Mountains, hiking, sunstroke, altitude sickness and very sore toes!

Saturday:

Leaving the girls in charge of moving hotels and trying to find a laundry as we haven’t done any washing in a while, I set off for Kuelap.
I was in a minibus with all Peruvians and no one who spoke English, including the tour guide so that wasn;t great but the scenery was spectacular. It was a three hour drive along dirt tracks clinging to the edges of mountains, I did wonder if I would live to tell the tale at times! Along the way there were little hamlets with such basic dwellings, tiny children playing in the middle of the roads, sheep, donkeys, horses, pigs wandering around miles from anywhere. Lots of those Peruvian old ladies that you see in pictures sitting outside their homes doing their washing, I felt like I was watching a documentary!

When we arrived we had about a kilometre steep walk to 3000 meters, which was hard going! Kuelap was built about 600 years AD and used as much stone as used for the Egyptian pyramids. Each piece of stone had to be carried all the way up the mountain and was carried by hand. The community was ruled by the Shamans and everyone was buried up there (we saw lots of bones!)
Machu Picchu gets 4,000 visitors a day Kuelap gets 4,000 a year and is very unspoilt. It isn’t spectacular like Machu Picchu but the views are amazing. Luckily there was another group there and there was an English guy who had a guide who spoke English, I asked my guide if it would be possible to swop and that was fine, so not only did I actually find out about the history but also was able to chat to someone who was English.

When I got back the girls had spent the day chilling in the new hotel and found someone to do the laundry!

Sunday:

After a rubbish nights sleep, I think we were actually sleeping in the local disco! and for some reason Mili decided to be so full of static electricity everything she touched was lighting up, there were sparks coming off of all the bedding and when she went near the light which was off it started flickering… we weren’t actually that sure what to do about it, I wondered if she was about to spontaneously combust! Jo reckoned that she needed to be touching rubber so in the end we made her lie very still in bed with her rubber soled walking boots on either side of her and eventually in the early hours of the morning she went to sleep still flickering… apart from a numb tongue in the morning?? She survived the night!!!

We got up early to set off for Gocta waterfall, supposedly the third highest waterfall in the world. We had another hair raising ride there through a spectacular canyon and arrived at the starting point of the trek. I knew it was a trek of at least a couple of hours but I hadn’t figured on how tough it would be. We had a young Pervian guide who spoke no English. We trekked up mountains sides, along precarious tracks and it was very difficult, it was also extremely hot! We eventually made it but all felt exhausted with the altitude we were over 3000 meters and the heat. The waterfall was amazing and the jungle on the way was beautiful. Coming back it was even more exhausting and Jo really struggled, there were horses available to hire but she didn’t want to go on one. Mili went on ahead and managed to make it, although had some scary encounters with locals on the way. Things were getting worse for Jo and I was getting pretty concerned, she was displaying more severe symptoms of altitude sickness and just couldn’t continue. Eventually we managed to get her a horse for the last bit. Even for experienced trekkers it would have been tough so I was proud of the girls for doing so well.

Tomorrow if everyone is feeling OK we are heading further east and if we can manage to get transport moving from the Andes and into the Amazon basin.

The Andes!!

I have always dreamt of coming to the Andes… and here I am! It may be the top end and not as high as other parts but it is the Andes all the same!
Chiclayo was not as chaotic as Lima and Trujillo and felt like a much friendlier city. Unfortunately it wasn’t a great day as I had really bad stomach cramps; my stomach has been playing up since we arrived in Peru. We went to the market but I had to make a swift exit! The girls stayed a bit longer and had more of a wander around. Our bus to Chachapoyas was at 7.30pm and I was thinking that I would not be able to manage an 11 hour bus journey but luckily I felt a bit better.

The bus journey was OK, semi reclining seats, so we were able to doze a lot of the journey, we were all aware of the bus meandering up and down mountains, if we had have travelled during the day I imagine it would have been both spectacular and terrifying! We arrived at 6.30am and came to a hotel I’d read about in the rough guide. It is an old colonial style building with massive rooms, like dormitories, it is a lovely building which the girls hate because it is old and does not have cable TV!Chachapoyas is a lovely little town, completely unspoiled and nestled in the mountains. A complete contrast to the coastal towns we had visited. No hooting of horns continually and people are laid back and calm.

