We decided to stay at an airbnb in Lima which had secure parking for Ruby. Our hosts were the lovely Michael and Fatima who ran the Velo cafe from the bottom of the apartment block, where we sat and chatted in the evenings. Lima was a crazy city to drive in and we only drove when necessary-which was to go to the mechanics for a full service. We were waiting to turn right in a line of cars, when the traffic policewoman decided none of us could turn right and we should all back up and head a different way. Now only ourselves and the car in front could see her indicating this to us and not the cars behind us-so we could not reverse or else we would back into the car behind us. The poor car in front of us was so intent on following the policewoman`s direction, that he did not notice that we had not moved backwards-and even though I honked our very loud horn to tell him to STOP reversing-and gave the policewoman a LOOK to tell her to stop telling him to go backwards-he still backed straight into us! Well we expected the policewoman to come over and , at the minimum, at least for the driver to get out and we would swap details! Oh no-the policewoman just stared blankly at us, told us to drive on and we did-leaving the guys car with its bumper hanging off! We had no damage whatsoever.

We enjoyed our time in Lima-the capital of Peru-and visited the old town-which was full of beautiful plazas and buildings and Miraflores-the modern part of town. On one trip to the old town, we came upon a group of older people who were dancing to salsa music in a square. Others watched them, whilst knitting, chatting and just generally having a lovely time with their friends. Gav and I sat down to watch them and you can guess the rest. I could not resist joining them and I ended up dancing very badly, but with much enthusiasm, with the elderly ladies who were so happy and we laughed a lot.

One evening, in the Velo cafe, Gav and I had 3 great cocktails prepared for us by Michael. We then went to bed and fell fast asleep. The next day-we saw Michael in the afternoon and he told us that at midnight, his partner, Fatima, had fallen when coming out of the shower and really hurt herself. He told us she was screaming in agony(their apartment was just above ours) and that he knocked on our door to see if we could help. The ambulance came and noisily managed to manoeuvre her on a stretcher down the corridor and stairs outside our apartment whilst she screamed in pain. We did not hear a thing! we must have been knocked out by the cocktails-we couldn`t believe it! That evening, the Velo cafe got quite busy and Michael was on his own due to Fatima`s accident. We stepped in to help and had a great 2 hours waiting on tables, making crepe mix and washing up. I felt a little like Manuel from Fawlty Towers serving at the table with my limited Spanish and quite clumsy nature!

After Lima, we headed for the Paracas national reserve and the Islas Ballestas. The Paracas reserve was stunning-it is a coastal desert with simply beautiful scenery, the  different colours of the sand in the desert and the rugged coastline. We had a great time driving all over the desert which stretched as far as the eye could see and we set up our wild camp overlooking a red sandy beach with crashing waves. What a place to sleep and wake up to in the morning. We caught an early morning boat at 8am for a  2 hour tour of the Islas Ballestas. The trip stated with a visit to the Candelabra, a large scale geoglyph in the sand of the desert, whose origins are unknown but cause much speculation. We then saw a massive colony of pelicans before heading to the rocky Ballestas islands. The islands are home to thousands of birds-including penguins, blue footed boobies and the guanay guano bird. We also saw many sea lions on the rocks. The islands are very rugged and picturesque and well worth a visit.

Following our boat trip-we headed for Nazca, stopping at a view point where you could see a couple of the Nazca lines. The Nazca lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs in the Nazca desert. Hundreds are simple lines and geometric shapes and more than 70 are designs of animals. Scholars believe that they were created by the Nazca culture between 500 BC and AD 500. The designs are shallow lines made in the ground by removing the reddish pebbles and uncovering the whitish/grayish ground beneath. The largest figures are up to 1,200 ft (370 m) long.

At the end of the day we went to visit the Chauchilla cemetery outside of Nazca, where we also planned to wild camp for the night. Chauchilla Cemetery is an eerily compelling place, notable for its open pit graves where the bodies of the dead still sit were they were positioned centuries ago. Some remain complete skeletons, wrapped in shrouds, and all the skulls face east as Nazca tradition dictates.

The human remains were originally coated in resin and clothed in cotton before being placed in their open mud-brick tombs, helping to account for the remarkable preservation of the bodies. In spite of their age, many still have hair while others retain their skin. It was a fascinating, if not slightly macabre place although we got an excellent night's sleep here because there was none to disturb us, only the mummies in their graves nearby!
 

We stayed overnight in Macara in Ecuador, near to the border of Peru, and got up early the next day for the border crossing. At the border, we went to a small portacabin containing the immigration office on the Ecuador side to get our passports stamped out of Ecuador. All was going well until the immigration official asked for the papers we had completed upon entering Ecuador. Whoops-I had lost them! We checked all our documents to no avail. Thank goodness it was not a problem, and he gave us some more to complete before stamping us out of the country. Next we handed our temporary import permit for Ruby into the adjacent portacabin.  Then we drove across the bridge from Ecuador to the Peru side. We had read that we had to get our vehicle insurance (SOAT) before we got our paperwork done-so I stormed ahead to a building in the distance which I thought was the correct place to do this. I marched past some official looking men in uniform and suddenly heard Gavin shout behind me, " Jen-you have gone over the border unuathorised...you need to come back!" I had ignored the border and the officials and had just walked past them in my quest to buy car insurance!  The actual place to buy insurance was a hundred metres or so back, so I retraced my steps and we  bought 2 months insurance for $13. We got our passports stamped with a 90 day visa for Peru at the immigration office and finally went to the Aduana (customs) to get our temporary import permit for Ruby.

