The bus ride was awful. We were in the very front seats upstairs where it is impossible to recline with legs stretched. I ended up trying to sleep in the upright position and Graeme had even less success than did I. Arequipa is an enormous, dusty and dirty city and did not impress us as we entered from the outskirts. Our couch surfing hostess, Alexia, was late in fetching us, but very friendly and warm in her welcome. We arrived at her home and hit the shower wit...

We rose before the sparrows and made our way to the bus to take us up the windy-windy road to the ruins. Man but these mountains are the first to impress me more than the Drakensberg. What awe-inspiring and breath taking views and landscapes. There are truly no words or pictures to give justice to what we saw. The slopes are so steep it is hard to believe that anyone in their right mind would even begin to try and build anything on those slopes never mind the anc...

We caught the local bus back into town, went to confirm our tickets on Inca Rail to Machu Picchu and booked our bus tickets to Arequipa. We decided to visit the San Pedro market to kill time before leaving to catch our train. It is a market that is highly recommended for tourists to visit. What a sight to behold. So much colour and hustling and bustling. It is an enormous market with butchers, bakers, take-aways, sit downs, tourist tat, green grocers, etc, etc al...

Graeme booked us on a tour bus with Tour Peru and we were once again treated to 1st class luxury with reclining seats and legroom for longer people than Graeme. I was very snug and cosy under my sleeping bag and soon fell fast asleep. Graeme fell into a deep sleep as we rolled our way towards Cusco. I was aware that the bus had stopped and thought nothing more of it since there was one stop en-route. However, it turned into a very long stop, since the bus had bro...

We found a tuk tuk to get us to the hostel for the night. We had absolutely no idea that we were stepping into a nightmare of note. Man, I have never seen such road rage before. This eensy weensy little vehicle deciding that it owned the right of way on the roads and very deliberately blocking the way for any other vehicle to turn or pass them. And then he entered into a verbal altercation with another taxi and the 2 of them did their best to try and bowl each o...