Turns out the towns in Sabah are fairly charmless places too which, in combination with the rain, left most people wanting out! We ran to Air Asia, changed our flights and headed back to the peninsula as soon as possible - we'll have to revisit in dry season! The trips that weren't rained off were good fun though, Sepilok Orangutan centre being the highlight.

Comfy?!

Hatchery on Turtle Island, Sabah

Turtle Island, Sabah

Over to Melaka, just north of Singapore and I loved Asia all over again! An old Dutch / Portuguese colonial town with lots of character and great satay restaurants!

Old Fort

Melaka by night

Next stop the Cameron Highlands, an old hill station famous for it's tea plantations. Good for a cuppa after a hard walk/climb!

Sweaty after reaching the top!

Tea!

Attempting the blowpipe at local Orang Asli village

Are you sure, play with the nose?!

Quick pit-stop at Taman Negara National Park on the way to the east coast.

Walking the jungle canopy

Next stop was the lovely, deserted Perhentian Islands for some hammock action - we managed to tear ourselves away nearly a week later, just before the hammock-sores took hold!

We made the short-ish journey and crossed from east coast to west coast as a way of entering Thailand via another beach, Langkawi.

After a month in Malaysia we felt pretty relaxed and refreshed, especially as the price of booze (nearly the same as home!) shocked us into detox! We waved a fond farewell to Malaysia and headed over to country number 13, Thailand.

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We headed on over to Ubud, a bit further inland and home to Monkey Forest - a creepy temple complex sporting lots of Macaque monkeys that are way too eager to relieve you of any loose possessions. Obviously, the bag of bananas were dumped on Rich and he spent the rest of the afternoon with a couple of monkeys hanging off his t-shirt!

Monkey see, monkey do

Think it's taking a closer look at my very white legs - still no tan, how?!

Took a sunset trip to see the old sea temple at Tanah Lot built on a huge offshore rock but the battery on the camera died so, as per usual, we missed a great photo opp!

Balinese temple

A couple of days on the beach was in order so we headed over to the Gili Islands just off the coast of Lombok, a four hour ferry ride from Bali. Definitely my favourite islands so far, great snorkelling and nightlife but without huge numbers of tourists. We met someone who had planned on staying 3 days but had been there 4 weeks and was no closer to moving on - to be honest, I think we'd still be there if we didn't have the flight to Singapore booked!

We decided that we should remember to take the camera out more as the only time we do is on trips - we absolutely loved the Gili Islands and managed to take, erm, one photo .... in five days.

Gili Trawangan, sunset over Lombok

A short flight and we were in Singapore, not quite the hustle and bustle of Indonesia but a kind of Asia for beginners. We spent a week there and managed to catch Chinese New Year which was cool!

Clarke Quay, good for a pricey beer!

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Chinatown

Lanterns, Chinese New Year

Firecrackers and confetti, Chinese New Year

The clean up job, Chinese New Year

Singapore skyline

The national mascot - the Merlion

We can't get enough of brewery tours!

Wot u lookin' at? White tiger, Singapore Zoo

Next up, Malaysia here we come!

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The first morning we were pleased to hear that the days activities would only involve a short walk, 5 kms, around King's Canyon - what we didn't realise was that it started at midday and within 10 minutes the drinking water was too hot to swallow without retching! Mmmm. Luckily we survived the appropriately named 'heart-attack hill' and stopped midway at a waterhole to cool off. Post walk, we headed straight to camp, a barren patch in the middle of a million-acre cattle station - we unravelled the swags, cracked open a few tinnies and watched the sun go down on the red centre.

King's Canyon

First camp

The next day we started early again and headed to The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) a group of weird lookking rocks in Uluru National Park. Our task was to complete the 7kms, without passing out, and before 11am when they close the walk due to 'extreme temperatures'. I have to mention that this was the first outing of our mosquito headnets which look completely ridiculous but kept the flys from constantly landing on your face - well worth the $5 spend in Woolies!

The Olgas

A god-send on the second afternoon, a real campsite with cold showers and a pool - a Powerade and a swim later and we were feeling tip-top. We drove the short distance to see Uluru up close and personal for the first time and pitched our spot ready for sunset which we watched with a bowl full of thai chicken curry and a can of Toohey's.

Ready for another night in the bush!

We also managed to catch sunrise over brekkie the following day, before a 10km stroll around the base.

