We spent our last day in Cusco on a tour of the Sacred Valley which was slightly disappointing as we were given more time to look around touristy markets than at the actual Inca ruins. However, it improved towards the end of the day, the highlight being a visit to a local textile manufacturer where we were taught how traditional fabrics were cleaned, dyed and woven. This was particularly interesting because purely organic plants and materials are used. Regretfull...

Yet another early start, we were picked up by our guide, Hugo and headed straight into the mountains. Upon the first sighting of the snow capped peaks, we could not contain our excitement and before we knew it, we were getting geared up for our mountain biking adventure which started at 4300m. Above the clouds and completely surrounded by mountains, the nerves kicked in anticipating the long, winding descent. Although terrified every time we approached a sharp co...

We finally made it onto a bus out of Ica and on to Arequipa. However, spending 11 hours on a coach is not ideal but the highlight was definitely the onboard bingo. To continue our bout of bad luck with transport, our taxi broke down half way to the hostel meaning we were further delayed but eventually made it in one piece. After a few hours sleep we were up early again to start our tour of the Colca Canyon. We saw some familiar faces, bumping into the Swiss sis...

On arrival at the bus station, we enquired about our confirmed 21:30 bus only to be told that it didn`t exist!!! In fact, the last bus from Ica to Arequipa left at 20:30 and was full. Furious with our bus company who had confirmed the wrong time twice, had in fact (without notifying us) booked us onto the 19:30 bus. So, back to Huacachina we went with the intention of getting the 11:00 bus the next morning. The bus company, not believing there was a bus at 11:00,...

We arrived in Paracas, it´s tiny but has a Hilton!! We booked onto a tour of the National Reserve on which we got the perfect opportunity to practice our french with a pair of Swiss sisters (one of which had worked in the same ski resort as Anna- small world) and a French couple. However, we frequently ended up saying ´merci` to the Peruvian guide. The setting was incredible, especially due to the fact that we were on the on Pacific coast, surrounded by sand ...