Reading this journal one could be forgiven for thinking that travelling is one amazing site after another with a bit of good food and a few drinks thrown in as well.

Well our journey from Puno to Cuzco and events when we got to Cuzco certainly showed us the less glamorous side to life on the road. We got to our bus for an 08:30am departure and went upstairs to our seats to be met by a stink that made both of us insticintively gag..unfortunatley it didnt come from something that could be thrown in the bin but the four peasants sat in front of us....We had been told we would be on a tourist bus but it was clear we were on the local bus instead..As we got accustomed to the smell we settled into our seats and looked on the bright side, it was only 6hrs of our lives afterall.

We had been on the road 5 minutes and were on a hill climbing out of Puno when the bus stopped..the driver made several attempts to re-start with no luck...after 20 minutes we discovered that they had forgotten to put petrol in the coach....this did not fill us with any confidence..

We bounced around on the rough roads and next we found oil splashing off the window sill and onto Hayley..so we moved to seats opposite that were free..

At the next stop the bus was swamped by more peasant looking Peruvian with more clothes than teeth and more layers of dirt than clothes..a family came up and it was clear we were in their seats..my total lack of Spanish and patience resulted in me waving arms and refusing to move. Hayley decided to find the conductor and sort it out the official route..After 10 minutes the situation was made clear and for 10 soles we were "upgraded" to the downstairs cabin where only 8 people sit..Something we had asked for before the start of the journey but had been told there was no world traveller plus..So all sorted? No.

The bus then stayed motionless and people started getting off and looking at the bus..I got out and saw that one of the wheels was off...this time 45 minutes was spent as they found a spare...Finally we got on our way again and the driver making up for lost time drove like Nigel Mansell or Andrew Backley after picking up a curry...

We eventually made it to Cuzco and got in a taxi to take us to the Cuzco hotel..the taxi driver spent 20minutes driving around not knowing where the hotel was..Finally Hayley jumped out and asked the toursit information booth and we were dropped off at our hotel very tired but pleased to be in Cuzco.

We arrived at reception and were met by three ladies who kindly informed us that they didnt have our reservation for the night but could do the next two days..pfff!!!! At this point we both needed a stiff drink so headed for the Irish pub and had a couple of drinks to calm down. We decided after the nightmare day we'd had to treat ourselves to a nice,decent, hotel round the corner from the Irish bar..Finally settled in we went to bed early looking forward to a relaxing time in Cuzco, which on first impressions seemed really nice..