Most of Monday was spent on the long bus ride to Puno so we arrived in evening and really only had time for a quick stroll around, visit the main square and pedestrian street and out for dinner - a classic Peruvian fast food sandwich. Early the next morning we took our 'eco-taxis' to the port. Luckily for them the ride is all down hill so, not much peddling and a whole lot of gliding. The bike Ineke and Laura got in must've been the 'party man', he was crankin...

After exploring Machu Picchu all Saturday morning, we made the long trip all the way back to Cusco ... with some Peruvian delays we reached our hotel in Cusco around 7ish. Despite being completed exhausted and sore, we had the genius idea to go out and dance and celebrate our successful completion of the trek and, Ineke's birthday! Cusco is just one big party, no matter the day so it was of course a fantastically fun and salsa filled night. It did however contr...

Our visit to the past and true experience of the Inkan cultures began on Tuesday with a private van from Cusco city through the Sacred Valley and in to Ollaytaytambo - close to the beginning of the Inka Trail. Our first stop of the day was a village that GAP sponsors and has been able to build up whilst maintaining the local people's culture and the people who live here still do everything in the traditional way. So we saw woman dying, spinning and weaving wool...

We arrived in to Cuzco super early so we headed to a cafe of an Australian lady to have the best biggest breakfast before napping and taking the morning easily. Cuzco is another Andean city set in the valleys of the highlands so again, I predictably love it. The afternoon was spent at the local black market, at this stage in the trip there were several things people wanted to grab - camera or trek related generally. We also had a nice walk around Cusco main c...

On Thursday we left Arequipa for our adventure to the Colca Canyon - the deepest canyon in the world, although it's cliffs are not as vertical as The Grand Canyon .... apparently this is the point of much contention ha. We had a slow drive up to our highest point of the day - 4,900m altitude - you certainly can feel it, it's quite hard to breathe. Along the way there were several alpacas and llamas just wondering freely around the valleys. On the many viewpoi...