Hi everyone...whilst I have some free internet thought I would send a little update from Peru. Plus the laptop is gettign sent home soon (noooo....) so i'm making the most of being able to babble away and bore people! excellent.....

I think when I last wrote we were in La Paz, in Bolivia...

The Spanish lessons were all a bit intimidating and scary, but it was good to pick up a tiny bit more and get out of my comfort zone a bit...as if traveling doesn't do that to you all the time! The final three hours went really well, so hopefully I'll actually be able to communicate (in some broken spanglish) with some of the locals now! We took Kass and Keshia out for a thank you meal to a great little Thai restaurant on the one night Kass could get off working at the bar! Of course there was more time spent at the bar, highlighted with some more fancy dress up, and a great meal out at a friend's restaurant in the area Kass lives - this night was topped off at a great little bar where locals seriously salsa on the dance floor…I don't think I've ever seen such keen dancers! Some, were really going for it and fantastic dancers, others were just going for it! (Hilarious!) A few of us gringos attempted some moves as well, and the whole night was a good laugh! It was really nice to be in a place long enough to make friends and meet a lot of people.

Still, we were happy to move on from La Paz (if also pretty sad to say goodbye to Kass) into Peru when Daniel came out for his two week holiday. We had a good day with Daniel in La Paz, showing him the local sights and we even went to a local football match. This time it was Bolivar, supposedly the best team in La Paz, versus Oriente…and the standard was even worse than last time! However, it was by far the most entertaining football match I have ever watched! The ref was incredible - so card happy, and he sent loads of people off for the funniest and dirtiest fouls I have ever seen! One of the goalies was so small we could barely see him and he wound up the home crowd so much…it ended as a 1-1 draw, thanks to a 90th minute penalty to Bolivar the home team, and needless to say, the fans were so unimpressed, there were even a few fights and riot police had to protect the away players climbing down the tunnel from things being thrown at them!!

We then took the bus to Copacabana, on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, a huge lake separating Bolivia and Peru, with a heavy Incan historical influence. It was Daniel's first Bolivian bus and it didn't fail to amuse! The journey itself was pretty stunning…as ever, beautiful arid landscape with snow-capped mountains. We crossed the lake at its narrowest point on a tiny passenger ferry and it felt so good to be back out on the water again. Lake Titicaca is so beautiful, a huge lake with skies that stretch blue as far as the eye can see. It shimmers such bright blue and just has an amazing feel to it. Copacabana is a small town on the Bolivian side on the lake, which still has such spiritual influence for the local indigenous people, who still make pilgrimage to the cathedral here. We spent a great afternoon in the relaxed town of Copacabana, visiting the cathedral, which was lavish as ever, and huge…really impressive. It's a really important site for pilgrimage and the locals take out their statue of the Santa Copacabana for festivals. They never move her other than in festivals as they believe it brings floods. It must be a relatively important site as Brazil's famous Copacabana beach was named after this town. We walked down to the lake front and ate some really amazing lunch at a local stall - lake trout is the local specialty here and it was so fresh and delicious, and best of all…REALLY cheap! We tested Daniel's altitude sickness (although he hasn't suffered much which is really great news) by climbing up a huge hill north of town, over 300m in height (and Copacabana is 3800m anyway!) to get some simply incredible views of the town and Lake Titicaca. The local indigenous people make pilgrimage up the hill (and that is impressive, as with the altitude, it was seriously hard work), but there are religious sites and old temples at the top, and you can see 360 degrees around you…so fantastic. After a lovely sunset drink we chilled out before our busy day out on the lake the next day.

We took a day trip out onto the lake, to visit two of the Incan islands - Isla del Sol (Island of the sun) and Isla del Luna (…of the moon), where Incan terracing and ruins still remain. The boat was incredibly slow, so it took us forever to actually reach the islands, but the view from on top was fantastic - the beautiful blue lake shimmering away for as far as the eyes can see, with gorgeous blue skies and hundreds of islands dotted around. Stunning. The altitude of the lake is roughly 3800m so that just adds to the effect, as well as making it majorly tough to trek along! Still, we docked at the south end of the island, with the 'Rock of the Puma' and other small Incan ruins, before trekking the entire length of the island to the North port. It was such a beautiful walk, through dusty old Bolivian villages and deserted ghost towns, right up amongst the mountains (parts were pretty steep and tough to climb), which gave you the most fantastic 360 degree view around the island, the lake and the snow-capped mountains beyond. It was a tough walk (especially with the sun and wind beating you…!), but one of the most beautiful I have done and we met a few other nice people along the way, a Polish couple, a couple of German friends (who Daniel was singing 'sailor songs' with on the boat) and a nice girl from Australia, Penny, who we decided to have a celebratory beer with at the end of the trek!

