To start our tour of the Andes we had to take our first night bus. I was a little dubious about what this would be like but it was actually very comfortable. We were on the " posh bus" according to Manuel. This including almost fully reclining seats, food, drinks, blankets and films. The next morning we woke up in the city of Arequipa, Peru's second largest city which is surrounded by volcanoes and the magnificent Andean mountains. I spent the afternoon having a look round this colonial city and made a visit to a couple of the sites including the Convent of Santa Catalina and the museum housing Juanita, the frozen ice princess, an inca princess sacrificed to the gods on the summit of Ampato mountain 500 years ago.

The next day and it was time to head into the mountain en route to the Colca Canyon. I wasn't expecting to suffer to much from the altitude but on the climb from 2325m to nearly 5000m I really felt it. Fortunately we were staying in a town called Chivay which is a little lower so I had some time to recover before heading to the Canyon the next day. The town was alive that night as the president flew in my helicopter to open a new building. We joined the masses in the town square to take a look and took a visit to the hot springs to warm up as the temperature in the mountains was quite a contrast to the desert.

The next day and an early start to reach the Condor Cross, an area of the canyon favoured by the condors. The clouds were amazing and we were lucky enough to see several condors cruising around. I did my best to take some pictures but will have to zoom in when I put them on the computer at home.