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 jumpers and long trousers (Finn excepted, as usual!). the nights can be particularly chilly - mainly due to the altitude but we've toughed it out and not troubled the optional heaters yet !

15th - also a lazy, shopping day. The younger 2 children spent most of the day befriending the Marani staff, especially Angel, and Finn learning to play the pan pipes. The evening saw a return to the Inca grill, great food and a half decent Peruvian band.

16th - up early then bus travel to Puno. Long day on the bus, several stops then a long stint into the city. The tour was good but left the children wilting - the first stop was at the South American version of the Cistine chapel (impressive Moorish painting on the ceiling but the gaudily dressed dolls of the saints were all wrong) also included was a replica of the black Christ that is in Cusco cathedral (so Madonna wasn't so blasphemous after all). Stop number 2 was at the largest (highest walls) Inca ruins at Ruaypa where ceramics are the speciality - in fact we arrived the day after their annual ceramics festival and judging by the debris it was a riotous affair (not Harefield House at all Kate!). A brief stop followed at the highest point of the road for photos of snow capped mountains and the obligatory picture by the altitude sign.Topping out at 4350, it feels so much different from the first time we were at altitude, no special effort required at all. The road from this point was very rough and slowed progress significantly. Passing through Juliaca gave yet another insight into the realities of Peruvian life - an industrial city of 240,000 with the tricycle (with 2 seats on the front being the most popular form of transport - there are 40,000 of them in Juliaca alone.

We saw 2 very different views of the Altiplano - the agricultural lands closer to Cusco and then the barren grasslands where herds of llama and alpaca were the most prevalent 'crop'.

Arrived in the city of Puno. Very different again from Lima and Cusco - less touristy, poorer, cheaper, the hotel El Buho feels a little like the El Ducado in Lima but this time we're even more in the city centre, just around the corner from the Plaza de Armas. We didn't stray far, as the streets were incredibly busy and all of us fatigued after 9 hours in a coach! We went to one of the recommended restaurants, but it wasn't great.

Coach travel is OK unless you're stuck behind someone who reclines their seat all the way, and you happen to be in a seat with limited legroom anyway, eh Siena?!