Sunrise at Uluru

Enjoying a brew

Long drive home

We had a couple of days before heading over to Darwin so took full advantage of the in-hostel bar that also served up a mean camel burger. Alice was pretty quite in itself but saw a few gems ...

This one's for you Gilly!

Only had a couple of days in Darwin but were there long enough to appreciate how humid it is - something I suppose we have to get used to for our time in Asia! Spent a day at Litchfield National Park chasing saltwater crocs with raw meat and swimming in waterholes after being reassured there are 'no salties in this bit of water ... I think'.

One armed (or is it a leg?) croc

Giant termite mound

Time to cool down!

Really enjoyed the short time we had in Oz - time to move on though, next stop Bali. Tough 'ey!

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Christmas Eve passed as usual - a 'few' birthday drinks followed by possibly the worst Christmas Day hangover I've ever had. The hostel had laid on a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings ... I managed to peel myself out of bed and ate one piece of chicken and three spuds before excusing myself from the table and lying face down on the grass in the shade for the rest of the day.

Santa made it to Christchurch, he must've been hot in that suit ...

A couple of days later we picked up our home and transport for the next two weeks, 'Sick Van' as it became known due to it's distinct whiff of puke - luckily that faded soon after!

Sick Van

We headed straight up the coast to Picton and Marlborough Sounds via a couple of really good vineyards ... by the second day, Sick Van was carrying a crate of beer, a bottle of vodka and four bottles of local wine. I miss that van!

Marlborough Sounds

View from Sick Van, one of the free campsites we stayed at

Our choice of New Year venue was either 'big town or small town' - we opted for small so we could hunt down where the locals head to. We managed to track down some live music and a crowd with hardly another backpacker in sight which made a nice change. We drank until the money ran out (again!) and enjoyed one of the better New Year's nights we've had for a while.

West Coast, Pancake Rocks, New Year's Day

Carried on down the West Coast until we decided to rev the stove up get a cup of tea and beans on toast on the go. Rich had a fantastic idea and drove Sick Van onto the world's most desolate beach - don't think he heard me say 'if we get stuck, I'll kill you' ... we got very stuck! A mix of desperation ( the nearest town was 21kms away) and male pride got us out eventually, took us 2 hours and lots of sandfly bites before we were heading back to the nearest campsite to have a shower and down some vodka.

S**T!!

The next day we treated ourselves to a helicopter flight onto Fox Glacier taking us about a third of the way up, 4 km, before we had the chance to jump out and explore. The view from the air was amazing taking in the glacier and Mount Cook, NZ's highest mountain. The helicopter ride there and back wasn't bad either!

Mount Cook

We'd been talking about doing a skydive since we landed in NZ and as the weather was brilliant in the South Island we couldn't really back out of it. We rocked up to Lake Wanaka about 11am, went straight to tourist info JUST to get some costs and managed to get booked onto the 2pm slot later that day - Rich also convinced me to do the highest jump 15,000ft so we'd have 60 seconds of freefall. I thought I'd be much more nervous than I actually was, which surprised me a bit!

Once you're wedged into this there's only one way out!

Heading to the plane

I honestly can't wait to do the next one! Probably one of the best things we've done so far, skydiving at Wanaka was a great choice too as there were some great views of Mt Cook and Mt Aspiring National Park on the way down. Unfortunately there was a camera 'malfunction' which means I didn't get an exit photo from the plane ... oh well, least the 'chute worked!

Onwards and southwards to Queenstown where Rich had more extreme sports planned, I was drawing the line at bungy jumping! He decided to do the big three in one day, the scariest one (even as a spectator!) was the Nevis - a 134m drop. As a 'bungy mate' I was harnessed up and allowed to go over with the jumpers to the platform, they also weighed me to give me the option of jumping once i was over there - not a chance!

Nevis bungy platform

View over Queenstown

Next stop was Milford Sound for a boat cruise, beautiful place

Mirror Lakes near Milford Sound

Speight's Brewery Tour, Dunedin - we drank as much beer as we could pull in 15 minutes ...

Lake Tekapo, I wasn't brave enough to face the cooooold water!

Last day in Sick Van and NZ was spent in Akaroa so we could swim with Hector's dolphins, apparently the smallest and rarest in the world. Took us a while to track down a pod of the little sod's but was well worth it once they appeared - once you manage to make eye contact they'll swim around you again and again.

