Tues 20 MarchAfter a last quick walk around Puerto, we got the jungle truck back to the airport, then the 30 minute flight to Cusco. We checked into our hostel, Hostal Amaru II, a lovely little place (ignore the Lonely Planet's comments!) in the San Blas area - we even had a private room, en-suite bathroom and a great view of the hills surrounding Cusco. We had a walk to the main square, yes, you guessed it, yet another Plaza de Armas! It felt like ...

Thurs 15 March Another early start - we got a taxi to Lima airport at 7.30am for our flight to the jungle (otherwise known as Puerto Maldonado) via Cuzco.  We landed briefly in Cuzco - as the city itself is 3500 m above sea level, it was quite strange to be flying through the mountains just as we were about to land.  Stunning views of the mountains around but unfortunately we couldn't spot Machu Picchu from the air.  We then continued to Puerto Maldo...

Tues 13 MarchWell it was hardly worth going to bed - we had to get up at 3.40am for our flight from Santiago to Lima (typical now I think I have got over the jetlag and can actually sleep at night). A few people had told us that Lima airport is manic and full of dodgy taxis so I had contacted the hostel beforehand to arrange an airport transfer.  On arrival there was no nice man holding a board with our names on it so we thought my telephone conversatio...

Mon 5 March 5 March second time round just about! Having left New Zealand at 5.30pm we then flew for 11 hours yet arrived in Chile at 12.30pm..... on 5 March! Passing over the International Date Line has made us older than we actually are (although I guess it all works itself out with the time that we´ve lost travelling to places before this). After our long flight we were very pleased to find out airport transfer waiting for us to take us to our hostel, L...

Mon 26 Feb (Continued!) After saying our goodbyes to the other Stray passengers we then met up straight away with Chris, another EHO who Lisa used to work with in Sutton. Chris and his wife, Deborah, moved over to New Zealand three or four years ago so it was the perfect ooportunity to catch up with them. They now live in Days Bay, a short boat ride across from Wellington harbour. We got the ferry then walked to their place where they have kindly agreed to put u...