Hello again my avid readers! As you might have realised by this stage, my blog entries are slowly becoming more out of date... The current lag time is almost 2 weeks, but hopefully that won't ruin the story for you :o) So I'm just about to leave La Paz, Bolivia, but here goes for Cusco...Walking through Cusco was the most unreal experience: while I knew that Peru had long been colonised by the Spaniards, the centre of Cusco could well have been a cute village lif...

Lima was surprising for how dry and dusty it was (rain here comes in the summer months), but our trip from Lima to Arequipa turned surprise into shock as we entered high altitude desert. We woke up during our overnight bus trip only to find ourselves in the midst of a barren landscape that stretched from horizon to horizon. Few plants broke the monotony and no trees were to be seen; this rendered the surrounding mountains with rather surreal smooth contours. Howe...

I left Buenos Aires to join Leah in Lima, the capital of Peru. Leah is a good friend of mine from Perth and also the brains behind this trip. She will be travelling twice as long as I, but for most of the remainder of my trip we'll be travelling together. And (yay for me!) she also speaks Spanish.Arrival in Lima was more rough-and-ready than in Buenos Aires; the airport is nestled amidst a sea of slums. This is a poorer and tougher city. However, we stayed in the...