And so to Peru.

The journey from Quito to Cuzco was punctuated by an 8 hour overnight in Lima airport. Fortunately this seems to be a pretty common event and so the (very decent) airport is well equipped, with all the shops and restaurants staying open 24 hours. Good excuse for a Big Mac meal! So, with the added benefit of an iPad, all in all not too unpleasant an experience.

We had a couple of days in Cuzco to acclimatise to the altitude before setting off on the infamous Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu. A not inconsiderable portion of this time was spent with the trekking agency ensuring that the tour we had booked was in order. Every member of staff we spoke to told us a different thing, and most of the time this did not tally with the website information or confirmation emails. Fabrice almost ended up spending a night of 5 star luxury after the trip with a Belgian girl named Leen. Very frustrating but we got there in the end.

Cuzco was the capital of the Inca empire and so obviously the Spanish set about destroying most traces of this mighty civilisation. There is very little in the way of pre-colonial sites. What remains is a very pretty colonial centre with some beautiful churches and other buildings, the majority restored to former glory. It is also a lot more developed from a touristic point of view than most of what we have experienced to date, with many high end hotels and restaurants mixed in with the usual mid-range and backpacker places. With this comes many people trying to sell tat, massages or drag you into their restaurants. This is so rife that Paddy's Bar (oh yes, and the highest 100% Irish owned bar in the world no less!) sells t-shirts simply saying "no gracias" on the front. They were very tempting.

We sampled Alcapa burger - very tasty indeed. So far we've resisted the charms of guinea pig, but I am determined to try it before we leave the country.

So, Cuzco is pretty and interesting but no real highlights from a sights point of view.

One annoying point was the anti altitude sickness drugs we decided to take as a precaution - they messed up our sense of taste. This meant beer tasted revolting!! What's a boy to do?