You couldn't get much more picturesque setting for a beer - it was on a terrace overlooking the whole island and lake in the South Port, in a little village called Yunangi. In the south, there is the Inca Staircase, which looked pretty atmospheric, and reminded you how ingenious they were as stone-masons. The island itself is said to be where the Incas were created - the first two Incans were 'born' or 'created' here (not sure which?!), and so the island has strong spiritual importance for the regions indigenous people. People still in habit the island, along with donkeys, bulls, pigs, goats, llamas and plenty of other random animals! On the way back to Copacabana on the mainland, we stopped off at the Titi-waku floating islands, similar to the Uros islands on the Peruvian side of the lake, they are houses built on floating rafts with reeds and bamboo. Back on the mainland it was a major rush to catch the bus to Puno, and then buy a bus ticket from Puno to get to Arequipa, our first proper destination in Peru. After a beautiful but tough day on the island, arriving in Arequipa at 4.30am wasn't exactly the most relaxing but it meant we had an extra day here before heading to Cuzco to trek Machu Picchu.

Arequipa is a beautiful city, the second largest in Peru, and by far the most cosmopolitan. Apart from to check out the colonial history here, it's also a great base to get to the Colca Canyon, twice as large as the Grand Canyon in the US, a pretty spectacular sight. We spent some time in Arequipa itself, and straight away we had a great feeling for the place. It is really developed, similar to Sucre in Bolivia, and has some absolutely beautiful colonial architecture, feels like a little rural town in Spain. The main plaza, Plaza de Armas, was stunning, with Venetian style archways and a beautiful cathedral surrounded by palm trees and fountains. The cathedral was quite classic and simple inside, compared to the beautiful Iglesia de Compania, a fantastic white-washed stone church. We wandered around the town, down towards the Monastry of santa Catalina, where nuns still live, and out into the suburbs to view the city from the mirador - a great spot to see El Misti, the huge volcano that shadows the city. After a good old walk around the central market (in its usual bustling state - the 'fruit alleyway' was fantastically colourful and a great spot to pick up some supplies for the two day trek), we spent the evening relaxing in a cosmopolitan style - stuffing our faces with falafel (what a treat!) and heading to this great local bar, with live music and fantastic drinks deals - two vodkas for a pound! Still, we weren't planning on staying out late as we had to be up by 3am to head out for a good first day of 8 hours trekking into the Colca Canyon.

Our trip to the Colca Canyon was INCREDIBLE! Our thighs were all pretty dead after two days of serious hiking, but it felt so amazing to have hiked into and out of the world's deepest canyon! We took a bus ride about 6 hours outside of Arequipa to the national reserve. After stopping at a few viewpoints to spot some Condors (crux del condor was pretty beautiful, a cross marking a mirador where you could view the whole canyon), we reached the local village of our trekking guide, Cabanaconde. It's a sweet tiny town at the top of the canyon, in the middle of the Andes, and our guide, Remy, was simply fantastic. The whole of the area is descendents of the Incas - Quechuan, or Aymaran, speaking and Remy was very traditional - he believed in nature first (the God of the sun, mountains and lakes), and then in the catholic church, and woke us up at 3am without a watch, just telling the time from the stars! It was really great to have a local guide from the village, and he was so experienced - he had even trekked for 22 days from Machu Picchu through to Arequipa…it felt good to know the local community were benefiting as a few of the other treks we saw at the end, had brought guides from Arequipa itself. Plus, Remy was hilarious and kept us going on the hard slog - a great guy! Our group was really small, just the three of us with two Germans who were really friendly…and the hike, whilst tough, was simply incredible.

