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Sucre, The white city. Both La Paz and Sucre are Capital Cities in Bolivia. La Paz houses the President and the Law Makers, whilst the Sucre is the legal capital. Two, very very different cities. We arrived into Sucre after taking the bus from hell. The journey took around 10 hours, travelling on a bus that resembled a sauna, windows that refuse to open, zero air con, ignorant people sat in front, (no need to guess from where) people sat with phones blaring and no headphones, it was very nearly the bus journey that broke the camels back of bus travel. Good job that the flat that I had booked came with 3 bedrooms, bathroom, separate shower room, kitchen, balcony with table, chairs and views of the town of Sucre, Netflix and Private pool, Sauna and a Jacuzzi the size of a small swimming pool!! Bus woes quickly vanished as we surveyed our latest pad. (by the way, if curious, this apartment cost a whopping £32 per night) Whilst the pool was lovely, it was a tad chilly for the 3 bunnies, the sauna? given the bus sauna of the night previous we chose to give that a miss, but the Jacuzzi? Yeah Baby!! Sucre, part two. Leaving behind our glorious pad in the high hills above Sucre, it was time to relocate to the city centre itself. You cannot leave Sucre without exploring the old town. Sucre is named the White City, and it wasn`t hard to see why. It truly is the most beautiful place, with its many white walled streets, white cathedrals and churches, and a festival to end all festivals! Once again this city, like every other, has a Plaza de Armas, or Plaza de Mayo. And it was packed !! Yet again we had landed on a festival weekend, but this was a festival like no other. Every street around the square was lined with chairs, tables, stools, benches, deck chairs, folding chairs, plastic chairs or just cushions. The two widest streets had multi tier bench seating, and every inch of space had a body occupying it. We have never seen so many good natured, happy, excited people since we left the parade route of Walt Disney World last year!. September is the Patron Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a 2 day (really?) event that involves thousands of people. A carnival atmosphere of epic proportions ( or are we just English, and this is ordinary?) We managed to find the smallest gap, and stood for over an hour watching dance group after dance group, band after band parade past us. Not just ordinary dancers, but dancers in the most exquisite costumes and an energy level that would put any duracell bunny to shame. Sparkles, sprinkles, sequins, flowers, dayglo, iridescent, feathers, masks, balloons, we saw them all. They danced barefoot, in heels, boots to their thighs, sequined boots, platforms with tambourins attached, ankle shells, knee drums, whistles and gaudy batons. The dresses were long, short, tight bodiced, floaty, skimpy, sequined or flowered, sparkles and colours...oh the colours! Fire Red, Brilliant Blue, Cocoa Brown, Sunshine yellow, Vivid Orange, Sparkling Green, Purest Black we saw the entire spectrum as they paraded by. Then the bands. the bands all seemed to be playing the same or very similar tune, and it was played in one fashion, and one fashion only  LOUD  !! never mind tuning, or split notes, just hoof it ! Dancers then band, dancers then band, dancers then band. Every aspect of the community, or from what we guessed, seemed to be included. Young children, teenagers, special needs groups, wheel chairs, disabled, elderly and everyone in between. The noise levels touched your core, and the bands with the most drums made darn sure you knew they had arrived! We had come across the Festival at 4pm, but at 11pm it was still going strong, you don`t sleep in Sucre town centre whilst this takes place that`s for sure. Sucre, day 2 and Dinosaurs In 1985 a local cement company unearthed strange footprints, unsure as to their authenticity they called in local palaeontologists who confirmed that the footprints found were indeed genuine, and not just genuine, but the largest array of dinosaur footprints ever found in the world. This I just had to see for myself. We took a cab out of town and headed for Cal Orck`o cement quarry. At this point I have to confess this bunny had expected heat and dust and dressed accordingly, but hey ho, this is the one day that the weather chose to be cool! You arrive at the quarry and you do think, `where on earth am I?