Before the laptop gets sent home...a quick little update from what we have been upto in Peru.

We 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.

Pisac was simply incredible - it rivals Machu Picchu and was a really friendly town. We took the local bus, which was so cheap, into the sacred valley. It was such an impressive area - greener than most of the mountains we have been to, and the valley itself does seem to have a mysticism about it. Pisac town is really sweet, and the market was so colourful and full of life - from food and local clothes, to herbal medicines and gringo souvenirs. Sean was feeling a bit ill, so we took it pretty easy, wandered about the market, had a nice lunch and then headed up the mountain to the ruins of Pisac. Pisac was one of the most important sites for the Incan rulers, and being a fortress on the hill, was used to fight off the Spanish a few times before they came back with tons of modern weaponary. The hill is full of holes that were Incan tombs, as usual raided by the colonialists.

The ruins themselves were so impressive - across the top of the mountain were the military area of the Incan city, with crumbling old houses, and as you climbed down into the valley, there were more Incan walls and houses. The most impressive sight were the terraces and Incan steps down into the valley - how they created these structures without any technology is beyond me! With the mountains and valleys in the background it all looked so stunning, and was really worth the trip out to Pisac! It was a good couple of hours hike around the site, but felt good to get our trekking legs working again!

We were after a relaxing evening in Cusco, as early the next morning we headed to Ollantaytambo, another Incan site of ruins, and the town from which we caught the train up to Machu Picchu. Relaxing, however, was not on the cards…The plan was to go for one or two quiet drinks, but when Daniel won the game of killer pool, and then preceded to share his winnings (a whole bottle of vodka) out with the entire bar, suddenly we had lots friends and lots of party invites! So it turned into a night of lots of free alcohol and dancing in a random club in town…still, with only two weeks out on holiday, Daniel needed a good party at some point along the way.

Alas…the free bottle of cheap vodka ended up giving Daniel alcohol poisoning that lasted for two days and made Machu Picchu a bit of a tough one for him! We took a local bus (nice and cheap) to Ollantaytambo, another site of Inca ruins, in the Sacred Valley, on our way to Aguas Caliente. Ollantaytambo was originally an Inca city, and the layout has been kept for over 600 years, so it was really interesting to look around. On the surrounding mountains were the main ruins, an impressive fortress with loads of original buildings still in tact. We climbed up (slowly - Daniel was feeling pretty rough at this point) to the main ruins, and there were some remains of temples, huge stones (would take over 1000 people to move it) and most impressively, a succession of fountains that have been working for over 600 years - very impressive. From Ollaytantambo we took the train through the sacred Valley to Aguas Caliente, the town closest to Machu Picchu. It was quite exciting being on the train again, it gave you a buzz that you were eventually getting to one of the most impressive sites on earth, and the inaccessibility of Machu Picchu just adds to the suspense.

We had another early start, leaving Aguas Caliente at 4am to walk up the steep slopes of the Mountain to Machu Picchu itself. Daniel was hoping to be feeling better, but was actually worse, and without much food inside his body was pretty out of energy after the hard slog to the top. It was more trekking in the dark (although this time we sensibly invested in a torch!), and was basically thousands of steps up the steep side of a mountain….tough, but felt good to get to the top! We arrived about 5.15, in time for the park opening at 6am…we had to be early as only the first 400 people get tickets for Wayanu Picchu, a mountain on the Northern side of Machu Picchu, which you can climb to get the 'postcard' shots! We had heard a lot of negative thoughts about Machu Picchu, people claiming there were simply too many tourists, and that it was too expensive…but we literally couldn't believe how amazing it was. Well worth every expensive penny.

Even before we entered the park, the scenery was incredible. Its almost Milford Sound-esque (New Zealand) with huge peaks cascading around you, with mist and low cloud making the whole area look really atmospheric. Machu Picchu itself is a huge area. It was discovered by an American explorer who was led there by an 11 year old local who 'knew of some ruins in the area'. Because it is so inaccessible, it was hardly looted and mostly kept in amazing condition. It used to be one of the main agricultural sites and cities, used to supply Cusco. However, the Incans didn't separate their daily and economic activites from their religious and spiritual ones - it was all part of life together, so it is also a massive temple area. There was so much to walk around - more fountains in working conditions, the temple of the sun, the moon and the condors, watch towers, houses, even an astronomy centre at the top which gave you fantastic views of the whole ruins and valleys either side. It was simply incredible to walk around and we could have stayed there for hours just staring out at the valley and the city of bricks before us. How they build these places on such steep slopes is seriously beyond me!

