...and tonight Matthew I am going to be...

Salsa going very well, unlike the spanish...I'm staying for an extra week of lessons! The amusing thing about the dance class is that it is, rather unsurprisingly, completely made up of women. It seems I have a bit of a knack for being the man in this dancing relationship. A little unfortunate then that two of the women I dance with are almost six feet tall, young amazonian dutch lovelies (on second thoughts ... maybe that's fortunate). As for the spanish ...the sponge that is my brain soaked words up for the first 4 days and now it is just haemorraghing excess...but my group is really lovely and we cheer ourselves up with dancing in the evenings and such like entertainment.

At the weekend I went out with Jules a couple of times. Jules was our tour guide when JuicyLucy and I came out in March. On Saturday night we went to a film theme fancy dress party at very short notice...an hour and a half's notice in fact. Now there was a challenge. I must confess to pinching an idea from my 'clever as a stick' mate Jane who managed to appear very smart whilst not looking like a complete idiot, as one generally does at these things. So one headscarf from the rucksack and a hastily concocted pearl adornment(actually a white plastic ball from a bracelet) later, and Milly is transformed into Vermeer´s "Girl with a White Plastic Bauble Earring". However, most other people there had gone to enormous effort. It´s effectively a gay night club and it was the owner´s birthday, so you can imagine. It was very Priscilla. There were actually some magnificent costumes. If I ever find an internet cafe (well actually internet laundrettes seem to be the thing here) that allows me too, I will upload some pictures.



And here is one of Andreas, the owner of the Fallen Angel, at his birthday party.

The dancing quadrant is open air and as you can see we were all soaked to the core...

It was great to catch up with Jules. She's running fantastic 9 week tours from Quito right across the continent to Rio. MMMMMM...that gets the old wanderlust juices going, doesn't it? Is that a hint of 'holiday slutdom' sneaking in there,Pierre?

Hallowe'en, not especially celebrated here, but there are enough tourists to fill the plethora of night clubs. 10 of us 'school mates' went along to dance the night away: salsa, rock, cheese...they do it all here. I introduced them to the joy of dancing to YMCA in different fonts, lower case, emboldened ( a total delight discovered by Sal and I at my brother's wedding)...you have to not care AT ALL what people think about you. Try it!

November 1st is All Saints Day so everyone was on holiday...although it seems that in Cusco there is always a fiesta of some kind. The family I am staying with did a huge family dinner with traditional pork and tamales. I helped Dad, Umberto, out with a few Pisco and cokes. They are very lovely but there's really only so often I can explain where I'm from in spanglish. Fortunately we all find the whole thing very amusing and tried a whole day communicating through the international language of mime...Grandma squeezes my face and kisses me saying, "Ah mi pequeña inglesa" every time she sees me.

November 2nd was Dia del Muerte (Day of the Dead). It's another holiday, but basically people remember their departed loved ones and take flowers to graves. Strangely, it was quite an interesting day because I did find that I thought a lot about my gran and grandad and with very happy memories. Perhaps it's a good thing to openly set aside time for this?

Anyway...H and Kate are back from Machu Picchu and full of the Gringo Trail! It is quite an experience. I ask you all to think back to the story of when Lucy and I finished el Camino Inka...Milly - 20 immodium in as many hours, Lucy - the world record for the slowest third day EVER (of which she is rightly proud) finishing the day with a right knee the size of her butt, the enormous combined weight loss of approximately 0.2kg. H and Kate looked radiant, slim, toned...enough said.