No sooner than landing at Lima we were whisked off to settle in at the first hotel of our three week trek around Peru. After a couple of days exploring the city of Lima, we took a nine and half hour bus ride to see the Nazcar lines further south, when we arrived we spent the night there and the next morning we were picked up by a guide who then drove us to the airstrip to catch a flight over the desert.

We took a small airplane which was great fun but I'm sure the pilot thought he was a stunt pilot! I had the best view as I was sitting in the co-pilots seat lol. Anyway, after the flight and a bumpy landing we visited the mummies of the Inca tombs, I wasn't that impressed as I'm sure they could have done something much better than show us a few holes in the ground with a few mummies and bones. There was only a very small museum which held about four glass cabinets so that weren't really much to look at either.

So back to Lima for a day then a flight to northern Peru to find the beech called Mancora, a surfer's paradise. The flight took about an hour and then from the airport, a taxi ride which took three and a half hours. On the way we shared the cab with a couple of girls from Peru and the states. Disaster struck us on the motorway just before reaching a large bridge, going at a fair speed the car started swerving all over the road, luck for us the driver managed to gain control and pull over, we had a blow out in the rear tyre. We replaced the tyre and a little shaken carried on with the journey and reaching our destination late at night we booked into a place on the beech, the next morning moved house to another place called Los Olas which was also right next door, right on the beech and a lot cleaner.

We stayed there for four days before heading back to Lima, it took eighteen and a half hours by coach driving all night, but this was ok as we arrived in the morning all awake n stuff, just needed a shower, freshen up and again the next day took flights to Cusco heading for central Peru and the Amazon Cloud and Rain forests and into the jungle. At half five in the morning we stood at a meeting point in a Cusco street for a party of nine, two Germans, two Russians, two Swiss, one Brit (me), one French girl and one girl from Israel. Along with three guides and a driver we set off with the first destination being the cloud forest.

After a few hours of driving we started getting higher and higher up into the mountains, driving along narrow roads, over bumps, through holes, over rocks and the buss was constantly being thrown from side to side. Due to the amount of rain that had been falling over the past few days made the roads very dangerous and unsafe for any kind of travel, we came to a point where the road had completely fallen away and there was no chance what so ever of getting past in the bus. Now we had to do some good ole trekking, yeah right, we had to climb down a steep track cut out by the guides so that we could reach a road which was about a hundred meters below.

First we had to take all our belongings, rucksacks n stuff, this took quite a while as the track was just a mud slide and to slip over could mean crashing down the mountain with the only way of stopping would be to smash into a tree! We managed to get down to the road below only to be asked if we could go all the way back and help get the food down which was being unloaded from the bus roof, we agreed and again clambered back up the mountain to start the process of trying to get all the food down to the now waiting bus on the road below. We managed this by creating a chain and passing from one to the other (four chains moving down the mountain) managed after two and a half to three hours get all the food down to the road below. It was really hard work with the thin air at that altitude gasping for breath all the time, and with the constant fear of slipping and also the trouble we had trying to get the large water containers down without using the others as skittles lol!

We had a few more landslides after this one but eventually got to our lodge in the cloud forest, tired and drained we took a much needed shower, had dinner and was all in bed by half past nine. The next morning we took a stroll up the road to check out the wild life, we all took a few pics and then back to the lodge, a little later we carried on the journey down to the rain forest. We stopped at various places on the way and the last stop was where we were supposed to be setting off down the Amazon in a rubber raft.

As the water level had risen dramatically over night due to the amount of rain they have been having, the rafting guides were a little concerned about the speed the water was running down the river, they suggested that we start the rafting a little further down where the river widens and the torrents would be a lot slower.

OK, so we get all kitted out with life jackets and helmets, get into the rafts and away we go! How funny is rafting in the fast flowing Amazon river, was it nerves or was it the fact that within a few seconds we were paddling like mad and getting completely soaked (but laughing hysterically)?

I have to admit, I did find it really funny but scary at the same time!!

With all our strength we managed to reach the bank where the lodges are and where we would be staying for the next few days, but not so lucky for the second raft in the group! They had become snagged up with a load of trees that were also floating down the river, they couldn't get to the banks and clamber ashore as we did a few minutes earlier and were taken further down the raging Amazon. The guides raced and jumped into a motor boat to rescue them before hitting the rapids and possibly being lost or worse, killed. It even took the motor boat a while to struggle back towing the raft behind it, but luckily all were safe and well, quite tired but all ok.

We stayed there a few days watching the wild life, trekking through the jungle and also hurtling from treetop to treetop on wires and pulleys forty meters up in some places, now that was bloody scary as I'm no good for heights at all!

Anyway, the time had come where we had to depart and start the long journey back home, we said our goodbyes and left camp in a small motor boat going up river to catch a bus that was waiting to take three of us all the way back to Cusco. We would have to go back exactly the same way we came which was pretty depressing knowing how long the journey is going to take. To make things more exciting though, the motor boat run out of fuel and two blokes on the boat are panicking like hell to refill the tank and get us going, the people on the river bank have seen what's happening and are chasing after us with ropes in case we get caught in the rapids a little further down. Anyway, alls well, the motor starts up and again we are back to our long and tedious journey home.

A day later we took the flight from Lima, Peru to Madrid in Spain, from Madrid we flew to Barcelona and from there back to Gatwick. We left Lima on Friday at 8pm and I walked through my front door on Sunday morning at 3am thanks to some fuck ups by Iberia airways having delays and causing us to miss our connecting flights.

All in all, it was a great adventure…

**Pics to follow for the blog but there are some in the new Peru gallery