Settling in

We are now settling in nicely to life in our new home. Today consisted of pancakes with chocolate sauce and pineapple cooked by Sam, a wander through the rockpools trying to find the elusive octopus and instead finding loads of crayfish and seeing lots and lots of iguanas and lizards of different shapes and colours. Sam studied English (horror) and a bit of maths and had his ear poked prodded and cleaned out to get rid of the gunk which is oozing out of it!! The beach here is absolutely gorgeous, white sand, palm trees and not that many people. The town itself seems pretty quiet and a lot of places are closed as it's the green season. But the best bit about it is that it's beach meets jungle, this morning I lay in the hammock in our wooden balcony overlooking the sea and gazed through the binoculars at all the wildlife in the trees around.

It made me think, it's strange moving from one place to another, I don't think any of us particularly enjoys the moving process as it's such a palaver with all the bags and boards.

Once we get to a place the first day is usually a bit odd as we try to find our bearings, hope that we have made the right choice of accommodation and settle into a routine, but it's amazing how quickly you adapt. Once we've hit our stride we then tend to scope out the area and find good (cheap) things to do. There is a canopy tour here so we will be putting that on the list... but then as soon as we arrive it's time to start looking into the next destination... is it good for Sam or is it a party town, how to get there, where to stay and what there is to do there. The Lonely Planet thorn tree forum is great for this as it's full of people who have done these things and will answer questions. For example we are now wondering how do we get from Lima to Cuzco, by bus or by plane and when we get there where do we stay to avoid altitude sickness - all questions you would never really give a second thought to but which take quite a bit of planning! So tonight will be planning the next step, watching a film on the computer and searching for Sam's ipod case which he seems to have lost.