Thursday 19 September - Sunday 29 September Cusco and the Inca Trail, Peru We arrived in Cusco three days prior to the start of the Inca Trail to acclimatize ourselves before our 4D/3N expedition along the same trail the ancient Incas used for their pilgrimage to Machu Picchu. We'd booked the Inca Trail (another one of my 'Must Sees') with a company called Llama Path on a friends recommendation way back in April to secure our places as they only allow 500 h...

Monday 16 September - Wednesday 18 September Ica, Huacachina and the Nazca lines, Peru Lima, another grey dirty city was of no interest to us, so after an initial 15 hour journey from Mancora we were back on a bus to Ica, land of Pisco, another 4 hour journey south. Our plan for the next two days in the area was to check out Huacachina, a Pisco Bodega (vineyard) in Ica and the mysterious Nazca lines. Huacachina, a desert oasis is only 5 minutes drive from...

Friday 13 September - Sunday 15 September Mancora, Peru With our tickets already booked from Guayaquil (Ecuador) to Mancora (Peru) we were relieved to have made the connection in time. We were due to arrive in Guayaquil the night before so we used our booking at a nearby hostel to shower and grab a few hours rest before getting back on the bus. We left Guayaquil at 2pm on the comfortable Cruz del Sur coach and arrived in Mancora at about 11pm that night. Th...

Tuesday 10 September - Thursday 12 September Banos, Ecuador From Quito we headed three hours south by bus to the small but lively town of Banos, neatly nestled between the Pastaza River and Tungurahua volcano. Adventure tour companies abound here with loads of outdoor activities to keep one busy. After a night of resting up in our private dorm we hired mountain bikes and headed down the waterfall trail on the road to Puyo, our destination being the town of ...

Friday 6 September - Monday 9 September Quito and beyond, Ecuador Due to the continued strikes in Colombia we had no choice but to cut our time there short by a week and fly from Cali to Esmeraldas in Ecuador as the roads south of Cali were still being blocked by protesters. Unfortunately this meant we missed out on seeing the colourful jagged landscapes of the Tatacoa desert, the Valley of the Statues in San Augustin and the Cathedral that is built into a ...