Today we headed out of the constant gloom of Lima - caused by the cold Humbolt current which creates cloudy foggy conditions 9 months of year - but with it, it is does bring the plankton which supports a thriving fishing industry and hundreds of seabirds and for many years the guano ( poop ) they produced was a key export as is an excellent fertiliser but it was usurped by widely produced and cheaper chemical fertilisers. The current also brings the Humbolt pe...

We emerged from our 14 hours of sleep just after 6am - washed, showered and went down to the restaurant for a much needed breakfast - great papaya and yogurt along with rolls for me and puffed wheat for John. We went back to the room and read until we had to go back downstairs for the 1000 am briefing, where we met our eclectic mix of fellow travellers - couples from Dublin, Stavanger, Derbyshire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, three retired ladies from Somerset and Bo...

We left a lovely warm Cambridge mid morning on my birthday (7/8/14) and headed to Heathrow where we boarded the 5pm, American Airlines, flight to New York and started our journey to Peru. Our transit through New York was effortless - save for a dearth of immigration officers when we arrived in the almost empty immigration hall. The one on the visitors section was packing up and leaving, the lady who points people to the free desks was looking particularly flummox...