We had such a great time in NZ we were quite gutted to be leaving, but like most of the places we've visited we've already made plans to go back! We decided to cut down the travel in Australia a few months ago so we can go back on hols and enjoy the cities when we're not on such a tight budget, we did keep the Outback bit in the plans though - next stop Alice Springs and Uluru!

New Zealand - the South Island remains copyright of the author Keaves, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We hadn't had any beach time since Brazil, a whopping two months, so decided we deserved a rest and headed to the Cook Islands before New Zealand. Absolutely stunning place, it did rain for almost the entire 10 days we were there though, paradise my arse! Towards the end we had a couple of days of sun which was great, so managed to get a lot of snorkelling done around the island, having a scooter really helped as could zip around Rarotonga quite easily.

Muri beach, Rarotonga

Left Rarotonga and headed to nearby Aitutaki for a few days, we did our usual thing of not booking accomodation - luckily we met the owner of a couple of beach huts on our short flight over and we ended up staying there for three days. It rained pretty much on and off while we were there so no lagoon tour for us ... good job we had enough books to read!

Beach hut, can't complain about the location ...

After 10 leisurely days in the Cooks, we had to pick up the pace for New Zealand to try and do as much as possible in 4 weeks. We took the Magic Bus around the North Island, got herded around a bit but the not having to think / make any decisions bit made a nice change from SA!

The bad weather followed us which meant we couldn't skydive on the North Island but we could do a lot of water based activities! Black Water Rafting in Waitomo was excellent, never thought I'd ever be able to do any form of caving but it turned out to be excellent fun climbing and tubing in caves under the glow-worms.

Next up was White Water Rafting in Rotorua, again, had a great time and really good fun - I nearly cried going over the 7 metre waterfall (apparently the highest commercially rafted in the world) as it looked terrifying and the guides really make you s**t yourself ... we didn't tip over though which was a relief but the amount of water that went up my nose and in my ears it wouldn't have made much difference anyway!

Wai O Tapu Geothermal pools, Rotorua

A break in the rain meant we took advantage of some other quality NZ activites ...
Mini golf - check out the putting action

They shear Angora rabbits here too - look at it's little face!

The sun did come out though the closer we got to Christmas

Had excellent 2 weeks on the North Island, did some great activities including cultural nights and after-dark kiwi hunts ... loved the Magic Bus but now down to the South Island for Christmas and New Year ready to pick up the camper van, good stuff!

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First stop was Puerto Madryn on the east coast where we picked up a hire car and headed out to Peninsula Valdes for a spot of whale watching. Jumped onto the first boat out that day and managed to see lots of southern right whales, they came really close to the boat too so you could almost touch them.

Back to shore and we spent the rest of the day checking out the peninsula, loads of wildlife you can get really close too, although we stayed way back from the massive sea lions! The Corsa held up well as Rich was speeding down gravel roads, the American chick who was in the back of the car suddenly went very silent as we nearly off-roaded it a couple of times ...

Penguins and sheep sharing the same beach

Next day we stopped at Trelew and the nearby village of Gaiman, which became Welsh mining settlements back in the 1800's. We stopped at a Welsh teahouse for tea and all you can eat cake. Found out there is actually a limit to how much cake I can eat as felt sick for the rest of the day but was well worth it!

Onwards and downwards towards Ushuaia and it's absolutely freezing, haven't seen snow this deep for ages. Suppose it's to be expected with Antarctica only 500 miles further south. Very quaint little town but so isolated. Headed up to the nearby glacier and found we were the only people up there. The beauty of South America so far is that all the 'touristy' places haven't been full of tourists, it's great!

Not sure they needed to bother with the English translation ...

We began our journey back up into Central Argentina via El Calafate to check out the Perito Moreno Glacier, still advancing, moving around 2 metres per day. The thing is absolutely huge, 5km wide and around 55 metres high above the surface. We were lucky enough to see huge chunks falling off into the lake, makes a deafening sound.

View from the boat

Back in the hostel, after eating a lovely peanut M&M, my back filling decided that South America would be a great place for it to fall out, gutted. Decided to get it checked out in the next big town, Bariloche - a place famous for it's chocolate, more gutted. In broken Spanish and English, the dentist and I had a conversation in which I only managed to pick up the words 'root canal' ... and that they could fit me in later that day. Good job else I would've been on the first bus out of there given time to think about it.

