From La Paz in Bolivia we flew direct to Cusco, Peru: another city 4000 meters high. Cusco was the centre of the Inca empire but after the Spanish conquistadors first came to the area in 1526, the capital was changed to Lima. The Inca empire existed from the 11th century to the 16th, and stretched the length of the Andes and beyond: a strip of land in western South America from what is now northern Ecuador down to northern Chile and Argentina.

Cusco is the most beautiful city we have visited. The large centre has no modern buildings. There are cobbled streets, overhanging balconies, ancient churches overlooking many town squares: but none of this is dilapidated as you'll find in most South American cities. Everything is in pristine condition, everywhere is spotlessly clean, almost to the extent that it can feel inauthentic. It is made made up of original Inca structures and walls as well as colonial Spanish buildings. The fascinating part of this is that the remaining older Inca buildings still look perfectly intact, as if they were built yesterday, whereas the newer colonial buildings are crumbling and unsteady.

One day we met an American ex-pat yoga instructor who had recently moved to Cusco. He had long gray hair in a ponytail and hiking gear on. After having lunch with him we ending up back at his little house. He made us chai tea, which has all sorts of spices in it, but his particular preference is to add coca leaves and guarana, which both have a caffeine-like effect. He then became really hyper and decided to demonstrate his pan pipe playing. The next thirty minutes consisted of him putting on classic rock and playing along. I never thought You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC could be improved on, but I think he managed it.

We stayed over a week in Cusco, filling our time visiting some of the local ruins - including Machu Pichu - and learning Spanish. The Spanish school we went to for four days of lessons had a great concept behind it. Each teacher was a single mother who had been taught to teach Spanish. This vastly increased their earning compared to the jobs that were normally open to them. You paid only a small amount to the school and paid the vast majority directly to the teacher.

And did we do the four day 'Inca Trail' up to Machu Pichu? Did we bollox. There's a train don't you know. After we arrived from an overnight stay in the nearby town, refreshed, fed and watered, we saw an Irish couple just arrive after the four day trek. We had met them previously in Argentina. The term 'broken' came to mind as they staggered past towards the refreshment stand, hastily snached at mars bars and incoherently muttered something about 'never again'. Not only had they treked for four days, but it was entirely foggy and you couldn't see a thing of the ruins until later in the day. I left them alone as I was quite likely to get beaten senseless for looking so smug.

We did climb waynapicchu though which is a steep climb up some very old steps for two hours in the mid-day heat: that was arduous enough for us. It's the peak behind Machu Pichu which you can see in all the 'classic' photos and gave us great views over the 'lost city'.

The food in Cusco is defnitely the best that we've eaten on our travels. We tried cerviche, which is raw fish covered in lime juice. It's delicious, and you can't help thinking that it'll be the next trendy craze in the UK. I think it's already big with the sushi eating Californians. It's all over South and Central America, but we're a bit reluctant to try it from a street stall and tend to wait until we're in a nice restaurant.

An Irish owned cafe served the best fry up I have ever eaten: home-made bread, great sausages, home-made baked beans and everything else that the British seemed to have randomly laid their hands on, thrown in a frying pan, and called a meal. Who would have thought that the best English breakfast could be had in Peru?