It seemed like such a good idea at the time ... a 2 hour horse trek around the top of the Colca canyon, then a nice lunch before a descent to the Sangalle Oasis at the bottom of the canyon, an overnight stay and climb back the way we came - what could possibly go wrong? Well ... We dropped 1200m over a travelled distance that seemed barely double that. This took 2.5 hours and my thighs may never talk to me again. The views along the canyon and up to the mountai...

Arequipa is Peru's second city with a population of 800,000 all living at 2400m above sea level. Safely esconced in out hotel room, we can plot our attack once Sarah has recovered from light altitude sickness/over-tiredness. Items on the agenda are the cathedral, the monastery, another church, the museum of Andean culture showing Juanita, the ice maiden and an upscale restaurant with llama ribs and roast guinea pig on the menu. I think I might just have both, on...

Left Huacachina on time, boarded only marginally late coach to Nasca only to find on arrival that due to unseasonal wind all flights had been cancelled. I think i took the news pretty well, all things considered! On the coach we met Hans - an older solo traveller from Canada, so he joined us for what was left of our nasca itinerary, the excavations in Cahuachi, the amazing aquaducts (today's blogs photo) and the poor viewing platforms of a couple of the geoglyp...

Standard american breakfast at Hosteria Suiza (fried or scrambled eggs, bread rolls, coffee and juice) and off sandboarding as a rehearsal for dune-boarding and dune buggy-ing courtesy of Mr Williams and his band (of probably imaginary) brothers. You need to strike the right balance between bravery and foolhardiness while dune boarding and each wipeout adds 500g of sand to our clothing, skin, hair, shoes etc. Today's weather of much wind and sun leads to extreme...

Early start to meet the island tour went a tad awry ... directed into boat A, extracted to boat B, bought extra tickets, refunded (post tour) phew! The tour was excellent - sealions, humbolt pengiuns, peruvian boobies (not just us!), pelicans crabs, starfish and my personal favourite 36 legged starfish or sunfish! Retuen to dry land in time for quick coffee and confusion before off again on national reserve tour ending in lunch and bus (inevitably delayed) to Ic...