Turned out it wasn't actually that bad, but only after I made her give me close to eight injections and a promise of super duper painkillers afterwards - mountain view from the window was good though!

Beautiful Bariloche

Mendoza was out last stop in Argentina, a city famous for producing around 70% of all Argentinian wine. We hired a couple of bikes and spent the day touring four or five wineries - turned out you get a whole glass of the stuff when tasting which was a nice surprise. We returned the bikes about four hours late after a slightly hazy cycle back. Not a bad day out for 8 quid all in!

We whiled away a couple of days in the heat of Santiago after enduring the most painful border crossing so far via Mendoza - next stop the Cook Islands and then onto New Zealand.

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Bs As is probably the most European city we´ve been to in South America so far, frst impressions were really good so we decided to rest up here for a couple of weeks and rented a small apartment in the centre of town. Being a resident means lots of siestas and late nights, a routine we fell quickly into ... although on some occasions we did show the locals how to drink too much and go home too early.

A short walk from the centre are Recoleta and Palermo, the wealthier parts of the city - apparently Argentinians have the most plastic surgery in the world and you can DEFINITELY spot the people who have had work done around here. Scary!

Recoleta cemetary, the place is like a small town with road names and resident cats. Eva Peron´s grave is here too.

After a few weeks living it up in Bs As we crossed the Rio de le Plata into Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. Very quaint, another old colonial town we can tick off our list - we stopped here on our way through to Montevideo and so Rich could take the opportunity to force me into horse riding. I was pretty scared the whole time - having the token ´naughty´horse though didn´t help, it refused to walk through any water and kept making sure my arms and legs scraped every thorny tree and bush.

I know, I really was going that fast ....!

A couple of hours down the coast is Montevideo, probably the quietest capital city in the world! Only takes a couple of hours to see the main sights, a statue of a horse and a few museums ... next day we were ready and raring to watch England in the rugby final but it turns out that nothing here is open at 5pm on a Saturday! All bars were closed and restaurants were winding down - Rich and I had resigned ourselves to watching the match in the (empty) hostel until we stumbled across a small cafe with a TV, hurrah! Wandered in to find two other Brits (one of which I know through work, small world!!) who had been having the same problem finding somewhere, so the four of us got the beers in and watched the game.

We decided to wave farewell to Uruguay, lovely place but waaay too quiet to spend more than a few days. Back into Argentina for a spot of whale watching on the east coast before working our way down to Patagonia. Brrr.

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A few points we learnt about Argentina very early on; order a steak and you get half a cow, you can get very drunk on nice red wine that is dirt cheap, live like the locals and don´t even think about going out to eat before 10pm. I think I like this place!

We tore ourselves away from Salta and took our first 24hr bus trip (we´ve had a lot more since!) over to Puerto Iguazu in order to see the Iguazu waterfalls. We saw it from both the Argentinian and Brazilian sides - the first one more impressive I think.

View from Brazil

Next stop, Rio! Turned out to be a wise decision as we didn´t plan on visiting here originally - exactly how we expected it be to, lovely beaches, friendly locals and lethal cocktails at the hostel bar.

Out first outing was to a football match to watch Fluminense play at the massive Maracanã stadium. The guy organising the tour was a huge fan himself so we ended up in the terraces with the local nutjobs ... lots of flares and flags and a 2-0 victory for Fluminense. Ole! Brilliant atmosphere - looking forward to seeing another match in Buenos Aires if we can.

View of Sugar Loaf

Had to get a photo of the Copacabana!

The Big Man at sunset

We made a few more stops down the Brazilian coast to soak up the sun and lounge about for a bit longer on the beaches before hitting Buenos Aires - and more steak.

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Or first stop in Southern Bolivia was Potosi, claimed to be the highest city in the world and the site of Cerro Rico - the ´rich mountain´. Silver was discovered here in 1550 and promptly shipped back to Spain ... Potosi in it´s heyday was larger than both London and Paris. Now it´s a pretty colonial town and the mountain is mainly mined for tin, I declined the offer of a tour to go down there but the boys braved it.

Potosi miners at work

Next stop, Uyuni and the largest salt flats in the world. They weren´t lying, there´s a lot of salt! The area used to part of a giant lake, when this dried up it left behind around 4,000 square miles of salt.

A very bad optical illusion ...

