We left Cusco after Peter had listened to Watford being beaten by Crystal palace in the Playoffs at Wembley, oh dear. We decided to head back the way we had come as this was the quickest way to get down to a better altitude. About an hour into the drive we hit road works which involved the road being closed for 3 hours. There were some very unhappy Peruvians. I felt sorry for the two women who were in charge of stopping the traffic. I don't know exactly what was ...

Our rest day in Cusco was fun. We visited a church with a famous carved pulpit and got fleeced by a man who told us about a few bits in the church and then demanded 20 soles. It was almost worth it as at one point he showed us a very very old organ from the 1600s and the door fell off. He propped it back on but then the whole front panel and some inner bits fell out onto an innocent bystander. Peter and I had trouble keeping a straight face as the pair of them tr...

Cusco is located at the head of the Inca's sacred valley. They called it the navel of the world. Sorry short history lesson: The Incas (1400-1532) followed after many other impressive but not so powerful tribes, including Chavin, Chimu, Moche, Nazcans and Huari. Spanish chroniclers wrote of the legend that told of Manoc Capac and his sister being created by the sun god and rising out of Lake Titicaca to start a chosen race. Heading north to find fertile land they...

Driving north from Nazca we stopped to climb an old viewing tower to have a look at some geoglyphs made by the Paracas people (an early relation of the Nazcans).One set consists of a man, woman and child (early family portraits possibly? Although a slightly odd looking family!). We headed a bit further north for a visit to Paracas National Reserve. On the way we spent a day at a real, genuine oasis at Huacachina, surrounded by the biggest sand dunes I have ever ...

We left Arequipa having decided we needed a longer respite from high altitude (fuzzy heads, sleepless nights and snotty noses) so headed for the coast. Before we had gone far we decided it would be a pity to come all this way and not visit the world's deepest canyon: Cotahuasi Canyon (3354 metres deep.1850 metres deeper than the Grand Canyon). Unluckily the only way there is along a 200 kilometre dusty and bumpy unpaved road that reaches the dizzying height of 47...