The beach

Today just a quick blog as am v. tired after a busy day. We got up this morning and jumped in the van with Ellie, Brett and Brett's friend Jon and headed for the coast in search of waves. We travelled to Raglan, two hours away and all had a good surf and lots of nice food.

Tomorrow we are horse riding... hooray!!

The nicest people ever

We have had a lovely few days in NZ and met the nicest people ever. After a good first nights sleep with Ellie and Brett we woke up and went off to find a place to rent tools to fix up the back of the van... we stumbled into an upholstery shop and asked the nice guy if he knew where we could rent some tools... after a while he said that if we went off and bought the materials we could come back the next day and use his workshop and tools for free!!! So we drove to a hardware shop to buy the wood etc... whilst we were there we met another really nice guy from Birmingham who chatted to us for about an hour and said that he was going away for Xmas and perhaps we could stay in his house (we weren't sure if he was serious but he invited us for a drink, so we are heading up there tonight to see him anyway because he was really friendly).

The next day we drove back to the workshop and spent the day building a bed and table in the back of the van, we haven't quite finished but Don who owns the workshop said that we can go back on Tues and finish it off (by the way Sarah, the van is called Ron (after Ron Weasley of course)). Yesterday we had a lovely day sat at Ellies in the sunshine, a few of her friends came over and we had a few beers in the garden, Sam played with the next door neighbours kids.

Today is Sunday and we got up this morning and bought some meat and veg and I made a roast... a long awaited roast, it all turned out well even though we couldn't find any goose fat! We are now about to jump in the van and head up to Carl's (the guy from the hardware shop!) for a drink or two.

All in all we are having a lovely time here, it's so much easier to communicate with people and the whole area is very laidback and safe. Sam has been having a fab time playing rugby and riding around on Ellie's bike. The shops are 5 mins away as is the beach. Tomorrow we are heading to Raglan in the van which is about 2 hrs away and then on Tues me and Ellie are going for a horse ride (Yay!)

Hope all is well in snowy England x

The van

We are now over the jetlag, just about! Yesterday was a crazy day, we decided to look into vans and how much they were to buy and looked at various vans online to get an idea of cost, as we were walking through the street a van drove by with a for sale sign in the window. It looked like a business van with 'tea/coffee/snacks' written across the side and lots of orange bubbles. We flagged the van down and a Czec couple got out, they had been travelling in the van for two months and were leaving NZ in a couple of days so really needed to sell it. The van looked really tidy and was a Toyota Hiace which is what we had been advised to buy... the only problem was it was too much money. We said if they didn't sell it to give us a call and we would make them an offer. We didn't think much more about it and went to watch Harry Potter at the cinema, it was really nice to do something so normal! Sam enjoyed the film but realised how much better the book is (a good lesson I think).

That evening we called the people about the van and made them an offer (much lower than their asking price) they said no and so we decided that the next day we would get a bus down to see Ellie in Mount Maunganui. But the next morning the people called back to say they would accept our offer but needed the money that day!! It's very difficult to withdraw a big amount in NZ on UK cards so we had to pool all our cards and try and withdraw a bit on all of them... after a great deal of stress we finally managed to scrape the money together and are now the proud owners of a cool van which Will is going to kit out. We drove the three hours to Ellie's in it and it drove like a dream, we also have all the receipts and past ownerships so I think we got a great deal in the end.

The drive through NZ was fab, it's very green a bit like driving through Devon in the summer and the sun was shining with a few whispy clouds in the sky. Sam was reading the map and we decided that all the names were hilarious and they all sound the same (I think because the Maoris only have about 15 letters in their alphabet - very confusing). Then we arrived with Ellie and Brett and had a lovely meal of fish and chips and beer (Sam had fanta!) it's great to see friends and we will spend a week here kitting out the van and getting ready for our next move, we don't know where we are going to go yet, but that's the beauty of having the van we can now just cuise wherever takes our fancy.

Blogs may be a bit less frequent at the moment as NZ doesn't offer free wi-fi like central America so I'll try and do longer ones when possible...no pic either I'm afraid as I'm on Brett's computer...lots of love to you all.

