Peru: Lima, Nasca and Putucusi

We're currently awaiting a bus from San Pedro de Atacama to Valparaiso in Chile, 24hours of fun... so will be brief and provide a full update soon.

It has been brilliant to come back to Peru and Bolivia, I was last here with Lyns and Fig in 2001 and it has all changed so much. Many, many more tourists but happily the more streetwise locals on the gringo trail haven{t dented the awesome experience of these two spectacular countries.

So, Lima was our first stop in Peru, one of my favourite cities in the world, we stayed in the Barranco area and wandered around Miraflores for the day, eating street food and taking in the sights (pork sandwiches with a cup of apple sauce, stunning!)

The next day we caught the bus down to Nasca to see the lines (the enormous glyphs that were made by the Incas in the desert, no-one really knows what they are, but they are spectacular). We took a flight over the lines and weren're really expecting too much from the town but a few hours of r and r by the pool of a posh hotel put that to rights. The flight wasn't my favourite event of the trip, it's tiny and was flipping around onto it's side so that everyone got a lovely view of the lines.

My stomach was flipping and twisting the whole time and I turned a strange shade of yellow, luckily I'd skipped breakfast... seeing that I was struggling the pilot handed me a piece of damp cotton wool which I diligently sniffed for the duration of the flight. Never questioning what this was I started to wonder when I began to fall asleep and then both my hands and feet went numb. Marvellous... I looked at the stuff he'd sprayed onto the cotton wool and realised it was pure alcohol. Now, I remember being warned in A Level biology while preparing slides for the microscope that sniffing pure alcohol can be fatal. Mrs Lynn would not be impressed. Thankfully it stopped the airsickness but made me feel awful for the rest of the day.

After resting in Nasca we headed to Cusco. I had many fond memories of Cusco from my last visit and it hasn't really changed, it's a gorgeous town, very safe and set up for tourism. We had missed the opportunity to do the Inca trail to Machu Picchu (again! Although from the sound of it it was packed) so we decided to train it and make ourselves feel better by trekking around the area for a few days.

Now I do love a bit of a trek, however everywhere around Machu Picchu is vertical and I'm not a big fan of heights, especially 400ft of wet vertical ladders... Loretta's bright idea to trek up Putucusi was met with something less than enthusiasm from me when I saw the photos, but we did it anyway. Putucusi (aka the Happy Mountain, what irony) is the vertical cliff facing Machu Picchu and you get to the half way point by rickety ladders, no ropes or harnesses and many wobbly knees.

An hour of pure adrenaline got me up there (of course with plenty of compaining to Loretta who was happily bouncing up these ladders and sheer vertical cliffs) but the view from the top of Machu Picchu is incredible and definitely rivals the traditional one. We stayed at the top for half an hour until the encroaching darkness forced me down. I'd have been happy to stay there forever rather than go back down the slippery scary ladders.

However, despite lots of drama from me we did make it down and I got my revenge that evening on Loretta by eating half a Guinea Pig that evening which thoroughly put her off her Lomo Saltado (alpaca meat!). He, he, he!

Anyway, got to dash to the bus, we've got 24hours to central Chile... fun, fun, fun.