In Cusco

The last time I flew to the States, Virgin was a budget airline (bring your own sandwiches) and immigration was slowish and courteous. Now, Virgin Atlantic is a major carrier and immigration is tedious and confusing, staff are rude and you have to be fingerprinted and digitally photographed -- even for transit!

It´s true that the sight of the crew arriving, the women all in red, is a head turning sight but forget the advert -- no red killer heels and, sadly, no dashing pilot -- they were all models. Still, the flight was comfortable and as it was not full I had 2 window seats to myself and was able to spare my immediate neighbours the effects of my streaming cold. No doubt the viruses got recycled anyway. I managed pretty well on that leg of the journey but the transfer in Miami and the overnight flight to Lima were not good. My connection to Cusco was re-scheduled so that by the time I finally reached my hotel I was feeling very, very sorry for myself!

Lack of sleep, altitude and a heavy cold are not a good combination! I´ve been pretty well out of it since arrival but now begin to feel human again and able to cope with the prospect of a walk down Avenida El Sol.

It´s fairly cold and yesterday the weather turned with thunder and lightning and heavy rain and hail. Today is grey and heavy and I hope that this will pass quite quickly. There are still tourists wandering about in sleeveless tops so maybe it´s this nesh Londoner that´s out of step.

So here I am and the adventure is about to really begin!