We decided the bus from Lima to Arequipa was 12 hours too much so we hopped on a flight and arrived into Arequipa feeling human!

Arequipa has a very pretty historic centre and has been an important city since pre-Inkan times! We were really looking forward to eating good Peruvian food, walking the pretty streets, visiting monasteries but most importantly meeting back up with the wonderful Kevin and Claire we had originally met in Rio!

We spent a great few days enjoying the city, and we had grand plans on visiting the colca canyon a few miles outside the city but a little game of beer pong got in our way! We rolled home at one and our bus was picking us up at 3am ... Derek was unwell til 5am so needless to say we missed our trip!!
After fond farewell to the lovely pair, and promises of many visits in the years to come we departed for Cusco on yet another overnight bus!

Cusco was our starting point for Machu Picchu, and as we had been planning to climb this since we started talking about travelling we were getting excited. We booked to do the jungle inca trek which had more activities then just hiking.

We started off on mountain bikes which were old and battered and frankly a bit dangerous! We cycled for a couple of hours mostly down hill until we set off again for our lodgings for the night. So far we were disappointed with the tour and worried about how bad the next two days might be!
The next day we rafted down a very full river, only a few weekend from closing the river because it was too full! Derek was put at the front of the boat and worked like a man possessed to keep us going in the right direction! We had a great laugh and even got to jump in the swollen river and hold the boat at we bumped through rapids!
We met up with our group and hiked the rest of the day to our next hostel! It wasn't a particularly difficult walk but it was beautiful and sunny!

We arrived later that evening at a "cable car" to cross a particularly swollen rock filled river and it turned out to be a basket hanging from a steel wire and our safety advice was "don't let go!"
At the small town of Santa Teresa we enjoyed the incredible hot springs at the base of a mountain with a view of a valley stretching out in front of us! We relaxed for hours in the hot water, occasionally jumping in the ice cold shower for good measure!

That night we got very very drunk in a strange night club with a pole dancing pole in the middle of the dance floor. We proceeded to teach people some Scottish country dancing on the deserted dance floor! Had a great laugh!

The next day we got up early and feeling worse for wear we took on the zip lining! We had great fun sliding across the valley at speed of up to 60kmph! The longest one was 1.5km and a brilliant way to get rid of a hangover!

The next night was spent in a strange completely fabricated town of Aguas Callientes that exists purely for tourist! Really didn't like the feel of the town but were really looking forward to finally seeing machu pichu the next day!

We set off the next morning (after a chance encounter with our old huaraz friend Patrick!) at 4 am and climbed 1700 steps to arrive at the gate in time for sunrise, unfortunately the day was rainy, mist covered and grey! We took a tour of the ruins and it was completely and utterly worth every penny and step!
The ruins were shrouded and obscured for most of the day and by 1pm the rain was coming down hard and most of the tourist left!
This was a turn of luck for us as we had until 9pm before our train so we relished having the site almost to ourselves for hours!! For a site that you have seen pictures of since you were a child we were not let down and had a more than memorable day!