As I knew would happen the girls do not want to do what I want to do, which is visit Kuelap and the waterfall. I think we have now managed to reach a compromise; we are moving hotel tomorrow to one that is a bit cheaper but has smaller more cheery rooms and has TV and wifi. They are going to stay in tomorrow and watch TV and play on the internet (would I have been like this when I was their age?? Maybe, I can’t remember!) and I am going to have a day trip out to Kuelap. I have persuaded them to stay an extra night and we will all go and see the waterfall on Sunday. Then on Monday continue on towards the Amazon We have also found out via facebook that their dad is getting married to someone on Saturday, hence why he had gone walk about, the girls obviously have mixed feelings about this!

This afternoon a lovely taxi driver took us to some amazing view points, the driving as usual was terrifying and he nearly managed to kill several young children, a sheep and a small horse. We saw lots of sights including the woman walking her pig and a lot of elderly women carrying huge loads of their backs. The views from the top of the mountains were breath taking, even more breath taking when the taxi driver jumped over the edge of a precipice to demonstrate what a good place to take a picture…. Luckily there was a small ledge the other side! We are at about 2,500 meters here and have been feeling a bit breathless today, as we have had a quiet day we hopefully will have acclimatised!

Trip to Chiclayo...

The first time we had travelled by bus during the day. This time we didn't got for one of the ultra comfy buses and did rather regret it, although it was an eye openner! The bus kept stopping for no apparent reason and people would jump on board to try and sell food and drinks, we had to keep a close eye on our luggage to make sure noone was unloading it and 'borrowing' it! Poor Mili did not have a good journey, the man sitting in front of her became obsessed with looking at her. He was in his 60's and the whole time was turning round and blatantly staring. Jo and I were trying to stare him out but to no avail and again it was a pain not speaking the language to be able to tell him to stop. In the end she had to lie on Jo's lap covered in a blanket for the whole of the jouney! (as can be seen from the picture)

Most of the eight hour journey was desert and waste land but suddenly there was an amazing oasis, where it was so green and lush. It is a shame to see all the rubbish everywhere, in the middle of nowhere plastic bags and junk.

We found a hostel OK and it is basic but seems to be fine. We have also bought our bus tickets for tomorrow night, so we are going to check out the market here tomorrow which is supposed to be pretty amazing, with the biggest shamanic market in Peru!

The plan for the next week or so is as follows..

Tomorrow (Thursday) evening to take an overnight bus to Chachapoyas which is in the Andes. We plan to stay there for two or three days and take a couple of trips out to see the third highest waterfall in the world and Kuelap, which apparently is as amazing as Machu Picchu but has very few tourists visit. We will then find a bus to take us to Yurimagus which is where a tributary to the Amazon begins, it may take us a couple of days to get there. We then will have to find a boat to take us to Iquitios which seems to take anything between 2 and 5 days. We have arranged to meet Ross in a bar in Iquitios on November 7th at 4pm and I have said if we are not there to try the same place the following evening. I have written all these details because this bit of our journey is pretty remote and off the tourist trail. We will probably find some internet access along the way but in case we fall off the radar for a couple of weeks hopefully someone will send out a search party!

Certainly for me this is where the real exploring of Peru begins, girls not feeling quite the same, so hope we are still speaking at the end of it!

Final day next to the Pacific..

It is strange to think a few months ago I was travelling up the west coast of America next to the Pacific and here I am again! There are similarities with the rough rugged coast line and the ever present strong winds.
We have had another couple of days of hanging around the beach and up in our hammock. The winds become rather strong in the afternoons so it can get a bit cold and it is very easy to burn, however much I warn the girls, all they want to do is tan themselves more and more!
It does feel as though it is time to move on now but it has been a great relaxing few days. We have a bus booked for tomorrow morning, going back down the coast to Chiclayo. We thought we’d take a day bus this time as it takes about 7 hours and the night buses leave about 10pm and we didn’t want to be arriving in a new town the early hours of the morning. It seems where ever we go that people warn us of the dangers of where ever we are headed next but touch wood, apart from the manic driving it all has been OK so far.
It has been a shame that as the three of us are together we don’t seem to have a lot of interaction with other people, I wonder how it will be when I am here alone? It is far harder not speaking the language, I had presumed that more people would speak English but so far virtually noone has, and my very basic grasp of Spanish seems to have disappeared totally, I can only think of words in Italian or French for some reason!
We haven’t booked anywhere in Chiclayo to stay and will find something when we arrive. We intend just staying a night there and then finding a bus that will take us the following night into the Andes and that is where our real adventure will begin!!