Me and Sean then went to climb Wayanu Picchu (Daniel was suffering by this point…), although I'm not sure whether it was a good idea! With such low cloud that day, you had zero view from the top, so it ended up just being a good piece of exercise, but it was good to have succeeded! We hit it hard going up - it is probably the steepest climb we have done, some parts with ropes to pull you up, some parts ladders, some tiny holes in rocks or caves to squeeze through, and the top was literally huge slippy rocks balancing on the peak which you had to crawl around on your hands and knees! The record going up is 22 mins, so me and sean decided to challenge ourselves and made it in under 29…not bad! However…everyone overtook us on the way down! The route down was through the terraces and down the steepest staircases I have seen, about 7cm wide, and literally vertical. I tried going down on my butt, on my knees, sideways…I literally felt like stopping and crying. I have never felt so unsafe in my life - not skydiving, bungy jumping…I was petrified! So it took me over an hour to get down, but we eventually made it back to the jungly slopes of Machu Picchu! After some more hrmmming and ahhhing, we left behind the beautiful wonder of the world and headed back to Aguas Caliente.

Unfortunately, as we had left it pretty late to book the train, they only had the next class up (slightly more expensive…and backpacker train was seriously comfortable anyway), so we had a pretty luxury train journey back, including snacks, Peruvian dancing and an Alpaca fashion show! Bizarre! I think Daniel needed the comfort as he only really started to feel better on the local buses back from the Sacred Valley to cusco. Nothing a warm shower and comfy(ish) hostel bed wouldn't cure! Of course, the weary are never allowed to rest, and we bumped into a friend we had met in two places in Bolivia and Brazil, Australian Penny, and it was her birthday so it would have been rude not to celebrate a bit…Despite the early 3am starts about 5 days in a row, Machu Picchu gives you such a buzz you manage to keep on going in delirium for a while after!

It was such a fantastic experience, and maybe because it is the low season, it didn't feel that overrun with tourists (maybe that's just because we have been to some completely unrestricted tourist sites in Asia!!) In fact, in the early morning, we felt almost as if we had the place to ourselves. An amazing experience, and I would recommend it to anyone.

We then took the overnight bus from Cusco the next day down to Nazca. It was a bit of a freaky journey - cutting straight through the Andes on a mostly non-tarmac road, but it was the last long journey we would have to do with Daniel…from then on it was the pan-American highway and beautiful I-could-kiss-you tarmac the whole way! We made it alive…which was not always a possibility on that road - it was literally 14 hours of constant winding roads, with no barriers and barely enough room for two buses to pass. Not particularly easy conditions to sleep in as you were shifting from side to side in the seats! Still, we made it to Nasca, quite a small town, in time to do a morning flight over the Nazca lines. Quite an expensive trip, but the only way to properly see the lines, and for us, it was just exciting to get up in a plane.

The Nazca lines are one of South America's great myseteries. Being ancient Nascan creations, no one quite understands why they were created, but more importantly…how?! These were in the days when planes didn't exist, and yet they have created huge (some are over 700m long) complicated designs in the desert rock. Archaeologists have argued for years what they could mean, but the whole area is really fascinating. It was the first time in months that me and Sean had not been at altitude, and we left them behind for desert and heat. The plane itself was pretty scary, a tiny 5 seater, with Daniel up next to the pilot and me and Sean in the back…its one of those ones where they tell you not to eat breakfast (and I could soon see why..my motion sickness kicked in in full swing!). It was like a rollercoaster ride! It was a fantastic experience and the lines were really interesting…some were quite small, others huge and impressive…always a good way to spend the morning! We then got straight onto another, shorter, bus to Ica and onto Huacachina.