We spent a couple of very cold days and nights around the salt flats and out in the Bolivian wilderness, the second night we slept in what can only be described as a shed - we were all in bed at 8pm as the holes in the windows were blowing a gale and we only had one candle between six. Had a great time though!

Probably the coldest I´ve ever been ...

Next stop, Northern Argentina and into Brazil.

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Not a huge amount to do in and around La Paz apart from the mountain bike trip to ´Death Road´- apparently it is actually the world´s most dangerous road as a few buses have been known to go over. They´ve built a new road in the past few years though which means you only see the occasional car and a shed load of mountain bikers now. The road drops about 3600m over 64km with a tiny bit of uphill (hurts at 4000m though!) - the first bit was excellent as it´s paved and you can get a real speed up! The major bit is unpaved though and this is where it starts to really hurt the arms and the butt, I braked and swore pretty much most of the way down ... I stayed as close to the mountain as I could, wasn´t going anywhere near the edge as the drops were huge!

Us at the edge ...

Seems that everyone gets ill at some point during a trip to Bolivia and our group didn´t escape either - it kicked in the day before ´Death Road´... Rich made it through the day but was pretty sick on the uphill bit. Aww! All in all a good day though, we all made it down safely.

We needed a break from the cold nights in La Paz so booked a trip to Bolivia´s part of the Amazon. The 15-seater plane gave me a bit of a fright as the turbulence over the Andes gets quite bad ... 40 minutes later though we were landing on a grass runway in the jungle and it was hot hot hot, get in! We spent the next three days cruising up the river in the world´s most uncomfortable canoe - also turned out we were travelling with the host of Australian Big Brother ... a very nice lady, her face was a picture though when she found out about the 8-man dorms!

Loads of animals on the route, alligators, anacondas and pink river dolphins - we even to got to fish for piranhas and eat them that evening, not a lot of meat on those bad boys though! The mossies were also out in full force and I copped 96 bites at the last count. Winner was Sarah with 106, good on ya girl!

Travelling: a hard life!

After a couple of mountain free days and lots of basking in the heat, we headed back to La Paz before venturing further south.

La Paz,´Death Road´and the Jungle! remains copyright of the author Keaves, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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They began living their floating lives to escape the Incas hundreds of years ago - sadly it now looks as though they stay there mainly for the benefit of us tourists. Apparently, if you have an argument or really dislike your neighbour it´s pretty easy to saw your island in half and float somewhere else to get rid, good ´ey!

Boarded the bus over to Copacabana in Bolivia the next day in time to experience Independendence Day celebrations - good fun but an absolutely manic place, two days was well enough! We joined in the local celebrations and hiked up the side of the mountain where they take minature objects to the top to be blessed and then sprayed with local beer (not sure why!) ... the search for the perfect photo led us around the side of the mountain where Keith promptly managed to stand in human poo. Cue lots of gagging ... gave us the perfect excuse to head back down and get the sympathy beers in!

A look back in disugust at the crime scene!

We planned our escape to Isla del Sol, on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, and supposed birthplace of the Incas. Absolutely stunning views of snow-capped mountains and Lake Titicaca ... we had an excellent view from possibly the worst hostel we´ve stayed in so far!

View from window made up for the skanky room!

Killer steps to hostel - note to self, leave big bags back on mainland

Everything shuts down at approximately 9pm on the Island, so after a loooong nights sleep we took the bumpiest boat back to shore and jumped on the bus marked La Paz.

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The bus dropped us off at Km 82 where our trail began and what would be four days of trekking before we hit Machu Picchu on the Sunday. Everyone in our group, apart from Rich and I and another couple, had hired porters to carry their stuff the entire journey ... the four of us looked on with envy when we were struggling to attach roll mats and sleeping bags to our packs in the rain!

Off we go ...!

We eventually got going into day one of the trek - a fairly straightforward and flat morning led us to believe that it was in fact as´easy´as the guide had mentioned. After a really good three course lunch we cracked on into the afternoon where things started to get a little harder and a little more uphill. All in all, we covered around 14kms which made for tired legs and feet at the end of day one!

We arrived at our first campsite around 5pm in time for tea to find all the tents set up and dinner on the go. The porters carry absolutely everything we need from gas canisters to tents as well as four days worth of food and drink .... they fly past you at some speed too! These guys are ace, they cover the distance so quickly every day and each one carries around 30kgs worth of gear ... trust me, they fully deserve their tip at the end of the trek!

