Our last stop in Peru before Mancora for Christmas was back on the fringe of the Amazonian jungle in a town called Chachapoyas. A small colonial town nestled on high ground and surrounded by jungle. Although we had a long bus journey to get to the town, it broke up what would have been well over a week in Mancora. It also had some really interesting Pre-Inca ruins called Kuelap, which we wanted to see. We booked into a small guesthouse type hostel with amazing...

We were expecting a cool little beach town when we arrived in Huanchaco but were surprised to find it was very similar to a lot of the coastal towns along the western Peruvian coast. It was quite run down in parts and our hostel was slightly less comfortable than expected to say the least! We made the most of the visit though. Went on a trip to some pre Inca ruins with a really nice local guide. Crazy to see how the different cultures built their communities in ...

A whirlwind few stops from Cusco and the final 'high altitude' stop on the move to the northern coast was in a town called Huaraz. The town is nestled in the snow capped mountains of the Andes and a main stop for hikers and mountain climbers looking to take on some of the big peaks. The first day we just went on a walk around town and up to a viewpoint... Absolutely knackered before we even started on the main trek! The main trek was up to Laguna 69 and one ...

Paracas was hit hard by a big earthquake in 2007 with left many casualties and also much building damage. The town is still visibly only rebuilding itself now. However hopefully the tourist attraction to the Ballestas Islands will bring in some much needed income to the local community still rebuilding. They call the islands 'poor mans Galapagos' because you can take a morning tour by boat for under $10 with the Galápagos Islands in Equador costing hundreds of d...

After leaving Cusco we headed north to the town of Huacachina. Huacachina was a strange place on the outskirts of Ica. With a population of less than 100, the main drive for the towns population was tourism, as a small amount of shops, hostels and restaurants have built up around a natural 'lake', randomly in the middle of high desert dunes! Apparently in the 1930's and 1940's the town was mainly visited by wealthy Peruvians who thought the water had healing pro...