Auckland

We finally arrived in Auckland at 6:30 this morning after a 13 hour flight. The plane was as ever very nice with the usual blankets, eye mask etc... the only problem was that Sam couldn't get to sleep. It was one of those awful nights when you really want to sleep, know you should be sleeping, but it eludes you and so you sit feeling more and more fed up, knowing the next day will be hell because you haven't managed to sleep a wink... poor Sam sat wide eyed and fidgety as he went past being tired and eventually burst into tears! And I of course, feeling equally as tired managed to fight back the tears and tell him it was fine that he couldn't sleep and it would be ok... meanwhile Will snored on oblivious. At about 3am Sam finally managed to sleep, lying with his head on me and his legs stretched across Will, it was great that he managed to sleep, but I could feel my legs going numb and kept having to wiggle my toes and stretch my legs to alleviate deep vein thrombosis! Sam slept for about 6 hours and then watched a film and shortly after we landed in NZ.

I can't tell you much about the airport (although it all went smoothly) and we caught a taxi/bus to the hotel which is really nice. We arrived at about 8:30 and were informed that the room wouldn't be ready until 2pm!! Dead on our feet we tramped off into Auckland knowing somewhere inside that it was for the best as sleeping would through us off completely. We found a pie shop and the boys ate award winning pies whilst I tried not to be sick. It was shortly after this that we rounded a corner and there was a gigantic father christmas on the side of a department store...suddenly I felt a little better... then we had a starbucks (with christmas music playing)... and a little better... and we bought a couple of books... and then I felt fine, tired but at least the shaking had stopped and I didn't feel like all the cells in my body were trying to pull apart.

So it's now 6:30pm NZ time (about 1:30 am yesterday in our heads) and we have made the day without sleep, Sam is ok but a bit tired, I'm fine and Will has a headache...but we have had a surprisingly nice day. Auckland is lovely, the sun is shining, people speak English, the food is really tasty, the green man on the traffic lights does the moonwalk and the best thing of all is that you can put toilet paper in the bin... ah the luxury.

Tomorrow we are going to try and buy a car and we are going to watch Harry Potter 7 at the cinema, we are going to climb to the top of the tallest building in Auckland (the sky tower) and then we will work out how to get to Mangaunuahni Mountain (or whatever it's called) Goodnight all... or is it good morning??!!**

Delayed...

Sat in the airport it's 11:30 and we are delayed!!!!!!!!!!!

Last day of the Americas

Well here we are on the last day of the Americas. We fly out at 11:00 tonight and have a 13 hour flight, landing at 4am NZ time... it's best not to think about these things!! Once we have landed we will stay in Auckland for a couple of nights and then head over to the lovely Ellie Pipe for a wee while whilst we work out our next move.

We have finally seen a bit of Santiago which has been nice, took a ride on the metro yesterday which is much easier to work out than the London underground and a lot cleaner!! We picked a place on the map (El Golf) and headed there... turned out to be a posh financial district but they had a Starbucks Yay!! Then we found a grassy area and Sam did some science fieldwork, working out how much flowing clover was in the field using an improvised quadrant! Then last night we went for food at a nice sushi place and ate our bodyweight in sushi... the people there were lovely and gave us more free sushi, free drinks and a free dessert... I think it was Sam's big brown eyes because everyone loves Sam (and giving him free desserts).

Right now Sam is doing maths in the room whilst Wigfields, Saturday Night, booms in through the windows... this hotel is VERY noisy! I'm about to jump in the shower and then we will store our bags and wander the town until 8pm when we head to the airport. Hopefully we will sleep lots on the plane so that we aren't too knackered when we arrive in NZ.

Pic of Sam under a big Jesus statue in Arica.

Santiago

Last night we went for a wander round the streets of Santiago and when we were in the main plaza we saw a comedian (of course we didn't know he was a comedian we just saw loads of people standing around) so we wandered over and the comedian saw Will and pulled him into the middle of the circle... he abused him in Spanish for a while (not that we understood a word of it) and Will as you can imagine was highly embarassed and me and Sam thought it was very funny. Then we came back and spent the first night in our new home, it was ok just a bit noisy and there are the original floorboards in the room so the floor creaked every time you moved!

