Maybe it was the fact I was away from the tourist mecca of Cusco, or more likely it was the amazing selection of food, but I ended up staying almost a week in Arequipa. It’s dubbed the White City due to the stone used from the nearby volcano and it has all the charm of…

The city of Cusco was once the Inca capital – they called it the Belly Button of the World. It was here the Inca were first invaded by the Chanka people where the current Inca (King) fled in fear his small fledging nation would be hopelessly defeated. His son, Pachacutec, believed otherwise and rallied the…

With the insanely overpriced Ica behind me I hoped Nasca wouldn’t be in the same situation for Semana Santa. I wasn’t sure if Nasca was a place people went for the holiday break and with Semana Santa almost over I had high hopes for find a decent hostal at a decent price. My wishes were…

On the Plaza San Martin sits an old an bar called the Cathedral of Pisco. Where better to try pisco sour for the first time than a well population bar that promotesitself as holy place to the drink. Pisco sour is a grape brandy mixed with lime, egg white and I’m not sure what else.…

When the conquistador Pizarro founded Lima some 500 years ago, he dubbed it the City of Kings. It’s certainly a city of more than just kings, for the good and the bad! The city had been inhabited long before the Spanish conquered the area by several cultures, from the Inca and further back centuries by…

The illegal miners blocking the Panamerican highway in Casma gave me the excuse to spend a couple of days in Huanchaco, the beach town near Trujillo. To be honest, there isn’t a lot of reasons to stay here more than a day. The beach is grey and not inviting, and there isn’t anything to do…

Ah Trujillo, it’s a large city where every building in the central area is painted incolourful pastels of red, yellow, brown and blue. Like every city I’ve been through so far in Peru, there’s also an army of council works cleaning the streets every hour or so. If you don’t notice these tireless workers in…

The first thing that strikes you on the taxi ride into the centre of town is the number of churches along the way. Not small churches, but in true Spanish colonial style of amazing masonry and architectural design. Of course the inside are the same as every other Catholic church on the planet, and the…

After almost 2 weeks in Chachapoyas I knew it was time to leave when the girls in the café next door to the hostal didn’t have to ask what I wanted for breakfast. Or the pub around the corner just gave me a Pilsen without asking. Chachapoyas is such an amazing little town the days…

I was promptly up, showered and out the front of the hostal to start the 8am tour to explore the Quiocta Cave, the ancient sarcophagi of Karajia and to the Valle de Belen. One thing I’m quickly learning in Peru is that nothing runs on time. A half an hour later we finally filled the…