Huacachina is a tiny desert oasis. Its basically about 30 buildings built around a tiny lagoon (that's a bit smelly) with towering sand dunes surrounding the place. Its really beautiful with the sand dunes so close you can literally walk onto them, and the heat made it feel like we were on summer holiday! Our little hostel has a pool, and we managed to chill out around the pool for an afternoon, playing football, having some cervezas and even a pisco sour! We planned to spend our last full day with Daniel spending some time on the dunes - on these dodgy little wooden boards sandboarding (like snowboarding but on sand…bizarre) and dune-buggying (on what were amazing 80's colorued painted dune buggies….awesome fun!). It was nice for Daniel to spend the last couple of days in the sun, relaxing a bit by the pool, and chilling out…we had worked out that with him alone, in less than 2 weeks, we had spent more than 50 hours on a bus (I think me and Sean figured we'd spent well over a month and a half so far on a bus!), so it was good to have a 'holiday' end to his holiday!

Unfortunately the hostel had booked our room for the second night so we had to pack up our bags and leave…but turned up we ended up in an amazing hotel for just 10 soles more. Even mum would like this place (!!) a lovely pool with proper sun loungers, and amazingly clean private rooms with quilted covers and all! A bit of luxury for Daniel's last night! We made the most of lounging around the lovely pool, playing football with the waiters, after an immense breakfast at the HI hostel. Daniel and Sean had, literally, the biggest pancakes I have ever seen, stuffed with fruit and chocolate sauce. The pancakes were bigger than their heads! Very photo worthy! The afternoon was spent acting like little kids on the sand-dunes. We were taken out in a dune-buggy, which was just AWESOME fun! He drove it so fast, up and down these HUGE sand-dunes, and it was like one crazy rollercoaster ride - the wind pressure was forming our faces into a permanaent smile! The dunes are like another world, so huge and vast and just absolutely gorgeous in the sun! We took out sand-boards (not that effective as a snowboard…) but SO MUCH FUN when you go down them on your belly! You just fly down these massive slopes on the dunes - I seemed to go mega far (just keep your legs off the sand!). It was a bit painful on the pubic bone (nice) and on the hands and legs when you got a bit of sand burn, but it was all worth it! It was just so much fun, and after seeing a beautiful sunset we got more dune-buggy craziness home! Well worth the experience and some great fun to top off the holiday for Daniel!

We bumped into some guys Sean and I had met on the World's most dangerous road, as well as a French girl we had met in Cusco, so some drinks were in order for Dan's last night, before our bus up to Lima the next morning. In lima we only had a few hours to sort out some stuff before Daniel's night flight out, and our flight the next morning to Iquitos, in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. Lima doesn't have a great reputation, its not meant to be that interesting a city, just big and dirty, so we weren't fussed on spending too much time there!

Well...anyway that was the plan to end his holiday on a high note, as we had had an amazing time, but then the unfortunately inevitable happened when you are travelling...We´d made it through the whole trip so far unscathed, but on our last journey back to Lima for Daniel´s flight out, he was robbed. They took his wallet, money, camera..a few other material things that arent the end of the world, but worst of all they took his passport. After a million (expensive) calls to embassies, airlines and everyone...we still couldnt get him an emergency passport to fly out that night (it was the weekend and no one moves on weekends here!!) so he had to miss his flight and was stuck with his little sis in Lima for a couple of days. Luckily, me and sean have managed to change our flights to Iquitos so we can stay here with him, and the hope is that on monday the embassies will sort out some fdocuments so he can eventually get home. It was quite upsettng, and a really rubbish end to what has been an amazing two weeks with him, but no one was hurt and worse things could happen, so we´ve all eventually managed to get a smile back on us! Its made us all very aware of keeping our bags safe again now...

So were in lima for a couple of days, its cloudy but on the coast so we might head to the beach for a walk, go to the cinema, catch up on a few little things and spend lots of hours in broken spanish at the tourist police and embassies! At least we can get some good comfort food here!! Then hopefully the plan is Daniel can fly out Monday night, but it all depends on the embassy, and me and sean on tuesday morning to Iquitos, so that all the adventures can continue...