The prospect of returning to Lima didn't really thrill us. We stopped here briefly on our way up to Mancora and we were far from impressed. The guide book didn't help, with quotes such as: "The filthyness of the streets, strewn with dead donkeys, and the unevenness of the ground make it impossible to enjoy" And even Charles Darwin had a word or two to say on the place: "...in a wretched state of decay; the streets are nearly unpaved and heaps of...

We were desperate for some good weather after the freezing temperatures of the altiplano. So we travelled 16 hours overnight to Mancora, almost on the border with Ecuador. As usual, we treated ourselves to the best seats on the bus. We also got to play Bingo, which was difficult with our limited Spanish. Aidan went racing upstairs to tell the hostess he'd won. He hadn't, he'd got his numbers wrong. Fingers crossed for the journey home. Our plans were to do noth...

Ica is a town in the middle of the Peruvian desert with a lovely oasis lake on the outskirts in the middle of loads of towering sand dunes. Everyone was stoned in our hotel. The Israeli tourists were all stoned, the waiters were so stoned it took them 3 attempts and 20 minutes to make one cocktail, the owners of our hotel were so stoned they charged us for one less night and needed a calculator to work out 200 minus 40. Even the dog seemed stoned, he just sat by...

After possibly the worst and longest bus journey we've ever done we arrived in Nasca. Having said that, for us the journey was ok. We splashed out on first class seats and took plenty of tablets for the windy roads. We travelled throughout the night so whilst we were quietly sleeping everyone else was being sick, nice! We got to Nasca at 7.45am, checked into our hotel and went to bed. We were rudely awaken by a knock on the door, the'd brought us our breakfast -...

Machu Picchu obviously didn't have the same effect on Aidan as it had on Steven. There was no marriage proposal. But still it was an exciting and interesting day. We got the train to Machu Picchu in the Backpacker Express. The main difference between this class and the other is that there is no heating. Was so cold on the train because it was 6am and still below zero degrees. Anyway the scenery was amazing, lots of snowy peaks! Got to the station and had to get...