After the medical adventure in Nasca we headed down to Arequipa to visit the specialist and get the all clear. We also intended to spend a few days relaxing in Arequipa although it didn't quite work out that way. Arequipa is Peru's second largest city, although it's a lot smaller than Lima, and in the central area it has quite a European colonial feel to it. The buildings, despite not being that old due to earthquake damage, are very grand and the main square, Pl...

Regular readers will note that we didn´t leave Nasca on Friday night as planned. Well we`ve had a little adventure that changed our plans somewhat and resulted in me spending a couple of nights in a Peruvian hospital (no there weren´t any Peruvian bouncers involved). I had been suffering a little for a few days, basically since we left Lima, with headaches and a fever and also a few tummy troubles but being the brave soldier that I am I´d continued to hurtle ...

Leaving our relative luxury in Lima was pretty hard but we headed to Ica and spent a day or so in what is pretty much a desert town where the amazing sanddunes that surround it are the main highlight. We were there during the two day Peruvian independence holiday, so it was heaving with people, which made it tricky to find a hotel but excellent for people watching. Driving through the massive sand dunes and sandboarding were a lot of fun, even though our driver ...

We had one more day left in Huaraz and given the state of our feet we weren´t really up for more outdoor activities so we took a short collective ride to the nearby town of Chancos and the thermal baths. Actually they were caves which have thermal water running through turning them into natural steam rooms, it would have been even more pleasant but for the aroma of urine which suggested some people didn´t give much thought to their fellow steam cavers. We took...

Having recuperated from our day of ice climbing we spent the rest of Monday hiring camping equipment and buying food for our trek. We decided to do the popular 38 mile Santa Cruz trek which is touted as one of the top 5 treks in the world and can be done in 3-5 days, we also decided to combine Santa Cruz with the one day trek to Laguna 69. Our intention was to do the whole thing in 4 days. After much debate about what type of sleeping bag needed to be hired to ke...