Cuzco - Peru

We travelled over the Andee's to the beautiful city of Cuzco. Getting off the night bus in the morning at a new height of 3,400m our ears were popping. At first, just walking around at that altitude took some getting used too. We stayed at the top of the hill, in the arty barrio of San Blas at a homely hostel Casa de la Gringa.

The city is stunning, if not incredibly touristy but it's high season and the jumping point for Machu Picchu so we were expecting it. On the plus side, we got to eat some great food, there are hundreds of restaurants. We found one veggie place where the woman was an absolute goddess in the kitchen. The colonial buildings too are endless and you could spend days simply walking around the town, finding the hidden craft and great food markets, exploring the cobbled backstreets and soaking up the atmosphere in the plazas.

Unfortunately Pete wasn't to well at first because of the altitude, feeling OK I was happy to spend my time exploring the town and the markets that sell the most beautiful textiles and jewelry. The men tend to make the jewelry and the women the cloths - I loved talking to the people who made them. Women in traditional dress are keen for you to take their photo (for a soles or two!), I couldn't resist taking a picture of these two ladies as I found one of their little lambs skipping along lost in the market! Children sell everything from postcards to finger puppets. The city is all about tourism. Chapped cheeks, colds and windburn seem par for the course in Cuzco too.

Once the capital of the Inca Empire (now a UNESCO site) many of the buildings were reconstructed by the Spanish using the massive Inca-built walls. Quechua is also spoken in Cuzco, a language descending from the Inca's, although locals told us how worried they were that it is disappearing from younger generations. I've not visited a place before where it's blend of history feels so alive. The city even has it's own colourful flag and the street names have been changed back to Quechua.

From Cuzco we then set off on the most incredible 5-day adventure over the Salkantay mountain pass to the 'lost city of the Incas', Machu Picchu...

Nazca Lines - Peru

Next stop Nazca, a town made famous by the Nazca Lines in the desert! The Lines are ancient geoglyphs that stretch for 80kms that include simple lines to amazing 200m long pictures of a monkey, trees, hummingbirds, llamas as well as geometric shapes. Over 70 shapes were created from moving rocks by the Nazca people (400 AD) - no one really knows what they mean but theories range from cosmology to an ancient airstrip! Check it out on Wikpedia...(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines).

Whatever the truth (people have dedicated their lives to working it out), we wanted to see it for ourselves! Being peak season the flights over the lines were pricey, so we settled for the museum (full of artifacts, info & old aqueducts) and travelling into the desert to check out the lines from the viewing platform. Not a perfect view but we were pretty happy to have seen - a bit - of this wonder of the world!

Pisco to Paracas National Reserve & Isla Ballestas - Peru

From Lima we hugged the Atacama Desert coastline until we arrived in the town of Pisco, five hours south. Destroyed by a scale 8 earthquake 3 years ago, at first glance it does sort of resemble a war zone. 80% of the town was destroyed, so the people have and are working really hard to rebuild it (it was hard to see the shacks set up in the desert by people clearly still left homeless). We stayed near the plaza where everyone seemed to hang out, in a friendly little hostel that was miraculously not affected by the quake. Famous for the drink Pisco Sour (Pisco is like a grape brandy) our hostess served us night caps of the limey drink and I haven't been able to stop ordering them since - everywhere in Peru & delicious!

The next day we set off to Paracus National Reserve and the Ballestas Islands bright and early. The combination of rugged shoreline, mountains and dessert make for a really barren landscape but the wildlife was overwhelming. We set out on a boat tour of the islands and saw Sea Lions, Humboldt Penguins and an amazing number of birds (Cormorants, Boobies, Pelicans etc). The penguins were so cute to watch, hopping along the rocks, flippers together before elegantly diving into the freezing cold sea.

The Humboldt Current brings with it an amazing amount of plankton and fish (as do the fishing boats) so watching the hundreds of birds flying through the sky like long ribbons, ducking and diving into the ocean was like watching a David Attenborough documentary for real - pretty cool!

Peru - Lima

We arrived in Lima, after a luxury (beds & movies) 20 hour night bus from Tumbes on the boarder. Feeling refreshed we found a hostel in the nice part of town, Miraflores and set off on a whirlwind tour of the capital.

