Peru May/June 2019 - prior to flights, flights and arrival - May 14th

Nobody realises how close I was to cancelling this trip. My balance was very bad and I was having bouts of breathlessness and, as a consequence, I was very scared in anticipation of the altitude and how I would be affected. On Monday, the day before leaving Raphoe, I woke up petrified that I was going to die in Peru. On Tuesday we left home around 2pm, had lunch in HouseProud in Strabane and then headed for Dublin where we met Brian and Mairead for dinner in MiThai. Brian left us to the Clayton for 9.30pm where we sat till 3.30am and then took the shuttle to the airport. Our flight was at 5.55 am to Amsterdam where we met Sarah and then Charlotte at Amsterdam Bakery Co. Our flight to Lima left at 12.35 and took approximately 12 hours. We arrived in Lima at 6pm loval time - midnight at home. Victor met us and brought us to the Hotel Santa Cruz in Miraflores. We freshened up and had a drink and a light supper - our first experience of Causa which was very tasty. The barman and barmaid were very nice and very helpful. We also met Anne and Paul from England who were actually on the same flight as us.

Rochefort; Ile de Re - Thursday September 27th 2018 and Friday September 28th 2018

Thursday was our departure day after a wonderful 2 weeks home exchange in Arpajon sur Cere. We got the house back to rights and were just loading the car when Olivier's wife arrived expecting us to be already gone. It was an opportunity to meet her and I was glad that we had left the house perfect.

On arrival in Danielle's in Rochefort Jim got a beer. He enjoyed it after the long journey!

On Friday Danielle, Emmanuelle and the two of us went for the day to Ile de Re while Jade and William were at school.

The ruined Cistercian Abbaye des Chateliers built in 1156.

St. Martin de Re

Barrage built to protect from flood at times of storm and high tide.

View from where we had lunch which was a great disappointment to Danielle. In fact it wasn't very good.

We took a walk around the Phare des Baleines.

We had a great day touring Ile de Re and listening to Danielle and Emmanuelle reminiscing about their times there in the past. Next day it was back to the ferry for our journey home. Our travels for 2018 were over!