We got on a night bus from Puno to Cusco little knowing that the next day was going to be a day of hell. At about 5am we stopped and got told that there was a farmers strike and there were rocks on the road so we could pass, but that it was only a 5 hour walk to Cusco. We set off through fires, rocks and horse skeletons with all our bags, and 11 hellish hours later arrived in a random town. We decided to stop there as there were restaurants and hostels, but then ...

Crossed the border back into Peru - my last crossing in South America! Got to Puno and walked up a hill to get a view of the city and lake Titicaca. We got warned by a random woman not to go far because we would get robbed! The view was amazing though. Had alpaca steak for dinner - it was so good, I would definitely have it again. The next day we went out on the lake. Firstly we went to the Uros islands - artificial floating islands made out of reeds. They were ...

Arrived in Arequipa after another hideous night bus journey and immediately went to the laundry - after about a week of not being in one place long enough to do any, it was so nice to have clean washing! Simple pleasures. Then went out to breakfast in the Plaza de Armas - it was so pretty with loads of lovely places to eat. Over the next couple of days we went the the Santa Catalina convent, a convent where the rich of Arequipa used to send their daughters - it ...

Arrived in Nasca and it was absolutely boiling hot and really humid. Thankfully, our hostel had a swimming pool (what a luxury!) so we all got in as quickly as possible - it was lovely. We went out for a very cheap meal, then went to bed as we were all so tired. The next morning we got up and got a taxi to the ´airport´, where five of us got on an absolutely tiny plane. After somebody in my group, Emma´s comments of ´did you know that they tell you to go in t...

Paracas is a tiny village on the coast south of Lima, near to Pisco. This is where we did the Ballestas islands (poor man´s galapogas) from. We got on a boat which took us to some small rocky islands with pelicans, cormorants, inca turns, penguins and hundreds and hundreds of sealions - it was a really good morning. Apart from that, there is not too much to do in Paracas. We had a really good, cheap meal there of seafood with free pisco sour which was nice., but...