We only had a few days in Arequipa and while those were not the most interesting ones on our trip I'll still cover them in this diary of a travel blog. I wrote all about how we got there from Puno in my last entry where the point was this: you get what you pay for and if you pay S/20 for a six hour bus trip you're asking for trouble. Our Sur Oriente bus broke a wheel on the way and we had to be rescued by another bus… It wasn't the most successful voyage we've ...

After our great trip to Machu Picchu we returned to Cusco for a couple of nights to avoid having to travel on two days in a row. That left us with a full day in the town that we used mainly for resting and getting our laundry done. We took almost all of our clothes to a shop close by that was advertising laundry service for S/2 per kilogram. We paid S/3 to get them back on the same day. The only reason that doing laundry is worth a mention in a blog is that getti...

"Gravity has brought you to the center of the world - welcome to Machu Picchu" These were the words spoken by our guide Yawar at the world heritage site just before we began our tour. I wanted to start with the quote although my obsessive compulsive disorder forces me to double right back and explain all about how we made it there and so on. Bear with me here, I'll go over our experience at the site in due time. Or skip to the appointed section, whichever you ...

If you are anything like me you feel like you know all about Machu Picchu, but have never even heard about the Inca ruins in Pisac, which is closer to Cusco. If we hadn't happened to read about the place on our guidebook we might have missed the place completely, which would have been a shame because we found it to be well worth a daytrip. Not only are the ruins cheaper to see than those at Machu Picchu, they are also infinitely more accessible with regular buses...

Flying to Peru We left Asunción very early in the morning, taking a pre-arranged taxi to the airport. We had asked the guy working in the reception of our hostel (which was a couple of blocks away) to arrange it for us and he did it splendidly, even showing up at our room at 3.15 a.m. to make sure everything went smoothly. The ride cost Gs120'000 (a fixed price) which we thought was ok since we were out pretty early and the ride was specifically ordered. The ...