After a decent breakfast this morning we studied English and then went for a walk through Santiago to a hill called Santa Lucia, we climbed to the top of the hill to a lookout which has views across the city, in the background you can just make out the Andes through the smog. Santiago is very hot, much hotter than we thought, we really still don't know much about it's history and I'm still amazed by the difference between Chile and the other countries we have visited, I think a trip to the museum is in order tomorrow.

Sam is very excited as Harry Potter 7 is out today and we will go and watch it when we get to New Zealand, Will is getting a HP crash course so that he can come to the cinema as well.

Picture of Chilean market attached with loads of colourful fruit and veg

Casa Morro

Today we had to move from the lovely Casa Morro - one of my favourite places we have stayed so far. If anyone comes to Santiago they should definitely stay at Casa Morro. The house itself is converted into a B&B but has retained all the traditional features and because it's filled with music and colour and dogs and cats and super friendly people it's like home from home and we were very sad to leave. Walter called around for us yesterday and booked us into another hostel called Casa Bonita which also seems nice, but in a more B&B type way, more formal, not like being welcomed into someone's house... still it seems nice here and we have a lovely big room.

Yesterday we strolled around Santiago - we didn't do anything touristy but I think we are all touristed out, we just ate nice food and looked around the shops. We went to a pizza and sushi restaurant last night but the sushi was a bit expensive so we ordered pizza, the lovely people brought us free sushi anyway which was the best sushi ever. Today we will probably do more of the same and perhaps take in a monument or two, it's too expensive to do too much sight seeing so I think we will just stroll, the cost of accommodation here is pretty high ... although there is a spa which sounds pretty appealing.

The people of Santiago are really nice and I think you're right Dad, the weight of the incas was definitely getting me down in Peru. It's also nice to be out of the desert and although we are in the capital it doesn't feel as polluted here - it feels like I can breath again (physically and metaphorically). One thing we are all really looking forward to is a roast dinner in NZ. We all keep talking about it, juicy lamb, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese...mmmmm.... and green fields and open space....mmmmm.... NZ better live up to all the hype!!

Here's a picture of Sam with the dogs at the beautiful Casa Morro...

Santiago

We got up at 4:00 this morning and caught a taxi to the airport (surfboards sticking out of the boot)! Then we jumped on our 3 hr flight to Santiago and caught another taxi to our hotel. The hotel is lovely, more of a B&B, run by a really friendly guy called Walter who used to run a gallery in the states. As a result the hotel is very cosy and filled with art, it has big comfy beds with nice soft pillows and lots of dogs and cats... we were greeted with a lovely cup of coffee and home made muffins and Walter showed up some good places to see and eat in the city.

Santiago is far more cosmopolitan than any of the cities we have visited so far. The people, the buildings, the architecture, it's really quite beautiful. We just had a lovely bowl of Casuela which is a traditional soup filled with potatoes, rice, beans and meat which just falls off the bone (Dad it's like Grandma Lil's Chicken soup). We walked around Santiago for a few hours this afternoon but were all so tired that it was tough to put one foot in front of the other so we are now back at the hostel, all under the duvet in the massive bed watching a film, we'll drag ourselves up in a couple of hours and go out for tea, either to a crazy Mexican which has been recommended or to the oldest restaurant in Santiago, which I would prefer.

I like Santiago (but it's still expensive - apparently due to the copper trade!) Picture of posh bus attached.

Moan moan moan...

I hate to moan again, but moan I will... what a day! I got up and tried to book accommodation for Santiago as we are due to leave tomorrow at 4:30 am! For two feckin' hours I searched for accommodation and couldn't find anything that we could afford. The boys had gone surfing, so nearly crying with frustration I walked on the beach to find them, but you try and pick out two surfers amongst 100's... non plussed I sat where I always sit to read my book, figuring that they would find me. But after an hour I decided to head back, either they were having a super long surf, had drowned OR were back at the hotel... I wandered back, nearly in more tears of frustration to find that I had been locked out of the gates to the hotel, I waved to the owner who let me in and reported that the boys had already got back and were in the room...grrrrrr!!