This is the life!!!

Mmmm... waking up to the sound of the waves crashing on the shore is a pretty good way to wake from our slumber! The downside of that is that Mancora is a party town and the music is blasting until about 3am every night but that seems a small price to pay. I deliberately found a place that was away from the main hustle and bustle, and the beach itself as I had read that it is a pretty noisy town, so chose the spot on the top of the hill,what I didn't think was that noise does travel up, but as I say it isn't a great worry.

We have just been relaxing, spending quite a bit of time in our hammock and deck chairs watching the surfers and kite surfers, whilst doing that we managed to see hump backed whales in the distance migrating north... how amazing is that! We are still seeing if we can organise a boat to take us out to see them up close, although it is very hit and miss if we see them again. Yesterday we took a motor taxi to some hot springs. It was a bumpy old ride through desert terrain to a pit in the ground. There were a couple of locals in the water and a couple of police just sitting there watching. We tried not to feel too self conscious as we stripped off and jumped in.. It was very hot with thick mud in the bottom. Our tuktuk driver got in with us and showed us to cover ourselves with the mud at the bottom, this was probably to give them a laugh, but we did it! It was pretty impossible to get the mud off so afterwards we had to come back smelling pretty bad and jump in the ocean! When we went out last night the girls said that my skin looked amazing and every line and wrinkle had disappeared so I am obviously going back today to get a bucket load of mud!

Had the best meal ever last night! Jo and I had the most delicious tuna steaks... It was wonderful! We have had a girly night out having a few drinks which was fun, although the girls immediately become over protective and feel sure that because I am such a light weight that I will fall off the hillside on the hike back up to our lovely little sanctuary!

All of us would like to just stay here for another week or so but we also know that we need to get on with our adventure. We have tracked Ross down and he has agreed to meet us in the jungle at Iquitos and it will take us a while to trek overland to get there. Still we have another two days before the next part of our adventure so we will make the most of it!

Sea, sun, sand and surf....

Our nine hour bus journey was good, despite the taxi ride to the bus station which we didn’t think we would survive!
This time we travelled in the VIP section of the bus, where the seats virtually fully recline, it cost us £11 each. It is funny that you get all cosy, tucked in with your blanket, snacks and drinks handed out, lights off, everyone settles down for the night, then the video comes on, full volume! However eye mask, ear plugs and a valium seem to diminish this minor inconvenience! We all had a fair amount of sleep and at 6am the bus stops and we were told we were in Mancora, it is then a case of quickly throwing on shoes, grabbing bags and jumping off the bus straight into the mayhem of 20 or more people trying to get you into a taxi or sell you a room. Luckily I had booked a taxi along with the hostel and I heard someone shout my name and in our sleepy stunned state we jumped into a safe taxi.
The place we are staying Kon Tiki hostel is on the hill side overlooking the ocean, beautiful views, hammocks and deck chairs. We have a nice room all made of bamboo. Today we have seen pelicans, humming birds, lizards and lots of vulchers circling overhead. It is a bit of a steep trek down the hill into the town but manageable. It is a surfing beach, huge waves and lots of surfers, although it is not the summer season yet so not very busy. It was about 30 degrees today and we had lots of fun playing in the waves. We were also very happy to find a proper vegetarian restaurant, a two course really healthy delicious meal and a drink for £3 each.
When we left the orphanage yesterday all the Peruvian staff gathered together to thank us and sang us a song, it was very sweet. The American volunteers appeared to be having a pizza evening to celebrate! We are off to hang out with some surfers this evening, have a few beers and chill (or we could be just having a few more games of crib instead!) Well I think it is time to go back out and sit in the hammock and watch the sun set.

Escape..

Final day at the orphanage! Although it wasn't what we had expected and we certainly have had to work a lot harder than we imagined it hasn't all been bad. I think the girls have got quite a lot from it and realised things about themselves and others. As a family it has been tough living in a very small space together but as everyone does, we developed a routine and it all worked out. Jo and I are now experts at cribbage, which we play a lot of every evening!

