Before we get on to our day trip riding down "The World's Most Dangerous Road" (let's call it WMDR) a little tale about our first day in La Paz. Having not had his greying locks trimmed for over seven weeks, Jez decided that a capital city would be a good place to visit the barber. We found "Gustavo's Barbershop" in a little shopping centre on El Prado, the main road through the heart of La Paz. As we entered, Gustavo's female assistant welcomed us and Gustavo himself put down his acoustic guitar that he was strumming away at. Guitar and clippers [View Full Entry]

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After arriving at Lake Titicaca we decided to spend a few days in Puno, partly because we fancied chilling out for a while, and partly because Stuart changed his flight so instead of going into Bolivia he would fly back to Lima from Juliaca (which is quite near to Puno.) The main touristy thing to do in Puno (well, the only touristy thing to do in Puno actually) is to visit the Uros Islands, which are floating islands made of dried reed, a short boat ride into the lake from Puno. Amazingly Bridget´s emergency sick-bag was not called into action on [View Full Entry]

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We´ve heard the term ´Flashpacker´a few times during our trip, a name given to backpackers with a bit more class. They take a taxi when a bus would do, order crepes instead of pancakes, and take the Andean Explorer train to get from Cusco to Puno when a bus at a fraction of the price would do. You can guess what we were on Friday. Flashpackers! After roughing it for a few days on our Inca Trail and in the jungle we treated ourselves to a posh train ride through the Andes on board "The Andean Explorer", South America´s answer to [View Full Entry]

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On Monday we flew from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado (which Jez and Stu have taken to saying in a Terry Cristian-style Manc accent for some unknown reason. You remember him, from The Word) which is not far from the Bolivian border i.e. in the Amazon Jungle. From there it was a 45-minute journey on a motorised canoe, then a 45-minute walk through the rainforest, then a 30-minute canoe ride until we eventually arrived at our destination - Sandoval Lake Lodge. Lake Sandoval is a lake that was formed when the river Madre de Dios (a tributary of the Amazon) changed it´s [View Full Entry]

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Well, it's been a week since the last entry. And what a week it's been! On Monday Jez thought it was only fair for him to be ill since Bridget has done her fair share, so he went down with a spot of altitude sickness after flying from Arequipa (2300 metres above sea level) to Cusco (3200 metres). This was a bit surprising as we've been at much higher altitudes. Symptoms of numb fingers and feeling "spaced out" prompted our assistant nurse (Stuart) to run off to the pharmacy for a remedy (followed by a slow stroll back after feeling lightheaded [View Full Entry]

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Friday morning saw us all up bright and early in our ironically-named hostal "Home Sweet Home" (it´s not going to be our list of Top 100 Hotels of Peru) for a two-day trip to Colca Canyon, primarily to see the condors that fly through and over the canyon on the thermals looking for food. As you can see (hopefully) from the pictures the scenery in the Colca Valley and the Canyon was spectacular. It was a long minibus ride to a town called Chivay where we stayed on Friday night. Before dinner we went to a thermal springs where the water [View Full Entry]

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That´s right folks, for the second time in three weeks Bridget has found that keeping her breakfast under control while being in a mode of transport slightly alien to her is an impossible feat. The gory details... Stuart and Jez were both really keen on flying over the Nazca Lines in a light aircraft, so we booked our tickets on arrival in Nazca on Wednesday. Bridget didn´t really fancy it so decided to watch from the sidelines. But come the day of the trip to the lines she just couldn´t resist and signed up. Unfortunately we were seperated, so Stuart was [View Full Entry]

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And so we are three! Stuart arrived at the airport bang on time on Monday afternoon and we were diligently waiting at Arrivals for him. So for the next three weeks we will be... The Three Amigos! (we´ve been waiting for three weeks to get that out.) He kindly offered to pay for the taxi back to the hostel but we had to refuse because he had the wrong money. In his defense he says that the lady in Wigston Post Office assured him that US dollars are the currency in Lima. The taxi driver preferred Soles though as this is [View Full Entry]

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Despite the location saying Trujillo we actually stayed in a nearby "surfing town" (as everyone knows we are both a couple of surf-dudes at heart) about five miles from Trujillo. This was because, having stayed in cities for all of our trip apart from the Galapagos, we fancied a bit of a change and some sea air. It was a good choice; Trujillo looked like most of the other cities... lots of people, lots of taxis, lots of traffic fumes. Having a day to spare (on Saturday) we took the bus into Trujillo (more of which later), in order to get [View Full Entry]

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Well, such a lot has happened since our last entry. Pavarotti and Colin McRae have both died, and Gary Megson has been given the unenviable task of saving City from the drop... and it´s only September! But back to the blog. Having had a nice couple of days in Cuenca, including a day out to Ecuador´s "most significant Inca ruins" at Ingapirca, we got a bus to Loja on Monday, so we´re not far from the Peruvian border now. Yesterday (Tuesday) we had a fab day tour to Podocarpus National Park. It turned out it was a private tour as [View Full Entry]

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