After a much needed cry, we walked into town to get some food, when we got back to the hotel Will went to pay the agreed $40 per night, only to find that when she said 40 per night she meant 40,000 pesos...$80 per night...aaaargh!! So we ended up paying double what we thought for a rubbish place!! I went in to the office to beg for more discount but realised that I was about to cry again so had to make a quick exit.

This afternoon we tried to find accommodation in Santiago and finally found somewhere that would take us for 2 nights and was semi affordable so we'll see what that's like when we get there... am feeling much better now and not about to cry so don't worry about me (Mum). On to Santiago manana...Chile is really bloomin' expensive!! xx

Feeling better

Sorry if the last blogs have been a bit downbeat but after 2 days by the sea I am feeling much better. Arica is actually really nice and the hotel is in a perfect position by the sea, so Sam and Will can surf and I can read Marian Keyes on the sand.

Today we had breakfast and then Sam and Will went for a surf. Once they went in they called out to me as they had spotted a dolphin close by, the dolphin must have stayed around for about an hour, playing in the water about 5 metres from where they were surfing... Sam thought it was brilliant. There are also loads of pelicans which are huge and float on the water like small boats. Whilst the boys were surfing I chatted to an American guy who must be about 70+ and is running in the South American championships. He was telling me about his life, his kids and how he almost ran against Roger Bannister in his youth.

After the surf we walked into town and booked out tickets to Santiago, we fly at 6:30 am on Monday which will be a wrench because it´s another really early start...our body clocks are all over the place at the moment. We then walked up a huge hill to a look out point which is where Chile won a battle against Peru and gained Arica as part of their country (I think!)

Chilean people are lovely, really polite and friendly and they don´t try and run you over when you cross the road. They look very different to Peruvian people, with fairer skin and less indigenous features. We are now doing English homework and then if there is enough time the boys will have a second surf whilst I try and find accommodation in Santiago...should be tricky because it´s very expensive!!

Arica

We don´t have a signal for the netbook here so I am typing this on the hotels computer - so no pics for a while I´m afraid.

Yesterday we made the journey from Arequipa to Arica in Chile and it was one boring journey! We caught a taxi at 6:15am to the bus station, it took a few atempts as most taxis wouldn´t take the enormous surf board bag! We arrived at the bus and climbed on to 2nd class, no leather seats here - but at least they did recline. We then set off on our 6 hour journey south to Tacna (the border of Peru and Chile). The journey was endless and wound it´s way through miles and miles of desert, I´m sick to death of desert now. It´s so barren, so lifeless, literally when you looked out of the window there was no life, only crosses on the side of the road every few feet where people had died. Every so often a little voice in the back of your mind would say,´Please don´t break down here in the middle of bloody nowhere!¨ I saved my sandwich just in case.

So the only thing to do was watch the films which they show along the way, this would be ok, but they showed English films, dubbed into Spanish with English subtitles, and you have to listen to them as they blare out of the speakers... Finally the ordeal was over and we arrived at Tacna station, now we just had to cross the border. Before we have always gone across on the bus which has been much nicer as we just had to get our passport stamped and back on the bus. But this time we had to take all our luggage from one bus terminal to another, then buy a ticket to pass through the terminal and find a taxi (that would take our boards) and this would drive us to Arica. We found a taxi big enough and loaded the luggage and then another man got in, and then another man got in!! The taxi driver took our passports off and I thought, ´Bloody hell, now we have no passports and we don´t know where we are or where we are going and there are two strange men in the car´... and then I thought...¨Just breath and relax and it will all be fine¨. And it was fine, we drove to the border stood in a queue and had our passports stamped, then drove to the the next border, unloaded all our stuff, stood in another queue and had our passports stamped again and then drove through into Chile, we also realised that in the space of 10 mins the time had jumped from 2:30 to 4:30, It´s two hours ahead here. Wierd!

