We got into New York on the 14th of December - my birthday!! - and nearly froze when we got out of the terminal at 6am. We made our way over to the "Big Apple Hostel" and got ourselves organised for a few days of sight seeing. We were staying pretty much on Times square, which made sight seeing incredibly easy. Over the next few days we managed to see most of the major sights, including the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center site, Wall St etc. We managed to get to go to the Phantom of the Opera, which [View Full Entry]

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We got into Puerto Igazu at about noon on Wednesday and caught a 12:40 bus to the falls. I could spend ages describing how unbelieveable they were, but you probably wouldn't believe me....... (that's stupid). Look at the photos instead. We spent most of the afternoon there, got a bus back to Puerto Igazu, grabbed our bags and headed over to Brazil. My Finnish (EU) passport paid off well at the crossing, no $160 visa for me!! Border control actually consisted of the bus driver asking anyone if they needed their passports stamped, we would have missed it if we weren't [View Full Entry]

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After the morning in Machu Picchu, we headed down to Aguas Calliantes for a swim in the Hot (luke warm) Springs and later in the afternoon caught the train back to Cusco for a good night´s sleep back at the hotel. Tuesday we did some tourist shopping and that evening had dinner with the Inca Trail gang (guinea pig is over-rated). After dinner we got the 10pm Bed Bus back to Puno and then the next morning continued through to the Peru/Bolivia border. We had lunch in Copacabana and by 6pm we were looking for a bed in La Paz, Bolivia. [View Full Entry]

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Before heading out on the Ina Trail, we spent 3 days relaxing in Cusco and for my part trying to get over a stomach cramping case of travellers diahrea. A quick trip to the doctor, a stool test, and a packet of Ciproxin later we were ready for 4 days of pain on the Inca Trail. Friday 26th we started at 6am, pretty easy for a first day. Saturday involved going almost straight up a 1200m mountain then 700m back down. Luckily it was all over by lunch time and most of us slept for the rest of the day. Sunday [View Full Entry]

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The three days we spent in Cusco before our Inca Trail hike were relaxing. It was great to be able to stop and not have to be anywhere or do anything. I was still trying to get over a a case of Travellers Diareha which wasn't subsiding, so I went and saw a doctor to try and get something to clear it up. It took a few visits and tests to get things sorted but by Friday morning everything was feeling much better and just as well. Diarrhoea is not something you want to have while hiking on a trail without [View Full Entry]

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It has been quite a while since I last wrote. A lot has been happening, so there'll be a few entries in a row, sorry that they haven't been more regular. We decided that we had seen enough of Puno. The Uros Islands were nice and all, but the town and hotel left a lot to be desired. The room was on a noisy street corner and the water only worked occasionally. I had somehow managed to get myself a stomach bug, and when you throw in a bit of diareha with non-flushing toilets, things get ugly pretty quick. So on [View Full Entry]

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Firstly, thanks to everyone that has sent messages and left comments. Please be aware that I usually only have a small amount of time to spend on the net checking my messages, so if I don't respond right now, I will when we get stuck in another hole like Nazca and have some spare time. Saturday night, 7pm, we got into Puno, the main Peruvian port on the shore of Lake Titicaca. As soon as we got off the bus we could feel that we were at nearly 13000ft. It was a combination of the dry mouth, the foggy headache, and [View Full Entry]

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Before we headed off from Aus, both Lundy and I were expecting to find Peru as you see it in the photos. Kind of along the lines of Incan descendents wearing lots of colourful clothing, seeing some high mountains, and of course loads of Colombian architecture. Thus far we had seen very little, until we got to Arequipa. This place could very easily be uprooted and stuck somewhere in southern Europe without seeming out of place. The overnight bus trip was long, about 9hrs all up. We arrived to a crisp morning and headed over to the hostel, definately the best [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday afternoon we caught a bus though to Nazca. By the way, "we" now consisted of Paul and Rebecca as well as Ross. Paul and Bec are from England, while Ross is from Scotland. We were all heading in the same direction so it made sense to stick together. We got in about 4pm, and again there were people everywhere trying to take us to their hostel or sell us plane flights over the Nasca Lines. We managed to get away from them with all our money and bags and walked down to the hostel that we had chosen from our [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday afternoon we caught a bus down to Huacachina, a small oasis town outside of Ica. It was really good to finally be out of Lima and actually on the road to La Paz in Bolivia. Huacachina's surrounded by massive sand dunes that you don't want to climb more than once, but the views from the top are worth it. As soon as we got there we headed straight up the dune that was behind our hostel. The sun was setting very fast so we had to move it or else it would set before we got to the top. It [View Full Entry]

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