From Cusco we flew toward the Peruvian coast and the city of Arequipa. Known as the WhiteCity due to the paler complexion of its inhabitants (obviously they had never seen a Scotsman when this tag was acquired) this was our base for a two day, one night trip into the ColcaCanyon valley. The first night we stayed in a very nice hotel in the centre of Arequipa and enjoyed an excellent dinner at the nearby Zig Zag restaurant. The trade mark of Zig Zag is to serve y...

Inca Trail Day 1 We got a minibus transfer from Ollantaytambo, along beside the really fast flowing Urubamba river, to the start of the Inca trail.The start was not commercial at all.It is along a dirt road, through a tiny village to a car park.We got out and the porters were loading up with our bags.We were allowed 7kgs of stuff in a red duffle bag which the porters carried for us.We had 11 porters plus our own chef between 6 of us.The porters were all local...

Cusco, formerly the most important city of the Inca Empire, conquered and rebuilt on Inca foundations by the Spanish in the 1530´s and now home to every Peruvian wanting to rip off a gringo. The overriding memory of Cusco is the numerous street urchins selling everything from massages, city tours and dodgy Inca relics amongst the goods mentionable on this family web-site. The most important phrase for surviving a day in Cusco; "No Gracias" it is be...

From La Paz we made our way west to Lago or Lake Titicaca, the largest high altitude lake in the world, which splits the border of Bolivia and Peru. The bus journey from La Paz was smooth with Peru's investment in their road network, unlike Bolivia's, including tarmac. At one point we did have to cross the Lake and as the passengers took a small boat the bus was shipped across on a precarious looking wooden raft. Slight concern for our rucksacks at one point but ...

Well, now we know why Bolivians have no teeth. They get the bus from Uyuni to La Paz. 9 hours of rattling dirt track followed by a smooth last hour, from 6am to 7am, as we approached the largest city in Bolivia for our 2 night stay at hotel Rosario. We were obviously tired on arrival but gathered ourselves for a walk around the city of La Paz. The main city in Bolivia is full of traffic and market stalls selling all sorts of things but as you have seen from...