The taxi dropped us at a hotel we had seen on the internet, it´s a bit run down, but is right on the sea front and has a balcony that looks over the sea. I have been a bit spoilt with accomodation recently so I guess I´ll just have to slum it for a few days. So today will consist of surfing, and then we will walk to the centre and try and book our flights to Santiago , hopefully for Monday or Tuesday. I´ll try and update tomorrow!! Bye for now x

Arica

Today we spent the day exploring Ariqua, after a lovely breakfast on the sun terrace and a bit of science (we have just finished Immunisation!!). We walked through the streets to the museum which houses the 'little ice girl, Juanita'. She is 500 years old and was offered to the gods as a sacrifice by the incas but was preserved in the ice until she was found about 20 years ago. It's amazing she is kept in a glass ice box and you can see her teeth, skin, hair, finger nails all perfectly preserved and all the offerings which she was buried with. I thought Sam might find it boring as we watched a video and were given a tour but he thought it was really interesting.

Arequipa is very nice and built from white stone which came from the volcano.

Tomorrow morning we have to be out at 6am to get another bus at 7am to take us to the border, this journey should take 6 hours and sam is most unhappy as we are not travelling 1st class!!

We haven't managed to book any accomodation yet so it will be another trial and error day of hoping to find good accommodation when we get there. All in all a bit pissed off today, am sick of moving around ... might actually be nice to get to the coast for a few days.

Arequipa not Antigua....

Firstly an apology we are NOT in Antigua as I said in the last post (that error was due to a snotty head) we are actually in Arequipa. We boarded the night bus at 10pm last night and snuggled into our fully reclining seats with blankets and pillows ready for the 9 hour journey ahead. Sam had told everyone that we were travelling 1st class, when we turned up at the station the guy said 'I remember you, you're travelling 1st class!'... We watched the ipod for an hour and then tried to sleep. I thought it would be much more difficult than it was, I think we all slept fairly well but it was a light sleep rather than a deep sleep so we are all knackered today.

We arrived at 7am and collected our bags and the taxi brought us to the hotel 'La Casa de Mi Abuela', which means The House of My Grandma. We were taken to our room and it was just like you would find in your Grandma's house (Well not my grandma, but an old smelly grandma). The room was skanky and the beds looked dubious, it was also near the enterance and potentially very noisy, so I asked the guy on reception if we could move. We have to pay $10 more but we now have a nice room with clean beds and a view of the pool, much more our style. Will is also going to eat his bodyweight in free breakfast to make up the extra $10!

Today has been slow as we are back at higher altitude and this combined with the tiredness, the heat and the flu has led to a very lazy day... it's now 5pm and Sam is watching a film and myself and Will have just woken up. Tomorrow we are going to find the ice mummy which is in one of the museums and book our tickets to Arica (another 6hr bus trip!!) Attached a picture of authentic Peruvian people (rather than just the usual pics of me and will and Sam!)

Antigua here we come...

After a few days in Nazca it's now time to head for Antigua, Peru's second largest city. This has been a great place to relax and recuperate and I am now feeling much better, a little congested but no where near as bad as I was. Yesterday we went for a walk into Nazca and realised what an awful town it is, it's dirty and congested and doesn't have a nice vibe, thank god we have been staying in our little oasis on the outskirts of town.

The bus for Antigua leaves at 10:00 tonight and gets in at 7am so hopefully we will have a good sleep. It's the same bus we came on so it's got the fully reclining seats etc... Sam is very excited about sleeping on the bus. We will spend two nights there and then on to Arica in Chile, here the boys can surf and then we are going to fly down to Santiago so that we can catch our flight to NZ.

We are all ready for NZ now, Sam is looking forward to meeting more kids, Will is looking forward to fresh fruit and veg and home cooking and I am looking forward to talking in English again.

That's all folks. Update tomorrow, here is a picture of our hotel.

The lurgy

I officially have the lurgy and spent all day yesterday around the hotel, reading, sleeping, eating and eating paracetamol to try and combat this cold. When you are ill, you really start to miss home and because it was bonfire night in England yesterday it made it worse. I kept picturing fields with ground frost and the cool crisp November mornings, the smell and excitement of bonfire night, drinking hot tea at the farm with Justine whilst Sam plays with his friends....aaaahhhh home!! But to be honest of all the places we have stayed I think this is one of the best places to be ill. The hotel is quiet, we are the only guests and have our own private cabina with a huge bathroom. There is a view of the mountains and a fabulous pool with a waterfall for Sam to swim in. The people are lovely and have just brought Sam ice creams and the breakfast is delicious so I can think of worse places to be ill.

