Our last few days in glorious Ecuador were spent with a Goldsmiths alumna who is now in the percussion section of the Guayaquil Symphony Orchestra. We were shown around the sites of the city by Yemina, including a trip on the orchestra bus to a concert of popular music by Julio Jaramillo and attending a rehearsal for their next concert. All events are free and paid for by the government, how wonderful.

Heading east from Guayaquil it is all delta-y and agricultural land, so lots of interesting wildlife and birds to be seen. The E25, which we have followed on and off since entering at Tulcan is taking us towards Perú via Cuenca for well-needed bike repairs as the poor old machine is still dying on hills!

Cuenca is a great city, aboug 15 degrees cooler than Guayaquil and even has a veggie restaurant and nearby thermals for our aging bones. We also finally waved goodbye to the Dalton Highway after giving the bike to a lavado where two guys spent ONE HOUR cleaning the AT, removing all traces of mud and grime (and, alas, several stickers incl the one from the Little A'le'Inn).

Crossing the Peruvian border at La Balsa in the mountains was our favourite crossing yet, with just one sleeping dog and a tienda selling sweets, which made up for our 8 hour crossing bonanza from Colombia to Ecuador. Riding through the Peruvian mountains on gravel and dirt roads in flash floods was an experience we don't want to repeat too many times, but it did mean entertaining stops in crazy villages to recover and they all seemed amazed at our "loco" journey.

A tip for anyone travelling in Peru - bring ear plugs! If it's not military bands giving the reveille, it's the rubbish vans with their bells, roosters a-crowing, dogs non-stop barking, and the incessant playing of pop music at all hours of the day or night. Woe betide anyone who might want to sleep beyond 6am.

After lots of rain in the mountains, we decided to do some PanAm down the desert coast, ostensibly to meet fellow Africa Twin rider Marco to nab his spare fuel pump and to catch up on travellers tales over pizza and Cuscueña beers.

Ye gods the northern coast is filthy. So much rubbish strewn everywhere that it made for slightly depressing riding, although it is quite entertaining to see the UNESCO signs for the amazing archaeological sites that pepper the coast being almost buried under mountains o'crap.

Our one brush (so far!) with the law was on the PanAm with the rookie error of not having our lights on. After much discussion on the fortunes of Manchester United and a pantomime of passing of tickets and papers back and forth, we managed to escape a 342Sol fine with a nifty handover of 20Sol, which would give the copper a few beers. Bribe culture at its best!

We had a few days R&R in Lima at the gorgeous apartment of a couple we met on the Galápagos. How wonderful to relax, read copies of The Guardian, eat and drink great food, do our washing and meet their friends, including a young couple just starting out on their travels post-uni. Life on the road brings you into contact with all sorts of people, always fascinating and always what makes the journey what it is.

Before turning east towards the Sacred Valley we hit one final site (with Chan Chan and Caral being particular favourite sites from the coastal route), the Nazca Lines, something that Imogen had wanted to see for many years. It didn't disappoint. Yes, the plane ride over the lines is a tourist thing, but to see those marking etched millennia ago into the desert is a humbling experience and one that will stay with us.

We've only wild camped a few times in Peru, but it's always been gorgeous, from beach camping in Paracas where we saw flamingos and flocks of skimmers numbering in their thousands to altiplano at nearly 4000 metres with llamas and cows for company.

We then did the tourist thang and hit Cuzco, with more repairs on the bike and a shiny new back tyre, much needed on the terrible roads towards Machu Pichu.

The Sacred Valley and Machu Pichu are as fabulous as people say, and we've been reading Hugh Thomson's excellent book on ancient Peru, 'Cochineal Red', which has enabled us to explore different sites that we wouldn't have normally found, including an incredible hike to Llactapata.

Being at altitude is quite hard work, for the bike and us. Coca seems to help but Imogen's red eyes are fairly frightening - who knew that a lack of oxygen would play havoc on all sorts of bodily systems.

A ride over the altiplano towards Puno, hitting a high of 4630 metres was one of our more enjoyable days, with glorious scenery and tiny twisty roads inching up the mountains.

Unfortunately our last few days in Perú at Lake Titicaca have been marred by the theft of our tankbag whilst we were enjoying the fabulous spectacle of a local fiesta for Semana Santa.

Apart from James's (albeit pretty old and without an obvious working "on" button) iPad and Leatherman tool, the most valuable things to us were the diaries of our trip, maps with our route marked on, the bird book with annotations and a few souvenirs - Imogen's Lonesome George hat from the Galapagós and James's bag from Colombia. Worth very little to anyone else, but highly valuable to us. A sad and highly irritating end to our stay in Perú, let's see what Bolivia brings us!

Photos as usual on Imogen Burman-Mitchells facebook page.