We took a guided tour of Haucha Pucllana ruins, dating from the Lima Culture (400AD), a civilisation who worshipped the sea. The site had been buried under a big mound of rubble until the 80's, a lady on our tour said they used to use the area as a bike track when she was a kid! Now the site of the pyramids are being restored to their former glory-ish (formerly 8 miles, now only 2) but it makes for a ore-inspiring but bizarre sight right in the middle of what is now downtown Lima.

After our archaeological fix, we took a walk along the Coasta Verde which was not too different from a windy day out in Brighton and shared a kiss in the Parque de Amor (when in Rome!). At night we discovered a traditional little bar serving up the tastiest pork & mint rolls and watched the world go by. Outside the streets were dotted with marble games tables full of people playing backgammon and chess... very nostalgic. All in all, a pretty good day out in Lima!

Colonial Cuenca - Ecuador

On our way south towards the Peru boarder, we made a stop off in the city of Cuenca. Known for its skilled Panama hat makers (they actually originate from Ecuador), we were looking forward to checking out the local hat makers creations. We'd be shown many a picture by travellers on our way. Unfortunately it wasn't to be, it was a Sunday and the whole city was in total lock down. So we entertained ourselves with a long stroll along the river Tomebamba, drank lots of cups of tea (it's chilly) and took many a photo of the general colonial loveliness. We passed through a gem of a flower market, as one of Ecuador's biggest exports they sure know how to make a beautiful rose!

Feliz Cumpleanos in Tena - Ecuador

I thought I would share some snaps from my 25th in Tena... I was spoilt with a stunning day on the river, trinkets from the market, exotic flowers cut from the river banks; not to mention the birthday cake of dreams.

As Pete said, kayaking is just the best fun - we passed gold panners, waterfalls, tackled new rapids and ended the days paddling we pulled into a little river town Misahualli to check out the resident cheeky monkeys.

In the evening we celebrated with some fab guys we met along our way in Ecuador (John, Jorgen, Sean, Gideon, Franzica) and who really sweetly said they would meet us in Tena for birthday celebrations and treated me to the cake. After steaks all round for dinner, we set off to Spider Bar down on the river to meet John, Jaime and the other local guides for cocktails and to share the love of the gigantic yummy cake - Tengo mucho suerte (very lucky)!

Ecuador - Kayaking School

After getting robbed on the Metro in Quito, and ripped off at every opportunity - even by the pharmacist for vitamins (its not $5 it says $2.55 on the packet!). Going to Tena in the Amazon basin was both refreshing and outstanding.

The refreshing bit was a wonderful hostel called Casa Abuelo, a small family run house with a rooftop pool table and a huge lounge complete with 40inch LCD Samsung. The town is set around a small square and split by a meeting of two rivers. The weather was balmy and on sunny days, factor 30 was more than welcome to relieve the farmers tan on the neck and arms. And in every shop and bar we were charged the same (nice and low) price as the locals, including the best restaurant in Ecuador - Marquis - where you got a bbq steak the size of two fists with all the trimmings on a table with fresh linen for $7. Bliss.

The outstanding part was learning how to kayak, we put ourselves through a 4 day course with local and world champion instructor Jaime. Also on the course was a very nice American guy from upstate New York, he was working in the area and was great company out on the rivers. We started off learning the ropes, getting into the water and balancing the 'boat', on calm water it was easy, on white water it was like balancing an apple on a plastic saucer in a jacuzzi. Very tough. We practiced getting into Eddies, Eskimo rolls and general navigation of the river.

The Eskimo rolls are the toughest, you have to tip the kayak over - WHY! - and re right it using a flick of your hips and the paddle. I found it ok in the calm water - but impossible in the white. Maudie faced an unknown fear - being strapped into a vessel in dark water, without being able to control the situation. I was very proud of her perseverance and patience, by the third day she had it in the calm water and on the forth day on the class 3+ rapids trip she raced down all the huge rapids and patiently waited for me to swim to shore having tipped over on the first FOUR!

It was an amazing experience - the scenery, the serenity of the river, watching people pan for gold on the shore, eating chicken sandwiches on rocks, falling in, getting through and making it to the end. We will be going again!