Hi there - Laura here. We`re at Lima airport at the moment Having flown in from Iquitos early this morning, we arrived in the capital, shivered, put our fleeces on, took one look at the fog and decided to head north for some more sun and beach time on our way to Ecuador. Iquitos was fantastic. It`s the largest city in the world not reachable by road. As a result cars are a rarity and the streets are filled with three wheeled mototaxis, like Indian tuc tucs, zooming round the streets at a manic pace taking people across town - each one personalised. As a tourist you only have to step out of the hotel to find one outside, having somehow sensed your presence and hoping for a fare. Apart from that, and that you have to fly or take the 3 day boat out of there, you don´t get much sense of being in the middle of nowhere. It also seems to be an outpost for retired Americans, in the same way that the south of Spain is for Brits. The tourist bar is the iconic Yellow Rose of Texas, with saddles instead of bar stools, and basketball on the tv, with hamburgers and pancakes on the menu, alongside alligator, venison and heart of palm salad. Next door is the Iron House. Made by the same Monsieur Eiffel as the Parisian tower it was shipped piece by piece from France, split in two, and one half stands on the corner of the main Plaza da Armas where it is now a great place for a drink and to watch the world go by as well as a new restaurant for the expats who fancy a change from the Yellow Rose. It was there we found copies of the local English language paper - the Iquitos Times - this week`s front page picture was an enormous old American guy wrestling an anaconda. The snake wound himself around the man as he was fording a shallow river north of the city and you can see him holding on to the snake´s head as his guides surround him with shotguns. We loved it. Not need to make it up when you have such a gift of a story!We made it there after a 10 hour fast boat ride from Santa Rosa on the Brazilian-Peruvian-Colombian border, the last leg in our 900 mile journey up the mighty Amazon. It`s very clear from this journey that I still need to get to grips with the language. On the boat, the driver came round asking everyone for money. Chris was immersed in playstation and didn´t hear, so I put in 10 soles for what I thought was an obligatory local tax or fuel whip round. Except when he came back from the next stop, I was handed a packet of local cheese….That was just after the fire…turns out that during the journey petrol spilled onto some of the luggage - we were disturbed from reading-dozing (me) and playstation (Chris) to see one of the crew beating out the flames through peals of laughter while telling the passengers at large it was all fine. At every stop along the river, people come on board offering snacks, peanuts, fruit etc. It was more surprising to see someone carrying a large turtle onto the boat in the same way, touting for customers. Not a chance, I thought. But sure enough it was quickly sold and very surreal to see it as part of the unloading - just another piece of (unsinged) luggage held aloft by the crew for someone to claim. Anyway, time to check in for our flight - next stop the beach resort of Mancora, just south of the Ecuadorian border…L