We arrived in Lima at midnight on Sunday, where we finally managed to get our heads down for the night at an average hostel in the popular Miraflores district. After a lot of early starts, tours, long distance bus journeys, and constant travel from place to place it was time to set up camp for a good few days and regain some routine to recharge the batteries. A lovely AirBNB apartment on Avenida Benavides was our base for the next 10 days.. a perfect spot loca...

Thursday morning - Arriving in Arequipa at 5.00am on the overnight bus from Cusco was shattering.. thankfully someone was awake at the hostel, allowed us to check in and get some much needed shut eye. The rooftop terrace was a cool way to get my first sight of Peru's second largest city. Caged in by three dramatic volcanoes, Arequipa lies in a precarious setting, more due to the fact that the region is regularly wracked by earthquakes, the last big one to cause...

Cusco!! So this should be a biggy on my year calendar of destinations as it lays down the gateway to a few major hotspots on my "to-do" list.. Machu Picchu and Rainbow Mountain. Many people had raved about Cusco, both natives and tourists so I was keen to see what all the hype was about. Arriving on the overnight bus at the ridiculous hour of 5.00am on Monday morning, Ria and I checked in to the El Tuco hostel in the Santiago district, 15 minutes walk from the...