We had decided to head for Huanchaco, a seaside village near to the town of Trujillo and the ruins of Chan Chan and the temples of the sun and the moon, amongst others. This was a long drive of 350 miles along the Pan-American highway, and took us through miles and miles of barren desert which hugs the Pacific coast. We got to Huanchaco in the dark (something we try and avoid) as we had stopped to buy groceries and had been stopped twice by the police. The first police officer wanted to check our papers. The second wasn`t interested in our papers, he wanted to find out where we were from etc  and whether we had " a small gift from England" for him! We gave him one of Ruby`s cards and he seemed happy enough and on we went!
We had a lovely few days in Huanchaco. We wandered into the little village which is a famous for its fishing boats made from reeds. The fishermen paddle and surf these neatly crafted boats like seafaring cowboys, with their legs dangling on either side – which explains the nickname given to these elegantly curving boats, caballitos de tortora (little horses). The inhabitants of Huanchaco are among the few remaining people on the coast who remember how to construct and use the boats, each one only lasting a few months before becoming waterlogged. The fishermen paddle out as far as a mile, but can only bring in limited catches because of the size of their vessels (which now also integrate styrofoam for bouyancy). We wandered down to the end of the pier and watched the locals fish from lines off the pier. It is also a popular place for surfers because there are some superb waves.

 We visited the ruins of Chan Chan where we saw our first hairless Peruvian dog ! Built around AD 1300 and covering 20 sq km, Chan Chan is the largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas, and the largest adobe city in the world. Although it must have been a dazzling sight at one time, devastating El Niño floods and heavy rainfall have severely eroded much of the outer portions of the city. We visited the impressive restored Tschudi complex and the broad plazas, royal burial chamber and intricate designs that remain.

We also visited the Huaca de la Sol y Luna (temples of the Sun and Moon) which were constructed from millions of  handmade adobe bricks, by the Moche people between about 200 and 850 AD. Successive generations added new platforms on top of the existing structures, so that each one grew higher and higher. Archeologists believe that the Huaca del Sol may have served for administrative, military, and residential functions, as well as a burial mound for the Moche elite. The Huaca de la Luna served primarily a ceremonial and religious function, though it contained burials as well.

Next step was to head into the Cordillera Blanca mountains. We drove to Caraz on scenic mountain tracks-which included numerous tunnels blasted into the mountains.  As I was putting up the roof tent, I noticed what I thought was a silver washer on the landy roof. I thought it was something  from the landy that had shaken loose from the rough roads so called Gav over to check it out. It was actually Gav`s wedding ring which he had lost in Quilotoa in Ecuador. We thought it had been lost at the camp site so certainly did not expect to see it on the roof of the landy having driven about 1,000 miles in the meantime!

We then had a spectacular drive to reach Laguna Paron The dirt road to the laguna has multiple hair pin turns and  is through a spectacular canyon with 1000m high granite walls. The laguna is at 4,200 metres and was simply breathtaking .The colour of the water was turquoise blue and the surrounded mountains were just spectacular. One of the mountains, Artesonraju is the mountain depicted in the live-action Paramount Pictures logo. We walked around part of the Laguna and then wild camped on its shore. This was our favourite wild camp yet as the views were so spectacular, and we were camping directly in front of the laguna and mountains. The next day we packed up ready for the winding drive down the mountains. We set off. Then "CLUNK"! Oh no, not again, we thought! Gav checked the source of the problem and we found that one of our shock absorbers had worked itself loose and we did not have the bits to mend it. We decided to head towards a recommended mechanic  in Caraz, Willy, so slowly made our way down the steep windy slopes. Clunk, clunk clunk and then Gav yelled "Jen-there`s smoke coming from between your legs"!!! We both leapt out and realized that the handbrake had been partially on for the drive down and had overheated-causing smoke from the handbrake drum. With the engine off, we managed to free wheel for the next 5 miles down the mountain and made it to Willy`s, the mechanics, a couple of miles later! He sorted out the shock absorber and we also had the UJs changed whilst we were there and the handbrake drum checked.

We headed to Huaraz the following day for a overnight stop and camped in the grounds of a hotel which had llamas grazing in its grounds. The next morning, I returned from  my shower and Gav showed me the landy wheel which was wet and said" I think a llama has pissed on Ruby!" Only in Peru!
 
 
 

We left Finca Sommerwind for the second and last time, heading for Mitad Del Mundo-the middle of the earth. Firstly, we visited the official middle of the earth site, where there is a monument and marked line to signify the equator line. We had the obligatory tourist photo with one leg on each side of the equator line, in each hemisphere. Then we headed to another site nearby where more modern methods using GPS have identified the correct equator line,240 metres north of the official one! Here is a small museum  which covered all sorts of interesting topics such as head shrinking with examples of shrunken heads, chocolate making etc. We also had the chance to do some experiments on the equator line such as balancing an egg on a nail (Gav succeeded, I didn`t!) and trying to walk in a straight line (neither of us succeeded!)

