We started our adventure by going along the Amazon on a speedboat for 3hours. When we arrived at our lodge we were immediately impressed with how rustically beautiful the set up was. With thatched roofs and raised wooden walkways on stilts joining the communal dining area, viewing platform and private rooms. The lodge only has 4 private rooms and 1 more basic room that sleeps 5. The 1st nite we were in the basic room and the next night we had our private room wit...

As soon as we stepped off the plane the humid heat hit us and driving in a mototaxi (rickshaw) to town we instantly felt like we were in a jungle town. It felt so very different from anywhere we´d been in S.America and more like Thailand. Iquitos itself is filled with Portuguese buildings alongside shanty style dwellings on the rivers edge (a place called Belem). The first day we spent in and out of agencies bartering for our Amazon tour. We finally found a grea...

On the pass approaching Lima we passed long sandy beaches that could not have looked less appealing if they tried. The sky was grey and it had been raining. We´d heard bad things about Lima and our first impressions were not good. We decided to head to a beach suburb called Miraflores and to our surprise it was clean, modern, with a pretty park in the centre and generally pleasing to the eye. The beach itself is awful, but the café culture, restaurants and nigh...

We decided not to do the 4day Inca trail as after speaking to people who had recently done it we were put off by the amount of rain we would´ve had to endure. Instead we went for the 2 day bus option, which involved a 6:30 pick up to be then driven round Cusco for over an hour whilst trying to find the hostels of the other tourists. Not a good start - we were a little worried at this stage about our choice of agency, the whole trip was only costing $110!) Final...

After a night bus with Don and Soph we arrived early in Cusco and got to our hostal to be reunited with our dear Kelly and her no so endearing cousin. Cristal. We spent the day catching up and wondered around the town. We awoke the next morning to find 2 more familiar faces sleeping in our dorm. It was Sandra and Leon who we`d met in La Paz. Yay! More friends to celebrate Xmas with and there was the added bonus of Leon being a chef. We went shopping for food and ...