It has shown me how ridiculously safety conscious we have become with children at home. These kids somehow survive fine rolling around in dirt, paint and whatever else happens to be on the ground. In the playground I found lots of glass and long rusty nails but the kids never seem to hurt themselves. They are very rough with one another but they don't cry. They all always eat everything on their plates, even the three year olds. I realise the kids need to be tough and street wise to survive here but at home surely we are just too soft?!

Finished the playground and it does look brighter and more inviting. We gradually got the hang of the gloss paint and managed to not be completely covered every day. Another thing here is that not a thing is wasted, so paint which we would have thrown away at home, full of lumps and horrible bits is thinned down and used again and again. Old clothes and rags are never thrown away, but used again and again, old paint pots are never thrown away.

We have tickets booked this evening on a bus that leaves here at 9pm and should take about 10 hours to reach Mancora, where the weather should be sunny and warm. We are hoping to be able to sit in hammocks and look at the ocean, the sea should be pretty warm as well so hopefully we will be able to go swimming. The girls will be sad to leave some of the children and Mili is saying she definitely wants to come back next year.

A hard day..

Yesterday was a difficult day. We moved from matt painting to gloss, painting the playground equipment. We knew we had come here to do a painting project, well, we found out about 5 days before we came and had the choice of making curtains for the children’s rooms or painting the playground, both of which I had to pay for the materials. I opted for making curtains and the girls wanted to do the painting (that is not strictly true because they didn’t want to do either, they wanted to play with the children,, but worse case scenario ‘would you rather make curtains, eat your own leg or paint the playground?’ they opted for the playground!) not that I am apportioning blame here! Anyway, back to the gloss painting… In high wind standing on precarious ladders with paint going everywhere and I mean everywhere, it was not much fun. We were covered in red, green, yellow, black and blue gloss and the equipment we were painting looked awful. To make matters worse I then fell off from the top of a ladder, luckily into sand, so only a bit bruised, but enough to really shake me. By lunch time I had had enough and sat in the room and just cried, I really was ready to leave. Poor Jo’s eczema on her hands is also in a really bad way.

After a good cry and argument with the girls, Jo was ready to leave but Mili is feeling really sorry for the kids and wants to adopt them all and is not prepared to leave without at least 3 in her luggage! We went back to work in the afternoon and it wasn’t quite so bad so know we will see it through to the end. I think we are all learning quite a lot of lessons! I feel proud of the girls and the way they are coping and of the insights they are having about themselves and others.

One of the main reasons to come to Peru was to visit Ross in the jungle; he has now left the jungle, so we are not too sure what we are going to do. We all feel there is no point coming to Peru and not going to see the Amazon and the rainforest, for us that was to be the highlight. We have decided to still stick to our plans and see if we can meet him somewhere else on our travels, as the girls still want to see their dad.

Sand, wind, paint, paint and more paint....

Managed to survive a week of hard labour… if any of us ever see the colour blue again, it will probably be too soon! In addition to painting everything blue we have cleaned and scrubbed, polished and shined, The outside of the building should in theory be sparkling but in reality with the sand being whipped up by the wind continually and managing to get into every nook and cranny it doesn’t look a lot different!

Although we are working hard and the time does drag we are getting more used to it and the girls are enjoying spending time with the children. We are not getting used to the mosquitoes, which luckily around here do not carry malaria and even though we sleep under mosquito nets every night, still seem to get bitten everywhere!

Yesterday was the 9th anniversary of the orphanage being opened and there was a big celebration, hence the cleaning, mending and painting of the building. Jo and Mil were up by 7am to go and help the girls with their hair and getting ready. I did warn them that they would probably be crawling with head lice, seeings they live in such a close environment and they are young kids, but Mili was dismayed when she saw the reality! All the other long term volunteers were up nice and early getting ready for celebrations, I seized the opportunity of staying in bed for a bit and using the internet. After about half an hour Mili arrived with half a dozen girls who all walked in and said good morning Auntie (we are all Auntie’s) and all kissed me on the cheek, followed by the lead volunteer co-ordinator to say they were not allowed in the volunteer’s rooms, by which time of course I had been caught in bed! The celebration itself lasted for 2 hours, kids singing, lots of talking and about 40 minutes of the local pastor giving a sermon in very fast Spanish, towards the end of this time a man started to play the guitar and the pastor started rapping.. it was all very interesting! After the celebration meal (more rice) we escaped for the afternoon.. For me it really did feel like escaping, with the high grey walls, barbed wire and alarms every time you go near the walls.

