ChristieC

The next day we started with a canopy walk through the treetops, along 9 rope bridges. It was really pretty and lots of fun - hard work in that heat though! We saw a poison frog but not much other wildlife. Lunch was a buffet feast in a local village where we had steamed catfish, huge piranha, mashed plantains among other things. Oh and an absolutely disgusting warm local jungle beer. Eww. We ate with our fingers in the traditional style. The food was surprisingly good. In the afternoon we started a village visit which after 10 minutes became a flooded village as we experienced our first Amazon downpour. Within minutes the ground was under 15cm of water! We took shelter and watched on from a local house as the kids continued to play soccer in ... read more

Onto day 2. We awoke early for a pre breakfast cruise in the skiff. Weve been told the majority of the activities will be early morning and evening to avoid the heat of the day. After lunch is reserved for siesta, which suits me fine! The temperature is lovely that time of day, so even though I'm not a morning person it was an enjoyable ride. We saw lots of colourful birds and just cruised wround enjoying the morning. Then it was back for breakfast before we took the skiffs to a local rum distillery. Upon arrival at the rum distillery we were shown the still, it's pretty old fashioned but obviously works a treat. We met some baby buffalo which are farmed for meat. By this stage we were all dying of heat exhaustion so ... read more

Wow we are doing a lot this trip! It's hard to keep up with the blogging. So we start with a 9 hour overnight bus to Nazca. Not as comfy as the luxury bus, but not a local bus either. Our supposed VIP tickets got us the downstairs cabin, meals, blankets, etc but honestly the roads were windy and it felt like the bus was toppling over on each turn so none of us got any sleep. 6am arrival into Nazca and amazingly the hotel let us check in and get some zzzs. Not too many though as breakfast finished at 9 then we had to leave for our flight over the Nazca lines! Tiny 12 seater plane and they explain it will be constant 45 degree banking so people on both sides can see. I ... read more

None of us were very excited by the prospect of a 7 hour bus ride from Cusco to Puno, but we didn't have much choice. Little did we know that Peru sports some rather fancy luxury buses! Reclining seats, adjustable calf rests, wifi, and cushy leather seats. 7 hours felt like 2. We arrived in Puno, home to Lake Titicaca at the ridiculous altitude of 3810m. A strange sensation as the town and lake are flat. Not a huge amount to do, but we went for a walk and checked out the local food markets before dinner. At dinner we saw some local dancing with amazing costumes. Early start the next day for Lake Titicaca, the highest altitude navigable lake in the world. Hilarious race on bike carts to the boat, then a lovely cruise through ... read more

From Cusco we departed for Ollantaytambo which is where the train for Macchu Picchu departs from. We spent a full day driving there, exploring the ruins of Pisac and Ollantaytambo on the way to our hotel. Both sets of ruins had hundreds of steep, uneven stairs so it was quite a hike but worth it for the views! After the ruins at Pisac we had lunch in the town. 6 of us had pre-ordered coy, or guinea pig, to give it a try (it's roasted for several hours). None of us were very impressed - not much meat, you can't eat the skin even though it looks like pork crackle and the flavour wasn't to my liking. We also stopped at an alpaca and llama farm to feed the animals and learn about the products made ... read more