La Paz, highest capital city in the world at nearly 4000 metres above sea level. It is an absolutely crazy place and we loved it! On the streets there is absolutely everything you could ever wish to buy, (we now have hair straighteners once again and the second series of Lost). Plus a witches market to curse or charm anyone you wish. In La Paz, we visited another set of pre-incan ruins in Tihuanaca. They were pretty cool, though not fully excavated, and to be hon...

Cusco and the Inca TrailCusco, capital of the Incas, shaped liked a puma and absolutely crawling with tourists. We were excited and very scared about the Inca trail just 4 days after we arrived in Cusco, so we decided to get in some training. After a day of rest, much needed considering the scarcity of oxygen at 3,200 metres, we went for a hike up to Sacsayhuaman, which has some pretty substantial Inca remains. It was well worth the hike, but did not ease our min...

ArequipaArequipa was Our first foray into Peruvian culture, and after 4 and a half months in Argentina, although sad to leave, we were excited to be going to a different country.Arequipa is a beautifully situated place, next to the desert, a volcano and mountains. We were lucky enough to have a gorgeous view from our hostel room, which you can admire from the pictures.Now in Peru, the Inca influence and history is a very evident, even after the strong Spanish con...

Salta, leaving Argentina.... Well we've not written for a while, and apologies for the photos coming before the writing (though we have now added more)! We're currently in Peru, though this is the final update from Argentina, the slight delay being that Gem has had "traveller's tum" (to be polite) for most of the time since we left, so things have been a bit difficult! But enough of those details. Salta was our last stop in Argentina, though...

Patagonia - Glaciers and El Fin del Mundo After the excitement of seeing whales, we decided it would be a good idea to nip across to see a petrified forest on our way south. All this is a load of logs scattered about that were turned to stone over millions of years as they were underground after being covered in ash by the formation of the Andes... or something like that anyway - The leaflet was in Spanish!! It was cool though, as the logs look exactly like ...