We went into Trujillo and found what I imagined a proper Peruvian street market to be like, hustle and bustle and selling everything imaginable… once Mili saw all the cages of kittens and puppies and guinea pigs (unfortunately we know what happens to them!) she had a panic attack and we had to leave. We also couldn’t risk taking any photos as our cameras would have been stolen but it was an interesting experience. We then got a taxi and the driver told us that we shouldn’t have been there as it is far too dangerous for gringos. After we had bought a few essential supplies from the supermarket (not rice!) Jo and I put Mili in a taxi to go back to prison, while we then found the shoe market, the MOST beautiful shoes and so cheap, but they only go up to a size 6 here, so no shoes for us!

Today we went sand boarding up in the desert behind the orphanage and it was fun!! It was hard going climbing up but loads of fun boarding down.

I have booked a room in a really nice looking hostel in Mancora, which is up near the Ecuador boarder, it overlooks the sea and it will cost up £8 each a night. We are going Thursday night or Friday, we just have to sort out how to get there, it will take about 10 hours and just trying to research if it is same enough to do the trip at night.

On that note, just 4 days work to go…..

Hard labour!!

Weather has picked up a bit and we are well into working hard!

On Sunday we navigated the local buses, which is an amazing feat! If you want to catch a bus you stand by the side of the road and wait for a minibus that must be at least 30 years old to stop... it is the most bumpy ride imaginable and you sort of have to jump off while it is still moving when you reach your destination. We went to a local seaside town and the sun shone, there were huge waves with lots of surfers and we had a good day. They still use reed boats for fishing, the same as they have been doing for over 2000 years.

On Monday work began. We spent 7 hours painting and gardening and cleaning, it was pretty exhausting and the girls couldn't get their heads around why we are paying £10 a day to work so hard! Now the sun is shining, even though it is only about 23 degrees, being so close to the equator the sun really burns. About midday the wind begins to blow and being in a desert it is pretty uncomfortable... sand everywhere! Today we have spent the whole day painting. During the morning when the kids were at school it was OK but in the afternoon it was hell.. kids see paint = want to paint/ throw paint/ tread in paint / paint one another / paint us/ take paint /eat paint/ take brushes... you get the picture?? Obviously with these sort of kids it would be an issue anyway but not speaking the same language is not easy at all.. Thankfully we eventually got help and most of them were removed from the scene, but our hard work was ruined! I have to admit something at this stage, after working for virtually all my adult life with children in some capacity or another, a lot of them with difficulties, I've sort of had enough of them and prefer old people! The girls keep saying 'can't we just take one of them home?' and I cannot think of anything worse!

Evening times are a bit strange, there is no central point for the volunteers to sit around, so everyone just tends to go and sit in their rooms, which is all a bit of a shame. I'd like the girls to get to know the others, as they are their ages but so far it isn't happening. When work for the day finishes there is time to go and play with the kids for a few hours and Jo and Mili have done that a bit, obviously I prefer to sit and study the walls in the room with earplugs in!

We are fed three times a day and the meals are OK. The cooks are making a special effort to provide us with vegi food.. although this evening the girls have taken the brave step to go and risk a bus and go to a supermaket for extra supplies.. I think they are hoping that they can find a McDonalds somewhere to get some chips!!

Managed to get the local bus into Trujillo yesterday. It is supposed to be a really dangerous town but it seemed OK. The local men were a bit of a nusiance but nothing really bad. Everything is really cheap here, we somehow tracked down a vegetarian restaurant and for a meal and a drink it was £2.50. If we had have gone for the fixed price menu we would have got 3 courses and a drink for £1.25. At the moment we are sticking to bottled drinks and not eating salad.

I don't seem to be picking up any Spanish at all, not quite sure what I will do once the girls go back, I suppose I will just smile and point!

The sun did shine today which was a relief, although still not hot. Forecast bad for the next week.

Biggest drama of the day was that I had hand washed all my underwear and put it out to dry and when we got back everthing was gone... still trying to identify which kids may be running round with my pants on their head!

The children live in 4 seperate houses and have a house mother that lives with them, they also have a full time social worker on site. At the weekends the volunteers all seem to do their own thing. During the week the majority of kids go to school off of the site, whilst those with special needs and the very little ones are taught here. They do seem to have a lot of support. Most of the children have been removed from abusive families. The security is vey high, with guards on duty and it is in the middle of nowhere with high walls around the outside and barbed wire. Not the most friendly looking place but due to the amount of poverty and crime around it has to be like this.