Next we headed to the National Park Cotopaxi- Cotopaxi is an active volcano in the Andes mountains and is the second highest summit in Ecuador (5897 metres). With 87 known eruptions, Cotopaxi is one of Ecuador`s most active volcanoes and one of the world`s highest volcanoes. It is stunning-particularly when the clouds part so you can see it in its conical glory with a glacier covering the top. The last eruption was as recently as August 2015 to January 2016 and the park has only reopened in the last couple of weeks. There are also other volcanoes around the national park and it was a beautiful place to wild camp. We had the place to ourselves with Cotopaxi behind us and miles of national park around us. This was the first time that it had been really cold on our trip as we were camping at 3,800 metres. Gav made a great fire and we got into our thermals and kept warm! The place went completely dark-which meant that the stars were amazing. The following day-we drove Ruby up a dirt track to a car park at 4,600 metres and we hiked to the Jose F. Ribas refuge at 4,800 metres. There are two paths-one literally straight up a  scree  slope and the other a series of gentler switchbacks. We went for the switchbacks and were glad we did as the  altitude made it harder to breathe. It was great little hike-and we stopped for a break and drink at the refuge. People who go on to summit Cotopaxi will stay here for the night, although the summit of the volcano is closed to climbers at the moment because of the recent activity.

After Cotopaxi, we headed to Quilotoa, the most western volcano in Ecuador-with a beautiful lake in its crater. We camped in a community run campsite called Shalala and were the only ones there for both nights! We were at altitude again (about 3.800metres)-so it got very chilly at night. We are always lovely and cosy however, in our roof tent and we have also bought an alpaca blanket from Otovalo which supplements our duvet. The view of the crater and lake is stunning and we did a long walk around the perimeter of the crater, stopping for a walk around the village of Quilotoa. The crater of the volcano is 3 miles wide and was formed by the collapse of the volcano after an eruption about 800 years ago. Near the highest point of the walk were a little boy and girl-aged 13 and 10 years-selling a few snacks, drinks and souvenirs. We spent about 45 minutes chatting with them and they were learning ........ their indigenous language, whilst they waited for customers. They both went to school which was 35 kilometres away and were on their summer holidays. What great kids they were and what a humble life they lead compared to kids in the UK.

 
We then had a really long driving day covering almost 290 miles to the city of Cuenca through the spectacular Andes foothills. Cuenca is located in the highlands of Ecuador at about 2,500 metres above sea level. The centre of the City is listed as UNESCO world heritage site due to many historical buildings and stunning architecture. We spent a few days here having a spring clean and doing some small jobs on the landy. We also did a load of laundry at a local launderette. The lady there told us to return to collect our laundry at 5pm so we went for a wander. We got back a bit early at 4pm, smiled at the lady, and sat ourselves down in the launderette seating area to wait. 5pm came. Then 5.30pm and still no sign of our washing! I approached the lady who looked astonished and told us our washing had been ready for us at 4pm but as we hadn`t asked and had sat straight down, she thought that we were very tired and resting before collecting our laundry! An hour and a half just sitting in the launderette when our washing was ready!
 
We had a lovely time wandering around the centre of Cuenca, admiring the colonial buildings and the lovely plazas. We caught a taxi into  the city and he dropped us off at the main plaza. Gav suddenly said "I think I`ve left my mobile phone in the taxi"! " Run!" I shouted and off Gavin went like Usain Bolt in the 100 metres, as the taxi had stopped at lights a short distance away! Phew-he reached it and got his phone back! We had a tour of the wonderful cathedral of Cuenca-taking in both the crypt where prestigious people are buried and the terrace where we had a great view of the City.
 
Another highlight of our time in Cuenca, was a little dog where we were camping, that we named "Scruff". He was only a puppy  and would come and sit on Gav`s knee at night for a fuss. On our last morning Scruff decided to bring us a present of a dead rat, and he ran towards me with it dangling in his mouth! I promptly climbed up the ladder of the roof tent shrieking loudly  whilst Scruff looked very perplexed as to why his precious gift was getting such a reaction!

So we have another long driving day to the border of Ecuador, Macara,, where we will cross into Peru. We have spent just over 4 weeks in Ecuador, much less  time than we had in Colombia, because we are aware that time is passing and we have to be in Buenos Aires by December for our flight to Ushuaia for our Antarctica expedition! This means that we have to cover both Peru, a big country and Bolivia, hence our decision to spend less time in Ecuador. We have only scraped the surface of this lovely country.

I have been before, 10 years ago and spent about 10 weeks here covering places we did not get the chance to visit on this trip.
Our highlight has got to be the amazing Galapagos islands (see last blog), followed by Cotopaxi and Quilotoa. We also had a lovely time relaxing with great people at Finca Sommerwind in Ibarra. We have met other overlanders mostly from  Germany, Switzerland and the USA-but as yet no other Brits!