Driving north from Nazca we stopped to climb an old viewing tower to have a look at some geoglyphs made by the Paracas people (an early relation of the Nazcans).One set consists of a man, woman and child (early family portraits possibly? Although a slightly odd looking family!). We headed a bit further north for a visit to Paracas National Reserve. On the way we spent a day at a real, genuine oasis at Huacachina, surrounded by the biggest sand dunes I have ever ...

We left Arequipa having decided we needed a longer respite from high altitude (fuzzy heads, sleepless nights and snotty noses) so headed for the coast. Before we had gone far we decided it would be a pity to come all this way and not visit the world's deepest canyon: Cotahuasi Canyon (3354 metres deep.1850 metres deeper than the Grand Canyon). Unluckily the only way there is along a 200 kilometre dusty and bumpy unpaved road that reaches the dizzying height of 47...

Well here we are our fourth country - Peru. We crossed the border without a search of Gerty but for the first time they wanted to see some documents other than our passports and vehicle registration document. We reached Puno by lunchtime. It sits on the shore of Lake Titicaca (8500 square kilometres), the highest navigable lake in the world (3810 metres). It is the 2nd largest lake in South America and the 21st largest in the world. On the lake are several old ...

We spent four days in La Paz (3500 metres), a large sprawling city in a canyon cut into the adjacent Altiplano (4000 metres). The buildings hug the steep sides of the canyon. It is quite a spectacular sight. It is not the official capital of Bolivia (that is Sucre. Hands up all those who thought it was!) but it does have all the commercial and political offices as well as a lot of traffic, pollution and a population of 835,000. After our scary drive into the city...

An amazingly good paved road led from Potosi city to Uyuni, a desolate, dusty and dirty town in the desert landscape of the high south western altiplano (3669 metres). The area is so flat that the wind, which is quite cold at night, whisks through the streets. No we haven't gone mad coming here as this is the jumping of spot for the Salar de Uyuni (world’s largest salt lake with an area of 10,582 square Kms). We booked ourselves a two day tour and whilst w...