The next day after our lodge tour we got Julio´s brother (who we can't remember the name so I'll call him bro) to show us around the Belen floating market and the street market. Dogs and Vultures were stalking the street waiting for someone to throw some intestines or something else needing cleaning up out to them. People with meat stalls have no Fridges or ways to keep the flies off. Fruits I´ve never seen before, and then we get to the medical street of the market- Glass jars with loads of coloured liquids in them. Bro asked the lady to explain what each of them were for. She got Ash to try a little bit of a red mixture which she told him after he drank it that it was a natural Viagra! He said he didn´t feel any different though. There was one bottle which smelt lovely which has lot of flower petals in and the lady said if you shower with that (men) you will get lucky! Though not surprising that one I´m sure I'd prefer a man that smelt like flowers than BO! There were smaller bottles that had oil of dolphin and one- oil of snake- the dolphin you are meant to put on your hands and when shaking a women's hand she will fall in love with you, and I think the Snake oil was to be good in Business. It is also lucky to have a anaconda (killed) in your office to make you successful in business. There were candles in the shape of vagina and penis which you're meant to light and pray so that you get lucky. The guide was very serious about it like he actually believed all these superstitions. Some of the meat was Caiman legs and Armored Catfish- Loads that we have never seen before. Then we got on the boat and went around the floating market in the dry season you can walk around it but as we had just come out the wet season the ground was 2-3 meters under. The houses are made to float when the water comes and each household owns a boat. People go around in a canoe selling things to the houses that float. At night apparently prostitutes go to the middle of the town in the boat and waits for a guy to come. Sometimes the boat´s get tipped up when things get a little too athletic into the horrible water where the sewage, fumes from boats, and rubbish goes this is the water that they also drink from.

From Iquitos we flew to Cuzco where we stayed in a hostel that had no heating and no hot water so it was pretty cold. The first day we did nothing apart from have a little wander around the town as the altitude (9000ft) makes you feel really out of breath and tired. We went to the shop and found some goodies guanabana yogurt and chocolate cereal with marshmallows in. yum!

We went to Aguas Calientes on the bus then train which had a river running alongside. Looked very difficult but made me want to go kayaking again! We had to walk up a very steep hill to get to our hostel which was near to the top, while men and women shout señorita as I walked past trying to get me to buy some of their jumpers or get me to go in there restaurant which got really annoying! Another annoying phrase was ´jumper lady, poncho lady, lady lady! ´ like that was going to get me to buy there things! We did have a look around the stalls and Ash bought quite a few things and me a couple. We then went and had some lunch pizza and pinacolada which is much more alcoholic than back at home. The next day we went up Machu Picchu at 5.30 to see sun rise, unfortunately it was too cloudy to be very pretty but it was still nice for it not to be too crowded. We went for a walk up towards the sun gate so that we could look down on Machu Picchu, the steps were quite steep! The weather was lovely as it got towards lunchtime and we sunbathed in the ruins. Lots of people were doing spiritual thing- meditating and singing together. After Lunch we went back down to the town and got ourselves some food. I chose banana split, but the funny thing was it came without any banana! Just ice-cream and cream. We then had to get the train back to Cuzco and find a bus as online the bus back was too expensive for some reason ($150) when everything else had been $40 each so Ash decided not to book anything and see what we could do when we got to it. We jumped on a bus going back to Cuzco and no one checked the tickets so we got there for free. We went to a different hostel this time where the staff were lovely and so cute. One lady showed us all the rooms and let us choose. Everything was so clean and they had hot water! And breakfast was lovely, freshly squeezed orange juice, scrambled egg and bread and jam. We only had two days left in Cuzco so we ought everything we were taking home which took all day as bartering and looking took ages as there was so much to look at. The next day we went to the Inca Museum where there were this dating back to 3000BC! In Cuzco there were lots of lovely restaurants so it was no problem choosing where to go but we made sure we avoided Cuy which is guinea pig. Someone told us they had it and it came hole lying on its back roasted. Alpaca is also a food that is very popular.

Sorry run out of time go to go and get the overnight bus to Lima in a mo so will finish this off when I get there. Speak tomorrow.

Love x