And so the journey begins....

Peru is an amazing country of contrasts, from the barren desert coast line to the rugged mountains to the heat of the jungle. It has been an amazing journey.

I did Peru on a tour, just to make things easy. It started out in Pisco where the alcohol Pisco comes from. It is a grape brandy, very potent! and not for the faint hearted. Tastes like a cross between Tequilla and Metho.

The Peruvian coast line is just barren, nothing but sand and the occasional "shanty" town. The "shanty" towns were formed from people coming down from the mountain regions in their hundreds and forming a "town". The apply to the government for permission to stay there and in about 30 to 40 years they eventually get permission and then they go to the next step of applying for a water service to be started and the red tape continues till they have a church and a shop which for some reason then makes it a town.

Nazca was next on the list of places to visit. The only way to see or appreciate the extent / ammount of lines is to take a flight over them. Also going to the "planeterium" is also worth going to just to get a bit of history an another perspective on why they were created. The "planeterium" is a bunker at the back of a hotel and the telescope was a small personal one on a concrete pad out the back.

Arequipa was the staging point for heading higher up in the mountains and higher in altitude. We were warned about the side effects.

The Colca Canyon was fantastic. It is the deepest in the world, poor Grand Canyon isn´t the biggest. We did get to see a couple of Condors, but the highlight was just the canyon. On the way to the canyon we passed over at the highest point that we were going to experience on this trip - 4910 metres above sea level. The guide was slightly disappointed to see us leap out of the vehicle and wander about the lookout like there was nothing to it. Most people fall out of the vehicle and then become violently ill.

Next stop was Lake Titicaca. The highest lake in the world. Climbing around the island/mountains is a killer, felt like had 20 packet a day cigerate habit! We all stayed on the one of the islands for a night with a local family. They found it necessary to dress us up in local clothes and make us dance. Normally the dancing wouldn´t be a problem, but at 4000m and the dances lasting 20 minutes each at least it was a test of endurance.

We spent a couple of days in Cusco which was spent shopping. From Cusco we headed Aguas Calaintes which is at the base of the Machu Picchu. The town exists just because of the tourism that Machu Picchu brings.

Machu Picchu was good but for some reason I was expecting it to be bigger. I was glad that we were there before the hundreds of tourists arrived on the morning train from Cusco. There had been a landslide and the train was delayed coming in. It was bad enough witht the Americans calling to each other from great distances and the French feeling the need to smoke while walking around. While we there it was covered in fog, which gave it a real magical feel. The drizzle that came with it wasn´t enough to dampen anyones spirits.

The next and final stop was the Amazon Jungle with a two night jungle stay. The jungle lodge was amazing, with a 2 hour boat ride up the Tambopata River. At the lodge there is no power so everything was done by lantan or candle. It was nice to have the only noise being the jungle and the rain. The 9 month old baby spider monkey adopted us as its Mum and wouldn't leave us alone getting very protective when a male walked pasted. Would have liked to have stayed longer in the jungle, it was so peaceful.

Our tour ended with us being back in Lima and getting ready to head off to Bolivia, the next country on my list to visit.

Photos will follow once I have some developed.