A porter flys past!

View from tent on the first night

After a cold non-sleep in the tent we were up bright and early to tackle day two, the most difficult day which involved a hike of 1km up followed by the same downhill on some knee-jarringly spectacular steps through cloud forest and mossies in order to make it over ´Dead Womans Pass´, the highest point on Trail at 4200m. It hurt so much! Hopefully the photies will do the scenery some justice as we were spoilt over the course of the trek by some spectacular views.

The nightly entertainment usually consisted of learning a few new card games (which helpfully breaks downs any language barriers!), shivering in the food tent from the cold and being well and truly entertained by a group of Irish girls who I reckon are pretty much going to laugh themselves around South America and keep everyone else amused at the same time!

A couple of the Irish ´lads´

Into day three - bliss compared to the previous two! We headed down from the mountains to a warmer climate and were safe in the knowledge that we had covered pretty much most of the Trail in the previous two days. A four hour morning trek and then straight to camp number three which had ..... A BAR!! After a tour around the local ruins, we hit the cerveza all looking forward to the final day.

Looking happy on day three!

We were woken at 4am on Sunday to trek the final two hours to Machu Picchu - it was raining so we were all praying the clouds would clear before we hit the Sun Gate which is where THE picture you always see is taken from. Sadly, we saw ´nowt from here so began plodding down the steps dodging llamas on the way.

Eeek, hope it clears!

It began to clear around 8am and Machu Picchu began to slowly unravel itself bit by bit - it was great to be on the ruins and piece together where everything is ... takes a while to appreciate how big the place is and you´re wowed by how the Incas built something so big in a place so high and so isolated. As expected, definitely the highlight of Peru so far and so glad we booked the Trail early enough to be able to get on!

Next stop Lake Titicaca, our last stop in Peru.

The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu remains copyright of the author Keaves, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We arrived back to Arequipa from the Colca trip to the news that there were no buses to or from most places including Cusco due to the strikes ... an unsuccessful attempt on Friday to board a bus left us feeling pretty nervous about missing our first day of Spanish school on Monday.

On the Gringo grapevine, however, we had heard about a mysterious bus that left once a night and was willing to brave the road blocks - we had to track this down immediately! Saturday consisted of visiting various travel agencies trying to plan our exit - luckily we happened to meet Livvy, a lady who had been trying to get to Cusco since Tuesday night and wasn´t taking no for an answer anymore! She had poached several travellers from tourist offices along the way so we managed to cobble together enough cash between the eleven of us to hire a private bus to take us overnight to Cusco. Sure enough, Battle Bus II, working on Peruvian time, rocked up an hour and a half late at 4.30am!

We arrived in Cusco some 11 or so hours later after lots of bus banter and no sleep - we managed a short walk around town before a quick cerveza and then bed ready for class at 9am.

Spanish school has been absolutely excellent - Rich and I can now (almost!) string a sentence together in Spanish and can pretty much get by with the basics we have learnt ... wish we could have stayed for more than the one week but sadly we don´t have the time here in Cusco. Have made some excellent friends here at the school and hope to meet them further down the line in Bolivia should our paths cross.

Out homestay has been slightly weird in that the Mama of the Casa is more keen to practice her English than she is to help us with our Spanish ... she´s pretty scary too so anything mis-pronounced is quickly scorned and corrected and then we move swiftly back to English! We´ve been staying in a lovely apartment though, off the beaten track, and have been eating three massive meals a day when we can, so have done quite well out of it - plus HOT showers at any time of the day, hurrah!

Rich and I spent the weekend post-school with a Canadian couple touring the Sacred Valley here around Cusco. Lots of Inca ruins on Saturday followed by a hefty 4-hour uphill hike in Pisac on Sunday - was worth the sweat and stamping of feet when we made it to the top though as the views were great! You can really feel the altitude here as the breathlessness kicks in unexpectedly - made for hard work on the way up! Honestly, it was soooo hot, as it is most days here, I can´t believe Peruvians think this is Winter ...

We´ve a couple of days here in Cusco now to explore the place properly before we head to the Inca trail on Thursday.

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The road to Chivay is pretty high, probably as high as we´re going get during the rest of our journey throughout South America, 4,900m above sea level. The road lends itself to the best scenery, on one stop we were surrounded by eight volcanoes, not including El Misti, along with plently of Llamas and Alpacas (they´re like upmarket Llamas!). Luckily Rich and I weren´t that affected by the altitude but some people were really ill when we eventually reached Chivay - I think the local brew of coca tea actually worked!

