Peru, Huacachina

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After flying over the Nazca lines we jumped straight on a bus to Huacachina, a small oasis in desert. We chilled here for a few days and partook in some sand boarding and dune buggying. It was brilliant, we literally flew off the top of dunes in the buggy. The driver was a complete nutter, check out the video. [Tom]

Peru, Nazca Lines

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Airflield for aliens, message to gods or portrayal of shamonic journeys? No one knows why they're here, who drew them or what for. But they're impressive whatever the reason, particularly as they were created over 2000-years ago and can only be seen from above. Flying over them was blooming marvellous. One moment all you see is desert then a hummingbird appears, or a monkey or a dog. Then there's the geometric lines, which are everywhere forming giant scraches across the plains. At first it all seemed smaller than expected but then we swooped closer and had an Alice in Wonderland moment as everything went big. The condor´s the size of a football pitch, one trapezoid would fill more than three and the parrot was ginormous, a heftier offspring of gigantic and enormous. And being in an old skool 4-seater plane (inc. pilot) was like stepping into a scene from Indiana Jones. Especially when the pilot gave us updates through headphones, 'Indy the Russians are coming'...ok maybe not, but in my head the theme tune was playing. [Clare]
ps. You might need to click into the images to see the drawings properly.

Some lessons learnt in South America

- Frogs can stop a football match
- Llamas and donkeys make interesting linesmen
- Pavements and large stones exist solely to trip me up
- Bus bingo makes a journey go quicker
- Coca tea is nice (and not a drug)
- Llama meat is a bit like pork
- Being surrounded by ice on a huge glacier is not as cold as you'd think
- I had no idea how many types of potato there are
- Hostel floors are dangerously slippery (I have the bruises to prove it)
- Clay tastes surprisingly good
- Always keep your mouth closed when you fall off a surfboard
- Same with a sandboard
- Reed beds are not that comfy but they're better than a bus seat
- Chickens can work together
- Women often go to the toilet in the middle of the street
- Mice impressions can help you get out of paying rental fines
- Beef's your bait to catch piranhas
- Cake talks louder than words
- Spanglish is a language
- Dog's do ride surfboards
- And on roofs of cars
[Clare]

Peru, Colca Canyon

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From Arequipa we caught a local bus for 6 hours (during which we were forced to listen to cheesy 90's disco at 11 volume) to start a 3 day trek into Colca Canyon. It's one of the world largest canyons and is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the US, but its walls aren't as vertical so it doesn't look as clean cut. It was a great trek, we hiked with a cool group of people and seemed to easily beat the guides recommend trekking times, I think they just grossly over estimate. Highlights include: relaxing in hot springs under the amazingly clear night sky; sleeping in mud huts; playing football with the locals in an oasis at the bottom of the Canyon with a llama and donkey as linesmen; getting up at 3 am to trek the last 3 hours climb in the dark - a pain but well worth it to catch the Andean Condor's flying around at the top. [Tom]

Peru, Arequipa

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Arequipa is a chilled out place full of white colonial buildings and surrounded by towering Andean volcanoes. The coolest thing for us was visiting Juanita the Ice Maiden, one of the world's most preserved mummies (as in the shrouded kind not a mum with a face lift). Her story's a sad one - Juanita was an upper class Inca girl of about 12-years old who was lead to the top of Mount Ampata, a 6000m+ volcano, and sacrificed to the mountain gods in a bid to prevent eruptions. It sounds barbaric but to Juanita it would have been a privilege, like she was becoming a god herself. The glacial ice in which she was buried stopped her body going into rigor mortis and preserved her almost perfectly for 500-years. She was discovered in 1995 after a neighbouring volcano erupted melting the ice and exposing Juanita for the first time. Found 15-days later, Juanita still had hair, skin and all her vital organs. Scientists were able to determine her last meal was a strong corn alcohol given to numb death, and coca leaves to help with altitude. Today Juanita is once again frozen in ice but this time in a special glass freezer. The artifacts she was buried with look like they could have been made yesterday, it was astounding to see. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the museum so this one's a download, which you probably guessed. The rest of our pics are of Arequipa itself. [Clare]

