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 ...