Well, it was another typically Cusco early start - up at 4am to be at the tour office by 5. E had been at the briefing the previous evening and had met most of those who would be our fellow explorers for the next 8 days so it was good to see them all shuffling around with hats pulled down over their ears to help ward off the cold morning. Our tour guide Alvaro introduced himself then all we had to do was wait for our transport to arrive. It seemed to take longer ...

It was good to be back in Cuzco which by now has become very familiar, and in our comfortable room at Rumi Punku. We were staying there until the end of the week when we were due to set off into the Peruvian Amazonian jungle for an 8 day trip. Over the few days in Cuzco we were to - at last - visit some of the interesting sights in this beautiful city and make some significant decisions about our travels. Sitting high above Cuzco is Sacsayhuaman (it sounds like ...

The train journey from Cuzco to Machu Picchu must be one of the best railway journeys in the world. Peru Rail must make a fortune on this route as it provides a range of service standards but seems to ensure that it is impossible to book a return (cheapest - apart from the local service) backpackers ticket and you're offered an inevitable much dearer ticket. However.........! We were at San Pedro station at 6am and once aboard the train heading forwards, we were ...

We'd another really helpful taxi driver who saw us to the bus terminal for our overnight bus from Arequipa to Cuzco. Like the one in Tacna, he saw us through all the formalities so we now expect the same level of service from taxi drivers around the world! We had to travel overnight because Cruz del Sur only runs the one bus a day and we wanted to use them as they seem to have the best reputation - we've heard that other Peruvian companies are less reliable or ha...

Arequipa is a lovely city of beautiful white Spanish colonial buildings against a backdrop of massive Andean volcanoes. At nearly 2,400 metres it'll be a good place to acclimatise before going higher. This was our first taste of Peru after an interesting day's travel from Arica. Ross, the owner of Sunny Days Hostel, gave us a lift to the station with typically Antipodean warnings not to trust anyone in Peru and to be very careful to take good care of our belong...