See all the pictures whilst we were in Peru

We flew into Lima via Miami. The guide book does not have much to recomend about Lima, but we found it to be great. We stayed in a fantastic hostel: homeperu (www.homeperu.com) with excellent staff.

On the first day we explored central lima. The city is a mixture of spanish colonial architecture and modern buildings. The local people warned us that Lima is a dangerous place. There is a huge disparity between rich and poor which means lots of pick pockets and robbers etc. None of which we saw. The people we met were friendly, lively and very helpful. Read More

Known as "The pearl of the Andes".

Took a seven hour bus ride to a town called Tarma, East of Lima in the High Andes. The ride was stunning. The first day here we went walking all day in the Valley of the Flowers, a really beautiful place set between very high mountains. That evening we helped out at the local English school. The people here do not get to see many tourists and were very excited at the thought of being able to speak to English people. It was interesting finding out about their culture and way of life.

We then organised a guide through the tourist information. A fella called Christian who is an expert in Peruvian archaelogy, a graduate from Lima. We spent an amazing 2 days trekking through the Andes at altitudes ranging from 3000 to 4000 metres (suffering with headaches along the way!). We stopped off at a pre-inca village called Cocon. People here live in houses that were built in the pre-inca times. They still use the traditional methods cooking and farming here. There used to be a tradition where family members would be buried in the walls of the house along with gold and other gifts(in tombs). But now people are buried in cemetaries. ....pictures to come soon. We met a man that lived in there. He showed us the kitchen, which is in a seperate mud building, an open fire for a stove and metal plates to cook things on. Guinea pigs running around on the floor of the kitchen. They are a delicousy here. Read More

Hot and humid! Rolling down the mountains of the Andes to sea level the temperature became rather hot.

The bridge was down about 1 hour car (or 2 hour bus) journey outside of Satipo (just past La Merced). This resulted in a river crossing by river boat. Not the most stable form of transport, especially when 20-30 people carrying their heavy luggage are packed on in a hurry!

A stop off on our long journey through the Andes. A rest day. Ben down with a bad tummy bug.

A terrifying ride through the Andes on dirt tracks which were not wide enough in places for the bus. We could feel the back wheels of the bus slipping over the edge as we went around the corners. A passenger stood in the aisle reading a newspaper, on the front page we could read an article about a local bus plummeting over the edge of a cliff killing most of the people on board. Evelyn had visions of our bus going over and sat for the majority of the 12 hour bus journey terrified, holding on tightly to Ben.

University students from Huancayo, fully kitted out in their finest dress entertained us with singing and live music. Live chickens jumped down from the overhead racks dancing around to the music making everyone on the whole bus burst out laughing.

The bus stopped for over an hour for roadworks. Shortly after we started off again the driver stopped for lunch. A few kilometres further on we had to stop to change the front wheel which should have been changed before the entire journey started. We had noticed that the tyre was totally worn out as we boarded.

We arrived in Ayacucho in one piece feeling very lucky that our bus had not careed off the cliffs.

We then decided to fly the rest of our journey to Cusco. Our guidebook gave details of the flights available but when we tried to book the travel agent advised us that the flights are no longer in existence. Back to the bus then, but a few days rest first in Ayacucho.

Another long bus journey and the conditions of the roads in the same state as the previous leg of our journey through the Andes. We felt relief again at the end of this journey and booked ourselves into a very nice hotel. The manager recommended going to see the Chanka ruins which we had never heard of. He arranged for a taxi driver called Carlos to take us. We drove up to a beautiful lake then to the ruins where our driver gave us a guided tour and explained how the Chankas had been wiped out by the Incas.

Dinner at a nice chinese restaurant - white rabbit sweets brought back memories for Evelyn of a Chinese family she was neighbours with when growing up in Kent.

6.30am bus to Cusco, the final leg of this hideous bus journey through the Andes. On the bus we met two Canadians, Joe & Vinessa and ended up sticking together once the hotel touts bombarded us leaving the bus station at Cusco. We enjoyed a night out together, live and very energetic Andean band, played panpipes, drums and danced in the restaurant.

Cusco is a beautiful city, a mix of colonial and Inca architecture and is set around the main square, the impressive Plaza de Armas. Here thThere are a number of Inca walls which remain in the city, on the streets of Calle Loreto and Calle Hatunrumiyoc the 12 angled stone can be seen. Few inca buildings remain as the Spanish used most of the stones for the construction of their catholic churches.

This town is a tourist mecca, where people stay a while to acclimatise to the high altitude for their adventure to Machu Picchu.

The most famous part of peru. There are many articles on the web about the inca trail and machu pichu, which can best be found with a quick google search. This section will be about our experiences of the Inca Trail, the company we used and the people we met, along of course with our very own pictures! Read More

1st class train journey from Cusco to Puno. Luxury for the backpackers! Delicious dinner served and wine to boot. Live entertainment.

We booked our trip in Arequipa and paid about $65 per person for a 4 day trek, guide, transport food and accomodation. The trip consisted of leaving Arequipa early 0130 and catching a local bus to Cabanaconde. We elected to go a day ahead and stayed in a hotel so that we were not up so early to start the trek. Read More