We left Cuzco to spend the night at Ollantaytambo, the town at the start of the Inca Trail. As timing turned out it was also Christmas Eve. There was an option to visit some nearby Inca ruins but in honour of the holiday I instead opted to have a glass of wine in a local bar overlooking the ruins. Well at least we could see them! At first it was just me and Katy but soon more of our group appeared and with them more drinks ordered. It also heralded our Christmas ...

Our base for the Inca Trail was the nearby city of Cuzco. It was once the foremost city of the Inca empire, and is now the undisputed archaeological capital of the Americas, as well as the continent's oldest continuously inhabited city. Inca ruins, streets and houses litter the city. At 3,300m altitude, it was good preparation for the Inca Trail. However, even just walking up the stairs or the slight climb to the main square would invariably leave us out of breat...

Lake Titcaca borders Peru and Bolivia. It was here that we were to visit the families who live on the islands in the lake and stay the night with them. We headed first to the Isla Nativa Taquile which required a 3 hour boat journey to get there. This was a quaint island where we were to have lunch but to get to the food required a long uphill climb to the town´s square. We thought it would be good preparation for the ever looming Inca Trail but after a quick bur...

We departed La Paz to cross over to Peru. This involved a journey via bus and water taxi to the border then onto Puno. To cross over the lake we had to get a smaller boat (named Lucy!!) whilst our bus took a barge which looked in serious danger of sinking. Luckily both boats made it. Puno was only our base for Lake Titicaca so we did not spend much time here. There is little therefore to write about!