I will try and upload a picture of the playground that we are going to start repainting next week.

In the desert but so cold!!

Have arrived in Trujillo at the orphanage. The bus journey was good, no hold ups, no muggings and a great service.. really comfy seats which fully reclined, a bus hostess who brought round drinks and snacks and then reclined you and tucked you in with a big blanket... it was great! Obviously we went for the more expensive bus service but it was still only about £15 each to travel for 10 hours. The whole of the coast is just desert and then the occasional really poor shanty town.

We got a taxi to the orphanage which is further out into the desert in the middle of no where. There are about 45 children here ranging from 2 to 17, they are like any other kids, noisy, playful but just want more cuddles. They don't speak English which is more of a problem for me than the girls. As always coming into a new situation feels a little awquard and we were very tired yesterday, the girls were expecting babies to cuddle so were a bit disappointed but it will be fine. There are 6 long term volunteers here, all young American kids and they are nice. We have the weekend off and on Monday we are starting a project of re painting the playground, I think it will be good to have a focus. Today we are going to go and have a look around Trujillo and try and get some more layers of clothes. I'm beginning to think bad weather just haunts me, I go to America and it is the worst weather for 30 years and apparently here it is 10 degrees colder than normal for this time of year! I suppose in reality it is climate change and I won't get too paranoid.

I recognise the feelings that I had when I was away last time of extremes of mood. At one point thinking 'why am I doing this' to the next of feeling really good.

Having problems up loading pics on here, just managed to put on the first picture of us leaving home and now it seems to have frozen, may just have to leave it like that for now and keep trying!

Last day in Lima.... very happy face!

After another freezing night actually the sun did come out today and it wasn´t so bad. We managed to get to the central market which was more like I imagined Peru to be. It was crazy and we saw no other westerners but surprisingly we weren´t hassled, lots to see and smell and experience. The most distressing sight was a very old lady begging, with her husband who was bigger than her strapped to her back, she was somehow managing to walk around.. after the initial shock the girls then couldn´t understand why I couldn't buy some sort of baby sling attached to my back and front for them to be carried around in!
I did think that people would speak english but virtually no one does, we are just about managing to get ourselves understood, although the Bolivian taxi driver that just brought us back could not stop laughing when Jodie said we were vegetarians and ate no meat, fish or chicken, unfortunately the word for chicken is very similar to penis! Jodie also managed to order a large portion of small girls!
It has been a bit strange where we have been staying, Percy our host , firstly brought round his girl friend to meet us, during the night she went and at 5am the following morning his estranged wife and son arrived, then last night during the night Percy and his son left and during the night another woman arrived, it has been a case of musical beds!
In a couple of hours we will be getting the overnight bus to Trujillo and then the next part of our adventure will begin, we have emailed the orphanage to say we will be arriving at 7am but heard nothing from them, so lets hope they will let us in!

Lima.. and apparently it is usually this grey!

And it is cold!! We survived the flight... it was a very long day but OK, we managed to watch a few films. Girls were dissappointed, no supersize meal in Miami, as there was only two hours between the flights we were given flourescent orange envelopes to hold above our heads and then every official that saw us herded us to the front of every queue, which we obviously liked and did feel like film stars!
Arrived late to Lima and found a taxi to take us to our hotel (very loose sense of the word!) We were sort of sleeping in a room in someones house, but the people were very sweet, although no one spoke English. I had been in contact with a guy through couch surfing, so he came and picked us up today and we are staying at his for the next couple of nights. The traffic in Lima is worse than Bangkok, very scary and huge traffic jams everywhere. Percy, who we are staying with is very sweet and has been showing us around and giving lots and lots of good advice. We have bought our tickets for going north on Thrusday night, it will take about 8 hours. Percy is very safety conscious which hasn´t helped Mili´s paranoia that we are going to be held up and shot on every bus journey we take!
Hoping the jet lag won´t last too long! No pictures today as have not been able to use my netbook yet.. mind you the only pictures we have are of the girls on the plane and in the airport doing the ususal pouty poses!

1 hour to departure...

At Heathrow, already all feeling exhausted and we have only come as far as London! It will be an interesting sociological experiment to see if we can actually manage to get as far as Peru and see if we are all still talking!! Chances are looking slim at the moment! Here goes......