We first hiked for about 4 hours down into the Canyon, the views were breathtaking - you could see right down to the Rio Colca, where we reached to cross the bridge, and all along the canyon right over to the Andes. Some parts were pretty scary and intense, very steep descent, with rocks everywhere and thin narrow paths where you could easily loose your grip - it was almost as intimidating as biking the world's most dangerous road in Bolivia, but as long as you concentrated, it was so much fun. When we reached the river, we crossed over and climbed up part way on the other side, and that was when you could really see it was a canyon. One side is part of the Andes, and the other, a sheer drop of over 1500m - such a breathtaking view. As we had climbed down over 1500m, the vegetation became more tropical and we climbed along to a local village, San Juan, where Remy cooked us up an amazing lunch in his friend's hut. It was probably the most beautiful setting for a lunch I have ever had, and food never tasted so good after such hard work! We then ploughed our way in the sun, through the paddy fields and terraces, climbed up the Andes side and descended down again (about another 3 hours hike) to reach the bungalows where we were staying for the night - 'Oasis' and it seemed like paradise! Basic bungalows with no electricity, but they had a pool and we dived straight in…before all passing out asleep before 9pm!! But to be fair, unlike any other trekkers, Remy had us up at 3am (yes…by the stars!) to trek right back out of the canyon! It was insane - there was no light, other than one of the most amazing skies full of stars I have ever seen, but with a few torches between us, and lots of prayers, we managed to make it up out of the canyon! It was pretty intense work, we had already trekked over 16km up and downhill the day before, and now we had to cover 9km, going up 1.5km in altitude, and every step was steep uphill. Although it was pretty scary in the dark, it was actually quite energizing, as you could only see the step in front of you and not the huge canyon towering overhead that you had to climb! Still, Remy pushed us on, and we met a few people along the way, one child leading two donkeys, riding the third donkey downhill…nutter! Still, it felt so satisfying to have climbed out of the canyon, and by 6.30am we were back at Remy's house in the village, meeting his family and having breakfast! It was an absolutely incredible hike and I would do it all over again, none of us could believe how beautiful it was and how satisfying it was to have finished it!

Again we were rewarded on the way back with a stop off at the valley's hot springs and thermal baths - so good on achey muscles, and a relaxing few games of Uno with the Germans (and an audience of local school kids who decided that gringos playing a weirdly colourful card game was more entertainment than going home after school!). Just as well, as we got back to Arequipa at 7pm only to get the overnight bus an hour later to cusco…still, Daniel only has two weeks out so we had to make the most of it!

Cusco is such a beautiful city, and so full of history…and tourists! It is by far the most touristy place we have been to, and people hassle you a lot for being gringos, but its well worth the extra cost. Cusco was the central city for the Incan empire - and has some of the best ruins and stonework left, one of those being the famous wonder of the world…Machu Picchu. We spent the first day exploring the city - there is so much to see, but everything costs, so we were limited with what we could do. After a few hours of shelling out lots of money for train tickets to Machu Picchu etc, we wandered down to the main Plaza de Armas, a beautiful huge square with the old colonial cathedral and compana de Jesus church…all beautiful stonework from the colonial period. It is a strange mixture, as there are tiny, beautiful old cobbled streets up the hills, with fantastic views, like the stunning artistic barrio of San Blas, mixed in with all the old Incan stone walls and architecture. But a lot of this was destroyed by the Spaniards when they colonized, and replaced with huge impressive religious buildings…so there is so much to see!

The most impressive Inca site in town was Qorikancha, half Spaniard church, half old Inca temple - with fantastic structures that are still standing today, centuries on. They were such impressive stone masons, their brick work is so perfect it looks like it was new, I swear they must have had electric power tools and just kept it quiet! We had a fantastic lunch at a little local place, 4 courses, drink and salad bar for less then 4 pounds, and spent a lot of time looking around the little Artesania shops that are dotted along the beautiful old cobbled streets.

We then took a local bus for the day out to Pisac. Cusco is surrounded by the 'Sacred Valley'. The Incan influence (they used to be a population of over 9 million) spreads right into Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina, but the main sites of importance are around Cusco, and the Sacred Valley is part of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and full of amazing ruins in fantastic condition. Pisac is the site of the best ruins in the valley, and luckily, it was a Sunday and its famous Sunday market was in full flow....so that is what we are upto over the next few days, will hopefully be able to update again before the laptop gets sent back with daniel from Lima.