Geo: -0.22985, -78.5249Mancora to Quito 5th - 15th December 2015After another night bus we reached Mancora on the northern coast of Peru not far from the border with Ecuador, and checked in to our room in Kimba's Bungalows at 6am. We had had 2 months of exciting and at times diffficult travel and as much as we had enjoyed it we both felt the need for some rest and relaxation. This is exactly what we found in Mancora, a small dusty seaside town with a main road of shops and restaurants running parallel to the sea about half a kilometre long and one street of shops about 300 metres linking the main road to the beach. Most days we pottered by the pool, wandered through the village and lazed on loungers by the sea. There was ... read more

Geo: -15.8422, -70.0199San Pedro de Atacama to Lake Titicaca, Peru. 10 - 18 November 2015 San Pedro proved a relaxing place to stay. We went on a night star gazing activity. It was interesting, providing a 20 minute talk about what we might see, then looking through telescopes and binoculars. We had a number of constellations pointed out to us such as Scorpio, Sagittarius, Aries, Aquarius, Taurus and Pisces. The two presenters kept saying we had to use our imaginations to 'see' these and that was definitely true! I believe it was the Babylonians who originally devised the Zodiac signs to identify constellations. They must have been using very special substances if they could 'see' the shapes as they described. For me the best view was of the binary star system, Antares. They are two stars ... read more

Geo: -17.9753, -67.1108La Paz to the Amazon En route to La Paz we stayed in Samaipata for a few days. The first time we walked to the main plaza who should we meet but Axel. He was camping which in his case means sleeping in a hammock on a campsite but as Samaipata is 1,500 metres high he was finding the nights very cold and thinking of moving into a hostel. He had been walking in the hills the previous day and had severe sunburn on his shoulders and back.Samaipata has a number of waterfalls around it but the main reason for visiting is to see La Fuerte, ruins going back to 400 AD which had been home to many different peoples over the centuries. It is one of the places where Erich von Danniken proposed ... read more

Geo: -21.1264, -56.4774Brazil 23 September - 2nd OctoberPutting Astrid, our motorhome, into store was traumatic. It was always going to be a challenge to collect all our belongings together in order to pack as it meant storing them in Astrid during this process where space is meticulously measured and already allocated. Two extra large bags meant we were bursting at the seams. We had 2 major tasks, re-sort all our possessions in order to pack and then prepare Astrid for store, emptying all her tanks after rinsing and sterilising them, disconnecting the gas cylinder, cleaning the outside, wiping every surface internally with antibacterial cleaner, emptying the fridge, taking down and packing curtains, then finally removing cushions to store at Anna's. I had a plan that made it seem manageable. Put a large tarpaulin on the ground, ... read more

Geo: 52.1919, -1.70713 Grumpy in the Grampians (and Skye) 12 June - 11 july 2015 After a lovely few day in Galloway we started moving north, via Glen Coe, Fort William and on across the ferry to Skye. We stayed around these areas for a month - can't imagine why! To be fair the scenery all across the Highlands and Islands is superb, equalling anything we have seen on our travels. There are the mountains, the lochs, (sea and freshwater), rock outcrops, heather, rivers, castles and all of it covered in beautiful wild flowers. So why were we grumpy? Two reasons, the weather and the midges. It doesn't matter how stunning the scenery if you can't see it for the low cloud, mist and rain. If we total all the time we saw the sun (or ... read more