20th November A short minibus ride from the bus station and we got to our hostel rather bleary eyed. We checked in, showered and freshened up before reconvening as a group an hour later. We then walked around Arequipa very quickly as Eli showed us the main highlights before we arrived at our main destination, a restaurant for some brunch together. After a couple of delicious sandwiches we said goodbye to the group and started our home-made walking tour starting...

The bus offices here are so much like airports with check in desks, luggage area and boarding gates - so weird. On the bus Neil and I had two of the front seats so we settled into the 7/8 hour journey. I enjoyed watching the films - pleased they had English subtitles - while Neil listened to his MP3 player and watched Peru from the window. We travelled along the Pan American highway with the sea to the right and the sand dunes to the left before turning inland in...

15/11/12 After being reunited with our backpacks we grabbed a taxi with the dutch girl heading towards the Miraflores area of Lima. Lima is a city larger than London and the rush hour traffic threatened to make it a painful journey but our taxi driver got us quickly to Miraflores where we arrived in even bigger jams caused by road closures. A quick chat with the driver confirmed that we had arrived during a full earthquake evacuation drill. Shops and offices as...

11/11/12 - Never forgetting Remembrance Day xxx It was another scenic journey - I don't think I'd ever get bored of the gorgeous views here. We passed through a small town called Saraguro where it was market day so it was really busy. I saw one woman with a live chicken, she pulled it out of a bag and showed it to 3 or 4 women standing around. It made me laugh, I can imagine her telling her friends of her bargain and it made me think of how I show off my bargain...

9/11/12 At around 5pm, just under 4 hours after setting off, we arrived in Cuenca just as the rain came. Grabbing a taxi we made it to our hostel and settled ourselves in before immediately heading back out. One drawback with these medium length journeys is that there is not necessarily a working toilet on-board. And the journeys aren't long enough for a food/toilet stop. This means I tend not to drink enough leading to me arriving dehydrated and normall...