Peru, Puno

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Puno lies on the Peru side of Lake Titicaca. The city itself is pretty ugly, most of the houses here are only half finished, this is so the owners don't have to pay any tax. Loopholes ay. Not wanting to hang around for long we took a boat out on the lake to see a few of the 200 or so floating islands made entirely out of reeds. They've been inhabited by the Uros people since before the Incas. Times have changed and the islanders lives have now been completely immersed in tourism, so much so that they use it as main income and are probably demonstrating their culture to tourists more than practicing it. I know, I'm contributing, but they chose to embrace it and now they're sending their kids to school because of it. A few facts if your interested... each island usually only consists of one or two extended families. The islands only last about 25 years, then they have to build a new one. They peg their islands into the marshes to stop them floating away. If they have a dispute, it's normally solved by cutting the island in half and going their separate ways. They eat reeds, build reed homes, sleep in reed beds, sail reed boats and I think they may be made out reeds too. Second part of the day was spent visiting a pre-Inca burial site where the ancients built huge stone tower tombs. Similar in design to the 70's style water towers you get in the UK, I thought. On the way back to Puno we stopped off at a local farm and were shown around by the owners. We blessed a new crop of potatoes and ate them with some cheese and clay. Yea, clay and it tasted really good. [Tom]

Peru, Cusco to Puno

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Instead of just going from A to B without passing go, we decided to bite the bullet and take a tourist bus from Cusco to Puno. A bit cheesy and jampacked with rich Americans, but a good way to see a bit more of the area. Our first stop was the exceptionally ornate San Pedro de Andahuaylillas church, South America's answer to the Sistine Chapel. With murals across every inch of wall and ceiling, it's easy to see why. The inside was a bit too garish for our tastes, like an 80's medallion man in church form, but the workmanship was pretty impressive and the outside was beautiful. Next up was Raqchi, a pre-Inca archeological complex with temple, houses and even a 'post office' - though no stamps here instead the messengers ran from place to place on foot. It then went a bit too touristy. First we were deposited at an over-priced traditional market which sold the same stuff as every market in Peru. Then dropped at a 'local residence', which sold yet more of the same and had a couple of sorry looking llamas tied up for good measure. We stayed in the bus. Our final stop was lunch, with yet more tied up llamas (though in better condition), more markets and a traditional band. I use the word traditional loosely as this is all obviously set up for our benefit. But hey, everyone's got to earn a living. As you'll see from the pictures, some of the best bits of this journey were the bits in between. [Clare]

Peru, Cusco

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After the Inca trail we decided to chill out in Cusco for a while as we both felt pretty ill. Cusco was once the capital of the Inca empire and it's really evident, there's Inca ruins all over the place. I say ruins as it's very much a case of Spanish came along ripped everything apart and built a church on top of it. Check out the photos for more info on everything. [Tom]

Peru, The Inca Trail to Machu Pitchu

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It's probably the best known image of South America, but though we'd seen upteen photos of Machu Picchu nothing prepared us for seeing it in the flesh. Maybe it was the fact we'd spent four-days trekking the Inca trail up and down three mountains, passing spectacular ruins and traversing through cloud forest, high altitude peaks and lush jungle that made it extra special. This wasn't the easiest trek, there were days of steep uphill climbs and knee-destroying descents, not to mention a donkey peeing on our tent, so we felt like we deserved the spectacle at the end. Somewhat depressingly the Inca messengers ran it in three odd hours. In my defense I was suffering from yet another tummy bug (damn Bolivia's dodgy water) and couldn't eat food so was relying on high sugar gatorade to get through it, a godsend in a bottle. But when we reached the Machu Picchu sungate and saw the first rays of sun hit the ancient ruins, we were completely blown away. It looked bigger and more intricate than we'd expected and was really well-preserved due to being one of the few places the Spanish didn't find and destroy back in the late 15th century. The stone masons in us were gobsmacked. How had these people built temples with such precision over 500-years ago? How had they raised huge blocks of stone up the surrounding mountains to construct watch towers? And how did they know so much about irrigation and water ways? It was quite humbling to see how much they'd achieved with so little technology, it gives you a buzz just being here. We'd been trekking since 4am but with adrenaline on over-drive we decided to go the whole hog and climb the vertigo-inducing Waynapicchu, the cone shaped mountain you always see in the background of classic Machu Picchu shots. It was a cool ascent, with caves to crawl through and rope ladders to climb to reach the summit. The panorama from the top was mind-blowing with views over the whole city and surrounding jungle - well worth the extra effort. Then it was a scramble back down to catch a train back to civilisation - no more trekking for us, at least for a few days anyway. [Clare]

