Maybe we were still high on adrenalin from the Inca Trail, maybe we were still light headed from the altitude, but on returning to Cusco we shunned resting and booked a day white water rafting and zip lining.

With yet another stupidly early start we joined the tour group and headed to a site on the Urubamba river a couple of hours outside Cusco. To date our experience of white water rafting was limited to a day in Pennsylvania where the water was so calm our raft included a 6 year old and no guide. I believe the expression is "gnarly". Ahem. Well Peru was a little different, we hit rapids up to class III. Still not in the really dangerous territory, but pretty exciting all the same. We've definitely been bitten by the bug and will be seeking out more rafting trips in Chile/Argentina.

The zip lines went across the river from a height of around 15m. Not sure they'd pass UK safety standards but we lived to tell the tale. Great fun. We should get sent some action shots by an American guy who was on our raft soon (we split the cost of the pics, true pikey style!).

Speaking of whom, this guy initially suffered from one of the worst traveller syndromes - he insisted on speaking (poor) Spanish, and only Spanish, to everyone. Whether they spoke the language or not. Twat. To be fair, once we coaxed him into English he was a good guy.

So, an action packed day which was followed by an overnight bus to the town of Arequipa - fully reclining seats, movies, meal and hostess service this time. We've learnt our lesson.