Missing home is actually quite nice because it makes you realise how lucky you are to have such lovely friends and family and it's not like we are away forever. Time goes so quickly I can't believe we are almost at the end of the Central/South American leg of the trip. I am amazed by Sam and how well he is able to live in the present, perhaps it's a kid thing, perhaps it's a Sam thing but he never seems to worry about the future or to dwell on the past, just live in the moment which is a thing that many of us strive for. He also is able to trust people implicitly, which is something that myself and Will are learning to do. That said he is still a bloody know it all - I think he is also getting a touch of 'spoilt child syndrome' which we are going to have to beat out of him. I guess it was inevitable being with so much adult company but that should change in NZ.

He is also really getting into photography and took most of the Macchu Picchu pictures, I am going to look out for a photography competition for him. So I'm afraid that there is little to report today, Sam and Will have gone to chemist to pick up more medicine and we will then have another lazy day around the pool - 2 weeks to day we will be in New Zealand!!! Picture of sealions attached above.

San Fernando

Yesterday we had a great day, we woke up and had a huge breakfast at the hotel and then we were picked up by 2 guys, Cesar and Roberto in their 4x4 to take us out to San Fernando. We drove on the Pan American highway for about 45 minutes and then pulled off the main road and onto the desert. We drove across the desert for about another hour and a half until we came to some huge sand dunes - here the guys pulled out some sand boards and we all had a go at boarding down a little dune, Sam and Will managed to stand up but I prefered to sit down - we stayed here for about 20 minutes and then Will moved on to the big dune and me and Sam stayed on the little one. After a while we walked back to the truck which was parked on the edge of the dune but we couldn't see where Will and the guides were and there was a strong wind which was blowing the sand into our mouths, hair, eyes, ears etc... suddenly we felt really isolated up there on the dunes alone in the middle of nowhere...'Shall we sit in the car and wait?' I asked Sam, 'No' he said, 'look at the truck' and it started to move a little bit towards the edge of the dune!! We looked around and finally saw Will and the other guys on a big dune, they waved us over to them. We walked across the top of the dune and Will told us that we would have to sandboard down the big slope as the driver was going to take the car down the side of the steep dune and meet us at the bottom. It's ok Roberto assured us, 'Cesar is the Peruvian 4x4 champion driver!' We watched as Cesar drove the car down the hill and spun in a neat circle at the bottom, meanwhile we sat on our sandboards and cruised down to meet him.

We got back in the car and drove to San Fernando which is an isolated coastal peninsula - so isolated that only 2 drivers in Nazca know the way there - when we arrived the peninsula was deserted and all you could hear were the calls of the sea lions (which sound like sheep!). Sam really wanted to see a condor and we walked to the top of the cliff, then like a scene from a film, a huge condor with a wingspan of about 5m, flew up over the cliff and over our heads. They are huge and black with white tipped wings, sudddenly more appeared and there were 4 condors swooping over us and it seemed showing off for the camera. They stayed for about 5 minutes and then as quickly as they appeared they were gone. We turned our attention to the sea lions which were below us in the bay - 100's of them, like a David Attenborough programme, sunbathing, swimming and playing in the sun - It was a real privelage to see them and for Sam this surpased Macchu Picchu as his new favourite day. We also saw penguins, baby penguins and starfish.

After an hour or so it was time to head back through the desert and I think it's fair to say that me and Will were a bit nervous about getting lost, especially when the driver pulled out the GPS!!! Everything in the desert looks exactly the same and I have no idea how he navigated us out of there, there are no roads, no signposts, just endless dunes.

When we got back I realised I had a fever and had lots of paracetamol and medicine to combat a nasty cold which has attached itself to me, so I am now going to lie down and rest and try and shake this off.

Nazca lines...

Yesterday we caught a bus at 2pm from Lima to Nazca which took 7 1/2 hours - the bus was amazing, it was a double decker and we were sat in the VIP bit downstairs which was brilliant. The seats were fully reclining and leather, complete with a blanket and pillow and films. When we got on the bus Sam started doing his science, 'This is amazing' he said, 'this is the best schooling ever.'

