Puno is a town on the Peruvian shore of Lake Titicaca and it was our base either side of a homestay at a rural village on the lake, Llachón. This is another blog entry that was lost when my BlackBerry wiped my messages so unfortunately I don't have many details... We took a boat trip out on the lake and visited the small island of Taquile. After exploring for a while we had lunch there and some local people talked to us about their traditional clothing and th...

The pretty little town of Ollantaytambo was our starting point for the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The night before the trek I had good chicken fajitas for dinner at Hearts café in the main square - it is run by a 76 year old English woman and it funds projects for women and children in the local villages. We set off from Ollantaytambo at 7:30am to start the four-day trek at the 82km marker. It is necessary to show your passport at the beginning of the trail an...

As the nearest big city to the renowned Inca ruins at Machu Picchu, Cusco was my base while doing the Inca Trail. I had a free day to acclimatise and pick up last minute supplies before setting off on the four-day trek. My blog entry for Cusco was one of a few that were lost when my BlackBerry randomly decided to wipe all my messages so I don't have many details beyond what is in the photos... I pottered around town and stumbled upon a market of sorts taking p...

I had a sleepless night on the bus from Nasca to Arequipa and when I arrived in the city I immediately ran around trying to organise a cycling excursion on the Chachani mountain, which had been highly recommended to me. Once that was booked in for the afternoon I went to see the pretty Santa Catalina monastery - it is a beautiful complex of brightly-painted old convent buildings and collections of related art and artefacts (it was rather over-hyped by the guide b...

I spent two days in the Colca Valley, a very picturesque region of Peru. Our local guide for those couple of days, Luis Angel, was a total legend. I don't think he stopped talking for the entire time that we were on the bus, telling us things about the area, about Peru generally and random stories about his life as well as asking us questions about why we were there and what we liked most about his country - he was amazing and very comical! He had taught himsel...