Arequipa for us was something of an afterthought, as we already felt that we were behind schedule (if there ever was one!) and should be pushing further south. After hearing about the state of the road from Ica to Cusco though we decided that a stop in Arequipa wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. They call Arequipa "the White City" as it's largely made of a white volcanic stone that occurs locally, making the centre of the city absolutely stunning in bright sunlight. We walked around the city for the day that we were there, taking in the sights, [View Full Entry]

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After Lima we were suitably refreshed and ready for some more extreme activites. What better than a desert oasis, surrounded on all sides by huge sand dunes, and from which you could both sandboard (gulp!) and go for rides in ridiculous 320 horsepower sand buggies? We decided to stay in Huacachina rather than Ica itself, the latter being a bit mucky and city-like, the former a collection of hostals and restaurants around a lake-sized oasis in the desert. The areas both north and south of Ica are pretty much uninhabited and it's not hard to see why as you drive through [View Full Entry]

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According to conventional backpacker wisdom, Lima is a dirty, smelly, polluted city, choked with smoke belching traffic and generally not a nice place to stay. I can't remember how many people had told both Em and I that Lima was best avoided, but being the stubborn pair that we are, we decided to go there nonetheless. There were a number of reasons for this other than outright bloodymindedness; it sounded interesting, we needed to go there to see Oscar (a Peruvian friend we'd made in Mancora some weeks before) and the Footprint guide said we could get some top Chinese food [View Full Entry]

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Knowing that Peru is home to some of the most stunning mountain ranges in this part of the world, we headed to Huaraz after Trujillo. We were eager to see some of these mountains especially after reading about their beauty in the trusty Footprint guide. It was with some trepidation that we travelled to Huaraz though, as we weren't sure whether trekking would be a practical proposition, it being the rainy season in this part of the Andes. Our friends Duncan and Jermayne had been through Huaraz a few weeks before us and sent back reports of hail storms and heavy [View Full Entry]

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After some time in the rolling hills of Peru's northern highlands we were back on the coast, and after disembarking our night bus and rubbing our sleepy eyes, were treated to a fine warm morning. We had taken the decision to stay at Huanchaco, a beach resort a little way from Trujillo, as we'd been advised that it was a better bet than the city itself. Whilst the place had a certain charm about it we concluded that Mancora was a much nicer resort, if that's what you're after. It didn't matter much to us though, as we were yet again [View Full Entry]

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After the impressive archeological sites around Chiclayo, we had really developed a taste for ancient relics and massive sites which take ages to explore. As such, we were really quite excited about our next destination - Chachapoyas. The initial drive to visit the town was the nearby ruins of Kuelap, said to be some of the most important pre-Inca ruins in the country (although you do get a used to every site being the "most important", "oldest", etc. etc.!!) In any case, we were looking forward to the visit, although were only planning on spending a couple of days there. What [View Full Entry]

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Our arrival at Chiclayo was relievingly uneventful and without drama we checked into the (somewhat strange smelling) Hostal Sican. We had decided to stop in the north of Peru to check out the ancient and supposedly incredible ruins that are even now still being excavated and discovered, and that receive far fewer visitors than Machu Pichu and the south of the country in general. It was with this in mind that we set off on our first day in Chiclayo to meet the long deceased Lord of Sipan. His remains, and those of many other elite members of his society, were [View Full Entry]

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And so it was, after an unusual Christmas (in that we were away from our respective families and on the other side of the globe), that we were on the road again. The crossing to Peru was the first frontier of the journey after reaching South America, and WHAT a frontier it turned out to be! You can call me old-fashioned, but when I think "border" I think of a couple of buildings with lots of official looking types, some sort of no-man's land in between and some semblance of order. Was I ever in for a surprise! The border crossing [View Full Entry]

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After not doing Riobamba justice (didn't really look around that much) you would have thought that Emma and I would do a better job of seeing Cuenca, Ecuador's third largest city. Unfortunately the laziness hadn't yet worn off so we really only saw a portion of the city and didn't explore as we normally would. That said, we immediately felt at home in Cuenca. Despite the warnings in the guidebook that care should be taken after 10pm, we didn't once feel threatened, which wasn't true of Riobamba. We were in Cuenca as we'd heard that the Christmas processions were something worth [View Full Entry]

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Riobamba probably deserves more investigation than I was willing to give it based on first impressions, so apologies to anyone who went there and loved it. Initially we'd planned to spend a couple of days there, we're not fond of turning up to a place and setting straight off the next day. Might be laziness but I prefer to think of it as giving every place a fair chance. Anyway we're on holiday!! Riobamba didn't capture either of our imaginations though, and as such we decided to take the much lauded train around the Devil's Nose (Nariz del Diablo) and carry [View Full Entry]

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