We arrived in Nazca at 9:30 and were picked up by the woman from the hotel - she showed us to our room which is a big chalet type building with three beds and a huge bathroom with a BATH. The hotel is new only three months old and a beautiful building run by a mother and daughter from Nazca. Once again we have a beautiful view of the mountains, the desert and there is a huge pool complete with waterfall. After an amazing nights sleep we had a breakfast of bread, ham, cheese, orange juice, scrambled eggs, coffee and cake (all included in the price). Then we tried to decide what to see first. Many planes are not flying over Nazca at the moment due to safety issues and we asked Cecelia who owns the hotel what she would reccomend - we heard there was a viewing platform and she said that she was happy to drive us to the platform. We jumped into her car and she drove us there. We had to walk up three flights of stairs and from here we could see the hand and the tree lines... it was quite a spectacular site. From here Cecelia drove us to a museum which showed us more of the Nazcan history and Sam was most excited to see the mummies!! Much of the finding in Peru are really well preserved due to the arid climate and you can see the colours in the ceramics really clearly. There is still a lot of archaeology in Peru still to be discovered and they have only recently found more lines near Nazca. They do have a problem with grave robbers though who get drunk so that they are not afraid of the spirits and then wait until a full moon, when the spirits are supposed to be more patient. They then take metal rods and poke them into the dirt to find buried ceramics, you can tell which pots have been found this way as they have little holes in them from the metal rods... The grave robbers mean that the archaeologists are not getting a complete picture as the graves are now incomplete.

After we saw the museum we booked a tour for the morning to go to San Fernando where we can see penguins, seals and Condors and then we go sandboarding in the dunes! The other brilliant thing was that they have an eagle here and Sam got to hold it on his hand and stroke it's back, it had amazing eyes and loved it when Sam spoke to it - Sam wasn't afraid at all!!

Sam and Will are now in the hotel pool and I am about to sit out in the sunshine - the desert is fun. I have uploaded another Machu Picchu photo, Nazca photos to follow.

Nazca

Well last night we went for a chinese and for the first time we had a food poising meal - at least I think that's what it was because at about 3 this morning I was sick. This followed a sleepless night as the sign outside our bedroom is on until 2am and shines into the room - Will woke up at 1am and thought it was morning because the room was so bright! There was also a party going on over the road so we had to listen to that, nightmare!

So today me and Will were both really tired, Sam of course slept through everything and only woke himself up at about 7am when he did the loudest imaginable fart! We had lots of things to do today but found out that it's the festival de muerto today (the festival of death - where people visit the cemetry - nice). This meant that all the shops were closed, we did find a department store which was open and had fun wandering around there looking at the xmas decorations etc.

We walked back from the centre along the seafront and stopped along the way so that Will and Sam could do the monkey bars, we watched the parasailers jumping of the cliffs and then we sat in the skate park and watched the skaters, BMX and roller bladers which was alot more fun than it sounds.

When we got home we tried to book tickets on the Cruz Del Sur bus for Nazca for tomorrow, we had two options. A bus which left at 3am (no way) or one which left at 2pm and got in at 9pm. We opted for the second but when I tried to book it in broken Spanglish we realised that they couldn't take the credit card. There were only 4 seats left on the bus so we had to quickly jump into a taxi and shoot to the bus station and reserve the space. The bus is a double decker and we have fully reclining bed seats, there is also dinner, films and bingo! Sam is very excited! Having booked this we needed accommodation (this is the bit I dread) but we found a brilliant place in Nazca called the Casa Hacienda Nazca Oasis and they agreed to drop the rate from $85 to $50 per night including breakfast and free pick up from the station... Hooray! So we are now doing maths with Sam in the bedroom and about to watch Harry Potter on the ipod. Will has agreed to watch the film and Sam thinks that Will watching Harry Potter is as exciting as Xmas!

Here's a lovely picture of Sam, it was taken just as we arrived in Ollanty and he saw the Andes mountains for the first time - I think his face says it all.