Breakfast turned out to be much better than expected (for the adults anyway), including slices of cucumber topped with dressed onions; sounds strange for brekkie but it was delicious. We headed out to take a look around the covered markets which were full of very different fruit and veg and unusual smells. Huge bags of onions and melons and things we didn't recognise. Cas and Hat bought straw hats as the sun is intense at a warming 32 degrees C. We bought some postcards, a Peruvian scrunchie and two cheap plastic toys (Hat's was a little doll) and then we were all ready for drinks and a meal at Encantada.... read more

Three and a half hours on the bus without water or breakfast and the kids were getting slightly fractious. Hunger and thirst are not something that they've had much experience of, sort of a new feeling for them to conquer. We played games including 'if you could have any food you wanted, what would it be..'. Hat's list included creamy M&S mash and marshmallows. We were pounced on by the tour Hawks at Nazca bus station, but we new where we were heading - Casa La Encantada (enchanted house) - a recommended place to eat. We spent almost three hours there and there were several rounds of food ordered and a lot of dosh spent on jugs of amazing passion fruit. We kept on having to say to the kids that we wouldn't leave until they ... read more

Playing Newmarket with buttons for poker chips. Ed wiped the floor with us all. Chinese proverb of the day: you can't clap with one hand only. The juices from the little bar me were a hit with Hat and Cas and Ed was equally pleased with his cold coke.... read more

The kids are singing 'it's a hard knock life in the pool; out of the mouth of babes...we're so lucky to be doing this trip. Took the 3 1/2 hour bus to Paracas. Coach was very comfy but the 18 rated action movies on the communal TV monitors met with our disapproval and we asked the kids to keep listening to their music and avert there eyes. The journey south from Lima showed us just what a desert area this coastal strip is: huge sand dunes, arid plains and the occasional palm or cactus. There is no motorway to speak off, just a wide single lanes carriageway which meant lots of hairy overtaking in our big bus.... read more

Boarding the first of many planes. Took our last breadth on English soil for a while.... read more