The departure from Lima again put national express to shame. Tickets grabbed half an hour before departure we wound our way down the coastline to the small oasis of huacachina. Taxi driver recommendations are sometimes go awry but this proved to be unique. The owner, Chemo, much like Rambo from Ecuador had learnt his English out of a bad episode of east Enders with all colourful language to go with. However through a bit of negotiation a price was agreed for accommodation. Alex was accustoming to south American 'internet' or lack there of. Some places push the term dial up to it's extremes. Huacachina is the words ultimate day trip, by four o'clock we were most definitely ready to hit the dunes. One of the best three hours if the trip so far. We remained injury free until we asked for a bigger dune to sand board, rorys right arm bear testament to why you don't race 5 abreast with 2 unknown quantities down a 50 metre dune!! Sand boarding was great as was the spectacular sunset. Getty would be proud of the photos.

Another night bus brought us further luxury and a morning arrival into Cuzco. This journey wasn't without it's trepadations; landlsides, rogue cattle and sheer drops contributed to a beautiful vista and a truly south american drive. We thought Cuzco was a just a gateway to machu pichu but it was rather a gold gilted archway with it's own golden arches in the form of mcdonalds. Alex was restrained from this culinary delight...just!! We tempted him away wifi an Internet cafe instead. Alpaca-ed head to toe we made our first attempt to reach agauas calientes, a town at the foot hill of machu pichu. Our first attempt was scuppered but an Irishman confirming all stereotypes if the less than intelligent Irish race. Inspite of the attempts of peru's own Schumacher we missed the first train, watching it pull away as we arrived. Some negotiation led frequenting the nine o'clock train. Aguascalientes is rather cold at eleven o'clock at night and getting up at 4 didn't leave us much sleep.

Wow it was worth it. We can confirm it is one of the seven wonders of the world. Rory was strangely silent, however, this was potentially more due to vertigo than wonder. No one ever mentions that its genuinely a tough climb!! We made it up wayanuupichu and deposited a slightly green Rory on a bench overlooking the wonder of the inca settlement. We came back to find all our cookies had been consumed as a way if comfort. Luckily the climb down was a little easier. A stunning day, a less than fluent guide, and an early morning left us all with a feeling of awe and hunger when we arrived back in Cuzco.

We moved after that and we are now in Bolivia. To be more precise bolivias only boutique hotel, cheap luxury is what we are now expecting from bolivia. Alex has been most impressed by the wifi network, Rory and Toby have been most impressed by the views of lake Titicaca. (although rory has definitely found to visit the bbcs politics website).

They say when you go travelling you will argue with your companions. Our only argument so far was brutally settled via Wikipedia, Toby had to swallow his pride and accept that itcz's did not stop huacachina being in Peru's desert. Unfortunately Wikipedia had not solved the argument of getting price to wash up. We wait for a solution on this.

Today is off the the bull fight (apparently the bulls are unscathed, the people maybe not so). Sunset photos are on the agenda as well.

Hope you enjoyed our bumper blog, we have learnt our lesson as we have been typing for the last hour. Hope you are all well and we hear snow is on it's way to you so enjoy sub zero temperatures whilst we get burnt.