Chivay is ace, a really small quaint place but over-run with the likes of us unfortunately. Lots of locals in traditional dress and another strikers march around the Plaza! We had a gander around town and market, bought a much needed woolly hat then grabbed our towels and headed striaght to the hot springs just outside town. The soak was well needed after a day on the bus and it was getting pretty cold once the sun went down so it kept us pretty toasty. After a beer and a nice Alpaca steak (aww!) we hit the hay ready for another early start.

5.00am start and we´re back on the battle bus heading to the Colca Canyon. Colca is the second deepest canyon in the world behind Cotohuasi which is also in Peru. At certain points, Colca is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon .... we didn´t get too close to the edge! It´s also home to the Andean Condor which fly through at pretty close range. LP mentions that you have to be fairly lucky to see the birds but we managed ten of the bad boys at the same time so we did well!

Really enjoyed both Chivay and the Colca Canyon and really pleased we decided to go through Arequipa. Next stop, Cusco.

Chivay and the Colca Canyon remains copyright of the author Keaves, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Arequipa is Peru's second largest city - it´s really pretty and is such a contrast from Lima in that everything is within walking distance and the smog isn´t quite as bad! El Misti, the local well-loved volcano, towers over the place and is visible from most parts of the city as are snow-capped mountains which is quite strange as the place is basking in sunshine and really hot during the day.
It´s a really nice place to spend a couple of days just pottering around and is the base for loads of trekking tours which makes it a must visit place on the way through Peru. It´s also quite well travelled so there are plenty of Gringo bars and restaurants!

It must be the altitude (or the night on the local cerveza) which lends itself to the most horrific hangovers so spent most of the next day in bed wary of hitting the local juice again. We did manage to book ourselves onto a tour of nearby Colca Canyon though which is why most people are in town - we decided against the trekking option which was described as 'difficult' and involved seven hours of trekking per day for three days. Bus tour all the way for us!

When we were in Lima we saw a couple of protests but didn't think too much about it at the time. Seems that word has spread and there are now full scale strikes across most towns and cities in Peru involving teachers, miners and agricultural workers. Credit to the Peruvians, when they strike they do it properly! All transport in and out of affected places is blocked which means, as the road is king here, there are all kinds of problems. All pubic services have shut down - there have been so many marches around the Plaza de Armas and the shop-front shutters are constantly going up and down to avoid any broken windows .... as I'm typing this Rich and I are currently locked in an internet cafe!

We were picked up from the hostel at 4am on Wednesday (1st day of strike) instead of the usual 8am so we could be in with a chance of crossing the picket lines that were (and still are) blocking all the roads in and out of Arequipa. Destination Chivay and the hot springs before the Colca Canyon tour on Thursday. We managed to drive about 2 miles before we hit the first roadside fire and saw police kitted out with riot shields and tear gas ... seemed like quite a peacful demonstration though so we carried on through. How serious can they be at 4am?!

Erm, they take their strikes pretty seriously! We were forced to turn back a bit further down the road after they refused to let us pass any further ... after turning around we drove past another strike group only they weren't as passive this time and started chucking huge great rocks at the bus. Luckily they only managed to hit the sides and none of the windows went through even through they took a battering. A minibus also on our route was a bit worse off and had one of it's windows put through so it seems we did okay!

By this point we had been forced off the road into a nearby village and it was still pretty dark. Our driver decided that there might be a way to hit the road over to Chivay ... after negotiating the battle bus through a huge shanty town and on some very dodgy roads (the bus nearly tipped a couple of times!) we made it onto the mountain road. Hoorah! On the way through, the villagers wern´t giving us an easy ride either and we had a couple of rogue stones stones thrown at us by old ladies and kids too!

Eventually hit the road after FOUR hours trying to get out of Arequipa and we were still only two miles or so from the hostel! Next stop Chivay for the hot springs and the Colca Canyon.

Arequipa remains copyright of the author Keaves, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The whole country has gone Copa America mad at the moment and we were lucky enough to see Peru play local rivals Bolivia just before we left town - finished at 2 a piece but we were way more interested in watching the fans go nuts. Goooooooooooooooooool!!

