Thirteen hours overnight from Lima to Chiclayo is a heel and toe journey over speed bumps of all descriptions - from big beasts a few feet wide to small strings of studs and all shapes in between, and even a few home-made one for good measure. Each has its own impact to the bus' ride, but all are noticed!

Alfie has developed nausea and the squits overnight and the mornings tours of Venterron and the Sipan tombs are interspersed with Imodium, paracetamol, loo stops and finally a chunder, not everywhere, but in a thankfully water-tight plastic bag.

Tucume was our final stop of the day - another excellent piece of modern public architecture, painted to blend into the background of man-made Adobe flat-topped pyramids that have weathered to blend into the natural environment.

Thor Hyerdall, he of Ra and Ra II fame, was the site's director on the early 80s and while the whole site covers nearly a square mile, only 1 small pyramid in the sw corner is open to view, down a meandering path through trees with a soft carpet of pine needles underfoot - very tranquil.

Tonight we are staying in Salas, just before the Andes really get going. Jude's assertion that any hotel where you have to pass through wooden gates to enter must be ok is fully borne out. Big, comfortable rooms with separate showers (roasting hot!) and a host who calls to mind the Smiths song, This Charming Man ... Manuel has a display case of artefacts, some real, some replica, that he opens and I am stunned by how light the objects are. They project an impression of density and solidity when in a museum that is wholly illusory!