One hell of a ride! I had an hour or so to spare in the Gustav Eiffel designed La Paz bus station before boarding the swanky Nuevo Continente, double-decker, full cama bus for Cusco. On my return trip from La Paz to Cusco, instead of Mexican nuns I was mostly accompanied by French and Spanish backpackers so thankfully, there was a lot less ukelele this time. It took an hour or so to escape the sprawl of El Alto and get out onto the short stretch of Bolivia befo...

Been a very relaxed day in Cusco today. Despite a disrupted sleep, due to the altitude, ironically I've felt much more alert than i've done up to now. Finally beginning to adjust to the time zone! It was nice to have a couple hours just to relax for a bit, watching the England-Sweden game, and not have to launch myself into catching a plane or a bus. You definitely feel like you have less energy up here, or rather you need more of it to do anything. After chec...

Oppphhhh.... Today's been a bit stressy... Started up heading to the local hypermarket and buying a towel (left mine at home), but not without watching the France-Uruguay quarter final on one of the flat screen TVs for sale. Caught the rest of the game, before checking out and heading to the airport... The Viva Air queues to check onto the plane were probably the worst i've ever been in. It took about 40minutes. And I was far from the back. To make things wor...

I made my way out of the gringo trap of Huacachina (But not before a banana pancake breakfast) on a tuk tuk to the neighboring city of Ica. Ica is as monstrous as Lima. An earthquake flattened it 10 years ago and it's still recovering. It's a dodgy place heaving with traffic and stray dogs. Once I got to the centre I tried to get a taxi to the Bodega Tacama. The 1st taxi I came across had no idea what I was on about but luckily the 2nd had heard of this place. ...

Another lonnnng day... Thanks to my body clock being thrown by the time difference, I was up quite early at around 7, taking in the fumes and beeping horns of Lima's highways. Soon, I said goodbye to the 1900 Backpackers and made my way to the Cruz del Sur bus terminal. Cruz del Sur Is the largest and most prestigious Peruvian bus company - the Emirates of the Peruvian highway. Unfortunately, they're also a stickler for the rules. Officially you need your origi...