Darkest Peru Saturday 12th may. We left the belly button of the inca world, and headed off towards Nazca over 500 miles away. We were due to split the journey at a roadside lodge after 285 miles. Our route passed through the valley of the incas, taking in many of cusco's attractions on the way. This was to mark the beginning of the end of the high Andes as we dropped from over 3800m to a negligible 500m at Nazca. We left Cusco by winding up over the top of it...

Potosi to La Paz - 300ish miles What a day! People still suffering from the altitude. Lou's had a relapse and is confined to the support van, so I'm solo for the day...hmmm...corners :))) some great riding through the hills with lots of photo opportunities I'll bore people with later. Had some scare stories from our glorious leader Kevin about suicidal vicuñas (small, camouflaged, attack deer) on this leg, so paying careful attention to the kerbside wildlife. ...

John had smoked his clutch in fairly spectacular fashion while negotiating the traffic hell of El Alto, but we weren't sure if this it was completely finished. Leaving La Paz two days later we had our answer thanks to an encore of El Alto traffic on Sunday morning. The bike was dead. Under normal tour rules this would have meant the end of the trip for John & Marion, but generously Kevin and Julia proposed that they could travel in the van, with Alan and th...

Thursday 5th may. Potosi, Bolivia. We arrived yesterday after some fantastic riding across from tilcara. Crossed the border almost unmolested, and drove 140miles through some stunning uplands on a brand new and virtually empty, twisty, road. Wonderful. Arrived in the ex-silver mining capital of the world mid-afternoon, at a height of some 4250m above sea-level. This is seriously high, and many of our party are suffering from altitude sickness. Headaches, shiverin...

Mon 30th April. Somehow haven't had time to write for the first two days. Left Buenos Aires on Saturday in the pouring rain, 330miles to santa fe. Rain for the first 280miles of motorway - yum. Thankfully our kit held out fantastically well, with the exception of lou's gloves where the "waterproof" label turned out to be purely ornamental. Worked our way into the city of Sante Fe following some very soggy notes, but thankfully bumped into Angelica (our german fel...