Bolivia, Lake Titicaca, Isla de Sol

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According to legend, Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) was the birthplace of the Incas. The story goes that creator god, Viracocha's children sprung from this small island on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca and went forth to found the Inca civilisation. Not much seems to have changed here since Inca times. Reed boats still float on the water, an original Inca stairway rises up from the pier to the island's peak, there are no cars or roads, and people still tend to the land using traditional techniques and wearing traditional dress. The major difference is the tourism, which the islanders have embraced with welcome arms. People jostle to sell you trinkets, accommodation or a photo of their llama, while kids as young as 3 or 4 are offered by parents as guides to the island. 'Don't talk to strangers' doesn't apply out here, instead the children seem to the ones doing most the work, which is sad but part of their culture. The other means of income is the vast expanse of Lake Titicaca. At an elevation of 3820m, Lake Titicaca is one of the world's highest navigable bodies of water and landlocked Bolivia's answer to an ocean. The lake is famous for its huge trout and the world's largest frogs. The name Titicaca means Grey Puma in Inca language, and if you look at a map of the lake, squint your eyes and use a hefty dose of imagination, it kind of looks like a leaping Puma - or at least did to the perhaps cactus-drugged person who named it. [Clare]

Bolivia, Tiwanaku

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From La Paz we visited Tiwanaku, the most important archeological site in Bolivia. The culture that built the city stems from 1600BC, long before the Incas came along. Unfortunately the Spanish destroyed most of the site and now it's mainly ruins, as with a lot of historical sites in South America. We did see some cool carved monoliths and elongated skulls though. This culture was one of many that used to put special hats on baby's heads to stretch their skulls. We were told this was to make them stand out from the crowd, but instead bought on headaches and ended up driving them crazy. They tired to cure these headaches by drilling holes in their heads to let out the evil spirits, funnily enough this killed them. [Tom]

Bolivia, Madidi Pampas (Jungle)

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I don't know if it's the scenery, the weather, the fresh air or that I just like hanging around with monkeys, but I LOVE the jungle. Everything about it is amazing - ok maybe not everything, I could do without the mosquitos - but the landscape and masses of animals more than make up for a bite or hundred. We really landed on our feet on this tour. Our guide was fantastic, he knew loads about the area and where to go for the best chance of spotting wildlife. And the river lodge we stayed in was paradise, with parrots flying overhead and pink dolphins frolicking in the water. You could just lie in a hammock and watch them play. It was too exciting. We saw so much in four days that we almost became blasé, oh another aligator, dolphin, turtle, capybara...talk about being spoilt. Top highlights include tracking and spotting anaconda, galloping on horseback through the pampas (marshlands); watching a family of 30+ Squirrel Monkeys swing through the trees right by our boat; seeing a 6-metre long caiman; spying a turtle laying its eggs on the river bank and stumbling upon some cowboys herding hundreds of cows across the croc infested river. None ended up as lunch, well not to the crocs anyway. We've got a video of this in the gallery so if you ever wanted to see a cow shift it some, here's your chance. Gives a new definition to fast food (sorry couldn't resist). [Clare]

Bolivia, Rurrenabaque

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From La Paz high up in the mountains we caught a small 12 seater plane to Rurrenabaque, a small town in the Amazon basin. It felt more like the Caribbean than Bolivia, this was our starting point to access the Pampas jungle. [Tom]

Bolivia, The World's Most Dangerous Road

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The World's Most Dangerous Road is a 40 mile single-lane road with a drop off up to 2,000 feet in places. It's been dubbed this because lots buses and a few cyclists have gone over the edge, building up a large amount of fatalities over the years. I didn't find it too bad as we had really good bikes and guides, although I can understand how easy it would be for people to go over if they weren't confident riders or had a dodgy bike. Guttingly they wouldn't let Clare ride, they considered her too high risk as she was still ill and hadn't been able to eat for a few days. There's a lack of photos for this as it was kind of tricky to photograph whilst cycling. This ride is a bit of a tourist attraction and is more of a 'tick in the box done that' thing. [Tom]

Bolivia, La Paz

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Big, bizarrely beautiful and brimming with bowler hats. La Paz is a strange and colourful place where women, dressed in full skirts, bowler hats and shawls, sell llama fetuses by the roadside. If you bury one in your garden, it's supposed to bring good luck, unless a stray dog digs it up and eats it first. The offering to Pachamama (Mother Earth) stems back to pre-Inca times. There's also new traditions, such as National Labour Day, which took place while we where there and was marked by parades and dancing in the street. With over 1 million inhabitants, La Paz is the largest city in Bolivia, and the governmental, if not official capital (which is Sucre). It sits nestled in the Andes, 3660m above sea level, surrounded by towering peaks that top 6000m. Hygiene is something that needs to be worked on. If the altitude doesn't take your breath away the stench of sewage will. There's a toxic river that runs through the city which is known to contain lots of bad bacteria including E Coli. Horribly it filters into nearby plantations infecting crops and spreading disease. Unsurprisingly we both got ill at some point. [Clare]