Driving north from Nazca we stopped to climb an old viewing tower to have a look at some geoglyphs made by the Paracas people (an early relation of the Nazcans).One set consists of a man, woman and child (early family portraits possibly? Although a slightly odd looking family!).

We headed a bit further north for a visit to Paracas National Reserve. On the way we spent a day at a real, genuine oasis at Huacachina, surrounded by the biggest sand dunes I have ever seen. Peter decided sand boarding was the best use for the sand so we ventured out on a very noisy sand buggy. I passed on the boarding as it was down some seriously terrifyingly steep dunes. Our driver not wanting me to miss out decided to drive down them, despite my screams of protest. It was terrifying. Even Peter said he was glad he had sandboarded down. After watching the sunset from the top of a sand dune we headed back for a beer in a rather trendy bar full of young (very young) people. Nothing like that to make you feel old.

We got to Paracas too late for the boat trip to the Ballestas Islands so had to wait a day. I have to admit that I was quite tired and rather lost it with a man who tried to sell us a trip while we were in the middle of the road trying to park. They are quite relentless.

The Ballestas Islands are nicknamed the poor man's Galapagos. Despite this it was fantastic. Peter missed out as he had a bad stomach and thought a speed boat without toilet facilities might not be a good idea. I agreed. The variety of wildlife was not great but the numbers were unbelievable. Thousands maybe millions of seabirds roost (and pooh) on the small islands (which are white as a result) and the smell was a little pungent to say the least. Mainly Pelicans, Boobies (Blue legged at that) and Cormorants with the odd migratory interloper, as well as Sea lions and Humboldt Penguins. At one point a black line of flying Cormorants, heading out to feed, stretched as far as I could see. My video doesn’t do it justice. The Pooh is still collected every 5 years. Not a nice job! In the 1900s much of it was sent to France and England. The export of Guano was greater than that of rare metals. Funny to think of a countries economy based on pooh.

Paracas National Reserve was our next point of call but it was sand and sand and more sand and little wildlife that we could see so we only stayed one night and headed back to Nazca and then drove 600 kilometres across the Andes to Cusco.

Before we left Nazca we received an email from the British Consulate in Lima inviting us to lunch. We had to decline as we were still some distance from Lima. Shame as it might have been quite interesting. Before you start thinking we have suddenly become VIPs I should point out that the invite was to all British passport holders in Peru.

The morning we checked out of our hotel Peter met a tour operator from Cusco who gave us his number if we needed any help. On the road to Cusco we met him and his female companion again. Whilst I was looking at a group of Condors he gave Peter a nudge and said 'If you do ring my office don’t mention the woman to my wife’. The woman in question, introduced as his secretary, was rather attractive!

The drive to Cusco took two days but was quite scenic. It had rather a lot of hairpin bends. I actually gave up counting there were so many. We arrived late afternoon and had trouble finding our hotel or a taxi to take us there. Peter got a bit frustrated and even started using the horn like a true South American. It would have been impressive except that Gerties horn is a bit twee. For reasons best known to themselves the hotel had put a non-existing road on their address on the web. When we eventually found them and pointed this out, they said that was the name the locals knew the road as!