We are in Peru during the school winter holiday and in order to earn a little pocket money and improve the road surface, the local youth have come up with a shakedown. They identify a few potholes that would benefit from filling, preferably with small stones and not pure mud, and then set up a tollgate ahead of their handiwork. Urchin one waves urgently from the side of the road while urchin two raises the rope toll barrier and urchin three assertively demands ...

After yesterday's abortive attempt to visit Kuelap (see previous blog entry), today we succeed! We arrive to a full car park at 09.15, despite the site only having been open for an hour and a quarter. To be fair the term car park may be over generous, but there are a number of private cars and tour minivans that have already disgorged their contents. Rob notes that when he first came to Kuelap 20 odd years ago, the average visitor numbers each year were 9,000. ...