much, I’m going to add a little content about some of the places I went to, with proper researched stuff and everything. But without the pressure of time it could take a while! Watch this space…. And photos will be added soon.

I’ve heard a couple of people whining and complaining in a Woody Allen style. Other times a conversation can go like this:

“Hey bro! What’s up?!”
“Dude! What’s happenin’ what’s happenin’?”
“S’good man… catchya later!”

Not sure what’s wrong with the English style of muttering ‘morning’ at someone you only know a little. Or even just trying to pretend you’ve not seen them, and so avoiding the embarrasment of trying to find things to talk about with someone whose name you’re not even entirely sure of.

Oh, one more thing… after two months hanging around the southern tropics during their summer, turning up here is a damn cold shock to the system! It’s below freezing, windy, and I’ve had to buy a hat and scarf to keep myself from dying. Right now I don’t think I like the cold very much. I wanna sit in a swimming costume!

I’ll post stuff about Iquitos, Barranco and so on soon, or when I get home. Internet access in NYC is proving to be either incredibly expensive or just plain unavailable. If I can buy a cheap pda with WiFi that might turn out to be a reasonable proposition and then I can sell my old one when I get back to Blighty.

Home on Monday, by the way.

Can’t believe it’s all coming to an end. In a few days I’ll have to think about finding some work. Ick!