The next morning, cold and frazzled from a night of 'checking' we headed out on the boat. We weaved along the river trying to avoid logs (no, not the type you find on Blackpool beach!) to a small plantation where a couple of local people talked us through what they grow from the land and sell in the town. They had coconuts, ginger, papaya, coffee, avacado, coco, pinapples and many more. Here I tried star fruit, lemons, limes (without the gin) and a nice finger...

After a bus and a plane we landed in Puerto Maldonado. This town can only be described as a shanty town with shares in 1980's motorcycles. There were millions of them, all with the same passenger routine, man on the front, woman on the back and new born baby wedged in between them!! Taking another bus, we stopped at an old shack to transfer some of our belongings into a duffle bag and left the rest of our luggage in a shed with no locks or labelling of an...

In order to reach Machu Picchu for sunrise we had to get up at 3.30am. This part of the tour was optional but having trekked 25 miles upwards and completed 3 mountains in 3 days I wanted to complete the challenge. Setting off at 4am we walked in silence and complete darkness along the railway track before we began to climb. As we climbed, a dog came from nowhere and climbed with us, most odd, he wasn't even scrounging for food, it was like he just wanted...

5am started after camping out last night, cold and zero sleep. No washing facilities what so ever, just the before mentioned loos. Yesterday we hiked to 3800 meters. Today was going to bring me 4200 meters covering Dead Womans Pass. This hike was really very hard. Trying to be positive in my mind and ignoring the raging pain in my right hip I reached the top. I sat and took it all in. WoW! what views, 'what an amazing place on this planet to be' I...

Woken at the crack of dawn, faced with dodgy electrics and occasional water that shot out of the shower and taps, I moaned to myself at how cold I felt. Shortly after my glue like coffee and cold pancake I haggled a couple of old Peruvian women for my walking/hiking stick and 3 more bags of coca leaves (yeah man!) and then I was set. A 1 hour journey on a bus that can only be described as "OH MY GOD". Never before had I been so pleased that I had worn...