Well here we are our fourth country - Peru. We crossed the border without a search of Gerty but for the first time they wanted to see some documents other than our passports and vehicle registration document.

We reached Puno by lunchtime. It sits on the shore of Lake Titicaca (8500 square kilometres), the highest navigable lake in the world (3810 metres). It is the 2nd largest lake in South America and the 21st largest in the world.

On the lake are several old iron hulled vessels. Peter was in heaven. We visited the oldest vessel, the MN Yavari,(www.yavari.org) which is undergoing massive restoration. This was organised by a very determined English lady, Meriel Larkin. She was made in England in 1862 (the Yavari not Mrs Larkin!) and then taken in 2766 pieces to Lake Titicaca by boat, train and finally mule, before being reassembled and launched in 1870. She was originally a steam boat powered by dried Llama dung (that sounds a bit smelly). She, with her sister ship, was intended to be used by the Peruvian navy as a gun boat but it never materialized and she was used as a passenger vessel until 1975. Peter had a great time inspecting all the old machinery and equipment and was most insistent that I took loads of photos.

A boat trip to the famous floating islands looked to be a wash out when we awoke to our first rain for quite some time. In fact it wasn't only rain but hail stones as well. It is rather cold in Puno especially at night. Luckily it only lasted a couple of hours and then the sun appeared. The Floating islands (79 in total) called Los Uros are literally that- islands floating on the lake. Believe it or not but the number of islands changes as they sometimes join together or even split (cut with a very large saw) when family relationships change. It must make divorce easier! They are made of layer after layer of Totora reeds, a new layer being added every month. Such islands are only found here in Peru and are said to originate when the indigenous Uros people fled in their reed boats from the invading Incas. The islands have a school, hospital and church. It was very bizarre. Walking on the islands was weird as they are rather soft and bouncy.

We decided to have a rest from high altitudes so left Puno and headed west towards Arequipa. On the way we managed to buy ourselves a gas cylinder but had to wait till Arequipa to get a suitable regulator. By the time we come home we will have quite a collection. Why they can’t all use the same fitting I don’t know.

Just outside Puno we popped into Sillustani, a site with pre Columbian funeral towers called Chullpas, built by the indigenous Aymara people. Most date from time of the Inca occupation of the area. The construction ranges from simple piles of stones to very intricate block work and corbelled domes.

The drive to Arequipa was across another high plain reaching over 4000metres. We camped halfway by some weird rocks. It was freezing, really freezing and we hardly slept at all.

Arequipa is another big city with a beautiful centre declared a world heritage site. The colonial buildings were built of a white volcanic pyroclastic stone (from eruptions of Mt. Chachani) called Sillar. One of the biggest buildings is a convent (Santa Catalina). It is not what you would think a convent should be - it is a beautiful miniature city painted in bright colours with quaint cobbled streets and plazas full of pots of red flowering geraniums. Quite luxurious – these nuns knew how to live!

It appeared on the way to Arequipa that Gerties squeak, Peter had tried to fix at La Paz, was still there. Now trying to stop squeaks and rattles on a Land Rover is like to trying to herd cats, almost impossible. But this one was really loud and tracked down to the fan just catching the cowling over certain bumps and when reversing. Adjusting the cowling several times only slightly helped, so more drastic measures were called for, 5mm sliced off the end of each fan blade. We will see if that helps or causes the engine to boil over in traffic! Fingers crossed.

A day trip to the nearby Colca Canyon started at 3AM-yuk. We saw a whole family of Condors when we finally arrived at the canyon, which is more than 1 kilometre deep but not the deepest in the world (that is the nearby Cotahausi Canyon). Colca is the result of a geological fault between two volcanoes. The valley leading to Colca is covered with some of the best preserved pre Inca terracing. Condors are members of a vulture family. They are the largest flying birds in the western hemisphere with wing spans of up to 10.2 feet but are not easy to photograph!

Before leaving Arequipa we visited a bridge designed by Gustave Eiffel. It spans half a kilometre and has withstood over a hundred years of Arequipas severe earthquakes and tremors. Finally we made a trip to the museum with some of the 19 Inca mummies (frozen bodies) and their grave goods. Juanita the most famous child, sacrificed at an altitude of 6380 kilometres and left in an icy grave, was away having some preservation works so we only got to see another child found on a nearby mountain. The grave goods were in brilliant condition. One small item was topped with Macaw feathers that are still bright red and yellow.