We had an extremely rude start at 3am to get a cab to the meeting point to meet up with the rest of the group on the bus. We all forced down a coca tea, but it didn´t really kick in to wake us up much, although I think Sarah, Katie and Alfie probably felt better than I did. First stop was Ollantaytambo for a really nice breakfast and we had a quick look in the hotel garden at the many frightened guinea pigs running around in their little hutch. Every time you ...

Got the overnight bus from Arequipa to Cusco (the old Inca capital of Peru) and decided to stump up for ´luxury tickets´ which was a bit like flying (with less terror). We had our own attendant, reasonable food, a film (´Marley and Me`, emotional) and seats that went back to near horizontal meaning we got a bit of sleep. Stayed at ´Home Sweet Home´ hostel in the San Blas district which was excellent, although the walk up the massive hill and series of steps...

3rd-10th April So after the white knuckle bus ride from Nazca to Arequipa, and a game of bus bingo (prize: a return ticket to Arequipa...), we arrived in one piece in Arequipa late on Sunday night. City looked pretty dead as we drove through towards the hostel (our promised hostel pick up hadn´t materialised...), and we got to a deserted square where apparently the hostel was. Finally spotted it, and some sort of night watchman rang the bell for us... we got i...

Lima and the start of the Gringo Trail - 28th March to 2nd April Flew in from New York on an overnight red eye and got in to Lima airport at 6.30am which was only an hour behind NYC time. Checked into our hostel in the San Isidro part of the city and then headed out and about. Headed to the Miraflores region on our first morning and afternoon to check out ´Love Park´ which had decent coastal views and a graphic statue (nice). Managed to get an awesome 3 c...

21st - 24th March So we had a ceremonial ripping up of the greyhound passes in Austin and were both looking forward to a civilised flight up to New York - even Paul has decided flying is the lesser of the 2 evils. Caught the plane with the remnants of the hipsters - all carrying the largest possible carry-on cases and twatting away like crazy on their iphones... I had definitely had enough of this nonsense for a while. And back to the cold... had a longish wal...