We finally made it to Peru and came to rest our weary bodies on the beach at a place called Mancora; Peru's cool young persons hang out, so of course we fitted right in! Nothing special to look at but we indulged in a little bit of snoozing, sunning and sipping fruit juices for a few days and felt fully re-energised after what was a pretty hectic previous 2 (Greg) / 7 (Ruth) weeks in Ecuador.

After a very grim overnight bus involving feeling like a sardine in a coach shaped tim can, and the smell of urine....I'll say no more(!), our next stop was a placed called Trujillo, still in the dry desert coastal region of Peru. The town was nothing fancy, but we were there to see the first (and not the last I'm sure) of Perus many ancient ruins. The highlight was the huge laborynth ancient city of Chan Chan, a culture older than the Incas. The tombs, stone carvings and pyramids were really spectacular, if a little impossible to get our heads around the scale and age of.

We spent only a few days in Lima, as it was a pretty dirty big city place. Half of which we needed to stay within a close distance of a clean toilet for, so enjoyed watching old episodes of Melrose Place in our room! Then moved on to the oasis town of Huancachina a further 4 hours south.

This was well worth the extensive haul down through Peru as it was a great place. The hotel was luxury, with a pool and everything! It was a small town around a laguna which sat in the middle of the desert. Surrounded by huge steep sided dunes, it was pretty spectacular. In the tranquility, what did we decide to do.....go sandboadring and dune buggy riding! We spent a very hot few hours throwing ourselves down huge sand dunes, and in between clinging on to the buggy as it raced across the sand. A real highlight of the trip so far! (And great practice for skiing in France! I think not!)

After lounging in the sun and taking a stroll around the laguna in Huancachina yesterday, we decided to book our next adventure from our hotel (A real luxury for us, as everything so far has been 'do-it-yourself'!). So we were chauffered to the bus station, with our very own escort, and on to Nazca where we are now.

This morning we went to see the Nazca Lines in the desert. Unexplained huge lines worn in the vast plains, some of which are of animals and plants. Best viewed from above. So we squeezed into a light aircraft with 4 other people and took to the sky. It was an awesome experience and I think Greg was glad to have decidedly skipped breakfast, otherwise we would have definately seen it again!

Tonight we take a somewhat pricier bus overnight to Arequipa, lets hope it's worth the upgrade and Greg can fit his legs in!

Love to you all. Thank you so much for the messages; we will try and reply when we find time to sit still somewhere!

Ruth and Greg xxxx