As advised by Julio (956470483 julove_carpio@hotmail.com) we got up early for breakfast so it settled before the flight (we were fine but I heard a few losing theirs). Off to the little airport to find only 2 companies open and quite a few disgruntled tourists (a couple of Aussie lads who'd been waiting for 3 hrs already). We watched a doco on the lines that is on constant loop, wandered around the stalls where Tasha bought a cute 10 sole t-shirt and were lucky enough to catch the last flight of the day. We were up the front of the 12 seat plane, I could have reached out and touched the instrument panel over the pilots shoulder. The geoglyphs were amazing to see and as each one came into view everyone got a little excited (can ... read more

We arrived in Lima around 7am after a fairly pleasant and uneventful overnight bus in fully reclinable seats with pillows and blankies. We hadn't booked anywhere as we weren't sure whether we'd even stay in Lima but our taxi driver (who instead of saying and miming kangaroo which is the general response to our answer to "where are you from?" said "oh Australia - Midnight Oil yes?" as dance music blared) took us to a hostel in Miraflores. Turns out the Hostal Eiffel is in a great location although the rooms are pretty average. Lots of nice walks along the coast, through the streets and in the parks; a great meal at Mezza; my first pisco sour; great new years eve celebrations with soooo many fireworks; time zone type place where the kids spent a little ... read more

We've all heard of the Inca society and know about the Spanish invading this part of the world but there were impressive pyramid building societies throughout Peru long before the Inca. We visited a fantastic museum today and a couple of Moche archaeological sites where gold, jewels and intrigue to match Egypt's pyramids continue to be uncovered. The pyramids are constructed of mud brick and adobe so with the weathering look like hills which is why the Spaniards missed them and they had people living on them until 1987 when a greedy member of a grave robbing group was unhappy with his cut dobbed his mates into the cops and they told some archaeologists. Look up "lords of sipan" if you're interested. The Lambayeque pyramids that we saw at Tucume were not burial chambers but religious ... read more

Not very Christmassy but we spent today visiting Ingapirca - Ecuador's biggest intact archaeological site. We drove almost 2 hours with Angel () a safe, friendly, informative, english-speaking taxi driver/guide. The Canari people built a massive stone complex and the Incas added to it. Saw some people we'd met at papa gayo in Chordeleg the jewellery town. ... read more

Now before you panic dad this was not "the world's most dangerous road" bike tour, that's in Bolivia, although racing through the tunnel as we heard a bus roaring up behind was fairly scary. Hiring bikes in town ($5/day seemed the going rate) and clutching a slightly vague and badly photocopied map we set off on the road toward Puyo (with no intention of going the full 67 km). Every 5 km or so there are waterfalls or cable cars or more extreme activities and its mostly down hill so a fantastic way to spend the day. The slight sprinkle of rain every now and then was no problem and the route is signposted (some signs should perhaps not be followed - I led us down a couple of dodgy paths to see lame lookouts) so ... read more