In between eating, shopping and sleeping, I managed to pull myself away from Cusco for one day and head to Machu Picchu. From Cusco I took a train to a town called Aguas Calientes and from there caught a bus to the mountaintop on which sits the ´lost city´of the Incas. Machu Picchu was built around the year 1640 and although known locally, it was discovered and brought to Worldwide attention in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, an American Historian. The site was declare...

Cusco - the heart of the once-mighty Inca Empire and a world away from my first experience of Peru - it´s gorgeous. Tiny cobbled streets and alleyways, barely wide enough for one small car, fill the valley it is nestled in and expand up into the slopes. Cusco town centre is based around the Plaza de Armas - a square complete with fountain, benches and grassed areas. On two sides of the square stands the intricately designed Coricancha temple and the cathedral a...

My first impressions of Peru were tainted thanks to the nightmare border crossing I had from Arica into Tacna. A long story, but to cut it short, thanks to an idiot taxi driver, I missed my bus from Tacna to Cusco by ten minutes and as a result, had to wait ten hours, in the boring town, for the next bus. Subsequently, it also meant that I was going to be on an overnight bus, which is not ideal in Peru. However, as I am writing this blog entry, it is clear that I...