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.