17th - decided to have a slow day after the whole day travelling yesterday - so we walked down to Puno harbour (a very inauspicious place) and were persuaded by Benito to take a boat to the Yavara steamship on the other side of the bay. A very pleasant trip for our first real view of Lake Titicaca and The Yavara was a delight. Originally from a foundry in Birmingham, it was shipped in over 2,400 boxes to Arica and then over the Andes by mule in 1862, the journey ...

14th - lazy day, chilling at Marani with an afternoon shop, topping up with souvenirs and Peruvian stuff - then dinner at the Fallen Angel funkiest place in Cusco. Check the photos! Siena and Derry spent a good deal of the day washing clothes in the bath and sink! However, they failed to spot that the room was cold and there was no way of drying anything! Other than the courtyard which can be a suntrap, the rest of the place is generally cold, we need to wear jum...

This was the Machu Picchu day - as you'll see from the photos! Seems like everyone travelling in Peru has MP as their major aim - almost seems a shame for the rest of the country. So everything is centred around the Inca trail, the Inca ruins and the big place itself. We took two early tuctucs to the station (only 2 minutes!) and boarded the Vistadome Valley, a comfortable train with skylights to see the views. And you definitely need them - on the hour and a hal...

The boys went in search of the Peru Rail office after breakfast to secure our booking for the trip to Machu Picchu, whilst the girls packed. Packing completed, Derry updated her journal (thanks for the books mum!) and we waited for the boys.......who eventually arrived 15 minutes before our taxi arrived to Ollantaytambo. The journey into the sacred valley was by now typical - steep climbs followed by spectacular views over cities, fields , snow capped mountains...

cusco, sun 8th & mon 9thSunday - big chill. Only left the hostal in the afternoon for food. Our local hot sandwich place from last night provided takeaway lunch. Siena read Watership Down ALL day, and the other two played really nicely all day with sticks used for walking up the trails, or with horses (plastic ones J). We read or chatted and it was the quietest day we've had so far. Really restful!.Monday was more eventful, we met at 9 at the travel agency, t...