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 ...

On approaching Arequipa we were disheartened as it looked like a sprawling dirty city. However when we arrived to the centre we walked into the most spectacular huge colonial plaza. The surrounding 5 or 6 blocks all around it were equally stunning with spanish architecture. This was the jewel of Peru. That night exploring the streets of sophisticated restaurants we found Don and Soph and ate a delicious pizza. It felt like we could have been in a sophisticated hi...

We´d heard that the floating islands on the peruvian side of lake Titikaka were very touristy, but we still wanted to see for ourselves. So we booked a tour and decided the only way to get a real feel was to stay the night on one. The floating islands are made from dried grass and are constantly topped up with new grass as the old decomposes underneath. There are over 40 small islands each with a few families living on each of them. As we had expected the island...