Since Christmas we have made a brief excusion north from Arica into Peru. We got the train to Tacna and then bussed it to Ariquipa, a nice city in the south of Peru. The next day we traveled on to Cuzco, the old capital of the Inca civilisation. Cuzco is a strange one, most of the city is cobbled streets and steps. There is a mix of old Incan stonework and buildings, mixed with spanish built churches and huge cathederals.

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There’s also a strange mix of people, from dirty backpackers to American families on package tours, to the local people dressed in full traditional clothing to pose for pictures with their baby alpacas. It rained most of our time there.

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The main attraction in cuzco is the ruins at machu picchu, but we found plenty of other interesting things there too!

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We spent new years eve in Cuzco, there was a huge party in the main square with people playing music and dancing, and fireworks going off all night, all in the pissing rain! From Cuzco, we got the rediculiusly expensive train to Aguas Calientes, near Machu Picchu.

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The train included breakfast and there was 3 staff to each carriage, a long way from iarianroad eireann! It’s a total tourist town, designed to get as much money out of the gringos passing through on their way to the ruins. Trish got in trouble at the ticket office for trying her fake student card to get half price entry! The ruins themselves are amazing. Theyre hidden far up the mountains and were half covered by clouds when we arrived. The other half was covered with americans.. The stonework on the main buildings is really impressive, and it is in remarkable condition. The pictures sauy it all and don’t really do it justice. Click on the photos to the right to see the full lot. The next day we returned to Cuzco (sunny for a change). We got there eventually, our train was stuck for about two hours because a landslide on the line. From there we were hoping to get a night bus to Nazca but missed out on the last two seats by a few mintues. Instead we decided to turn south again and headed to Ariquipa. We did a bit of shopping there and trish picked up her fancy new pink camera. From there we bussed it back to Tacna and got a dodgy taxi over the border back to Chile, back to our same hotel in Arica. We resisted the temptation to stay more than a night and bussed it down the coast to Iquique. We’re hoping to do some stuff here, paragliding, landyachting and maybe a bit of kiting.