We arrived at the bus station with plenty of time to spare the next day, partly to make sure there was no chance of us missing the bus and and also to make sure we didn´t have to spend another night in Lima ... We booked a pretty cushy bus to take us the four hours down the coast - cost us about 8 quid but was well worth it for the reclining seats alone!

Rocked up to our next stop, Pisco, just before it got dark and was a bit taken aback when we were told that it was our stop. The place itself looked quite ropey to say the least but we found it was a bit a of a grower once we saw it basked in sunshine the following day. I´m pleased to say the million stray dogs have been quite friendly so far as well!

Booked ourselves straight onto a tour of the Ballesta Islands with penguins, sealions and dolphins galore - the Islands are also absolutely covered with different types of birds, most of them known as ´Boobys´ which delighted the male section of the boat no end. Spent the afternoon touring the Paracas National Reserve, the driest part of Peru and second only to the Atacama Desert in Chile. The views over the sea were awesome and once we actually bring the camera cable out with us, they´ll be some photos to boot.

A big seal ... !

The ´Cathedral´at Paracas National Reserve


Silly me forgot that deserts actually get quite hot, even though it´s ´winter´ so Rich and I are now sporting excellent matching sunburnt noses!

Hopped on the bus to Nazca after planning our escape route with the help of some Americans who also wanted out of Pisco - Nazca is absolutely my favourite town so far, would love to stay a couple more days if only we had the time. Everyone comes to here to ´fly the lines´ so we duly booked and were taken to the airstrip for another early morning ... Rich had to practically drag me onto the Cessna that was taking six of us over, was okay once we got going as the plane was more sturdy than it looked! Did some nifty tuns mid-air so both sides of the plane can cop a good view. This didnt go down too well with Rich who lurched for the sick bag ...

The bad boy that took us up!

Rich dons the aviators specially for the occasion!

It´s amazing how clear the lines are though, massive outlines of animals and birds etched in the ground - the hummingbird and astronaut were clear favourites. The lines were created by the Nazca between 200 BC and 800 AD and unless you´re in the air it´s apparently pretty hard to actually see what they are - makes for lots of excellent conspiracy theories involving aliens and UFO´s!

The Hummingbird

Definitely getting into the swing of things now and think we´re firmly on the Gringo trail as we keep bumping into the same people on buses and tours! Anyhow, we´ve got another 6 hours to kill before the overnight bus takes us to Arequipa - might have to keep sampling the local brew, Cristal (sadly not the champagne) until then!

Down the coast to Pisco and Nazca remains copyright of the author Keaves, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Turns out it wasn´t so bad and we headed to the local market on Sunday - the BBQ´d guinea pigs on weren´t tempting us although give it a few weeks and you never know ...

Traffic is absolute madness and you dice with death everytime you cross the road - a beeping horn is as much notice as you get before you have leg it! There´s also a permanent mist (garúa) that covers the City duing most of the year and it makes for a pretty damp atmosphere and plays havoc with the hair. I´m currently sporting a massive barnet.

Spent a couple of days downtown and realised that there isn´t much to keep you entertained save for a few churches and museums. Lima Cathedral is pretty spectacular inside though - we did seem to be the only tourists doing the rounds from what we could see.

View from the hotel

Had a hour to kill before the bus to Miraflores on the coast so decided to pop into the Museum of Italian Art as it only cost 60p. It consisted of two rooms and about eight paintings all of which looked like they´d been nicked fom someone´s loft. We managed in total to kill about 12 minutes.

Miraflores dos the trick in terms of bars and places to eat so has satisfied us in the food and drink stakes over the past couple of days. Only problem now is that the buses down the coast are full so we´re stuck here until Thursday afternoon. Am slightly scared that we´ll end up here for the whole year!

Not spied many other travellers here either apart from a few holidaying Americans - Lonely Planets recommndation of a hostel "in the beating heart of Miraflores" and "jam-packed" are slightly off the mark. Only people we´ve seen in the hostel are two chain smoking girls who watch dvds all day and a geezer who spends hours on the one computer with dial-up web access. They enticed us in with promise of free internet as well. Gutted!

We´re itching to leave Lima now - the Limeños are all really friendly though and are tolerating our current lack of Spanish, which hopefully we´ll sort out after hitting Spanish school in a few weeks.

Next stop Nazca via Pisco.

¡Hola from Lima! remains copyright of the author Keaves, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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