After taking a day to recover, check emails and do laundry in Cusco we boarded a First Class tour bus to Puno. The bus was set to stop at several Inca sites en route. We had pretty much enough of Inca sites and were probably the least enthusiastic tourists on the trip. It was a bi-lingual trip though, so we did at least improve our Spanish comprehension! Although given that it was a nine hour bus trip we were grateful for the opportunity to stretch our, still stiff, legs. As we went over the mountains on the bus we again noticed the altitude as the bus went higher than we had been on the Inca Trail. Still both with dodgy tummies we were cursing ourselves for arranging a trip so soon after the trek. The views ... read more

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Jaime bashed on our door at 5am the first morning and nearly gave us a heart-attack. As it happened I had been awake for the previous 30minutes listening intently to some sort of animal loudly munching the grass at the back of our lodge. I figured it had finally decided to attack... Breakfast was at 5.30 and after picking up our rubber boots we left in a motor-canoe at 6am. Jaime advised us to bring insect repellant, snacks, a hat, sunscreen and lots of water. Boy, did we need lots of water. About five minutes into the rainforest we were both soaked with the heat. I'm guessing it was 30degrees but the humidity was stifling. Every so often Jaime would stop in front of a tree and explain what it was and what the local people ... read more

Burger King, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut. To describe Miraflores as the tourist area of Lima is an understatement. The flight went well and we made it safe and sound to Miraflores, Lima. We managed to share an extortionately expensive executivo taxi from the Airport with two English backpackers and as we arrived at our pre-booked bunkbeds in the Loki Hostel in Lima, out of the window was a blanket banner advertising McFlurries. We could have been in any major city. Loki Hostels are part of a growing chain of irish-ish hostels in Peru. Just after we booked in we were told that breakfast was still being served upstairs. To our delight there was a Full Irish Breakfast on the menu. Okay, the sausages were a bit pink and the bacon was in ... read more

Sunburn and backpacks don´t go well together. So it was with a grimace that I pulled on the backpack on Friday afternoon. Our bus wasn't until 7pm on Friday so we requested a later checkout time from the Pousada and spent our last day appreciating the delights of Arraial d'Ajuda. We bought shoes for Sinéad, treated ourselves to a nice fresh fish lunch and then got a final dip in the sea in before running the bus,ferry,bus gauntlet to arrive sweaty and extremely early to the general bus station. The night bus went better than the previous one. The bus was showing 'War of the Worlds' in Portuguese, so we watched that to hone our language skills. Then, to our delight, they showed the rest of the bonus stuff on the DVD - and it was ... read more