`...It is a fully functioning quarry, with little to suggest that this is a huge site of importance as you stand in the dusty car park. Take heart. climb the ramp. At the top the smell of new paint, the remnants of building materials, tiles and the lingering remains of dust sheets, it is quite apparent that this site is slowly accepting that tourists like dinosaurs. Movie quote, `If you build it, he will come` comes to mind. The quarry floor tour starts at 12 pm, there is a second tour at 1pm. At these times, the sun (ha!) is usually high in the sky, thus avoiding shadows on the wall of footprints. This was not to be an issue for us on this cold day. Arriving early to avoid the crowds (there were no crowds..) we had a couple of hours to kill prior to our tour. We had already toured the museum (one room)..the 3D spectacular (an empty room, newly tiled), the shop, (one glance and you saw it all) and viewed the life size dinosaur models, all that was left was the cafe in which we sat to get warm and await our tour time. Cafe. Do you want Tea. Coffee ( no milk) . Water. Coke or Inca Cola. Salchipapa, chicken nuggets/chips or a burger. The menu isn`t hard to recall. At 12pm, we were invited into the auditorium to watch a dinosaur documentary, in Spanish, no subtitles. Chilly bunny here had to beg for a jacket off a workman, I didn`t care what I was lent by this time, but have to say the procured denim jacket was quite neat, though I do suspect that the owner was a painter given the jackets pungent odour of paint stripper. 12.15, our tour started. A group of 6 locals, 2 Dutch, we three bunnies, and an English girl we had met at Lake Titicaca couple of weeks earlier (small world) . Prior to being escorted down to the quarry floor, we were each issued with hard hats. Having already had the huge expanse of crumbled wall pointed out to us, we had no qualms in wearing said hats. To clarify though, the local insta bimbos decided the hats made for useful water carriers... We then proceeded down the steepest path to the quarry floor and the wall of dinosaur footprints. A lot can happen in 68 million years of evolution, hence the once horizontal dinosaur path rising to reveal the now vertical footprints. something about a shift in tectonic plates and rising sea levels. Research in the area has ascertained that the entire land was once covered in water, and that it was probably a watering hole for the dinos. To stand in front of that huge wall and see those incredible prints left by a now extinct animal species was quite humbling. There are just so many tracks. I could name a couple of the dinosaurs but I much prefer to call them meatysaurus , veggiesaurus, gigantasaurus, and the longest set of baby T Rex prints ever found. Over 400 continuous paw marks! A lot of buses invite you to travel from La Paz directly to Uyuni, but to miss Sucre, for both its white city cente, and its eerie wall of dinosaur footprints, would be a crime. Sucre, day 3 Today we are to be leaving Sucre, but knowing the festival had now finished (like I said earlier, really?) We decided to see what a peaceful Plaza de Armas looked like. Passing a cafe called Azkaban halted our progress for a while, A Harry Potter Cafe, here? in Sucre? beckoned this Harry Potter loving bunny, and it did not disappoint. I have to say they had done a very good job recreating all the little aspects of the books. I had Cerveza de Mantequilla (hot butterbeer) butter, brown sugar, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. , whilst Mr bunny had Espresso Patronum, ( cafe solo) . As we left the little cafe, the now familiar sounds of yet another band beckoned to us. Still more dancers, not quite the same flamboyant costumes, but still the same energy, and yet more bands. It would appear that if your turn didn`t arrive in time during the previous two days, you were allowed to perform and parade on day 3 as well. After a fabulous lunch in the square, chicken soup, thick, creamy, big chunks of white cooked chicken, add in chips, garlic bread and a charcuterie board of epic proportions for big bunny we felt like two overstuffed bunnies. One last drink on the roof of the most fabulous, yet well hidden hotel, it quite literally had a sign saying rooftop bar 65, and a simple door yet yielded the most impressive and sumptuous interior. We headed back to our tiny room and the joys of yet another overnight bus. PS Must tell you, Sucre has a fabulous chocolate shop called Para Ti, ...im saying nothing, not another word, except who puts plums, raisins, and liqueur in a chocolate bon bon? heaven in a mouthful.

A new country. From Lake Titicaca we travelled to Bolivia, and the capital city of La Paz This was going to be our most challenging destination to date due to the fact that our trusty O2 internet didn`t cover Bolivia. Yikes, No internet, no maps, no google translate, no taxi app, all of which we rely on far more than we should. We caught an early bus, Transalia? (or something similar sounding) at 4am. Such a comfy bus, and the best journey we have had for a long time. a bit like the three bears, not too hot, not too cold, just perfect. After all my research online that the border crossing at Copacabana was by far the best, and that Desguadero, our route, was a little more sketchy, I was a bit apprehensive as we approached the border line after driving along the shores of Lake Titicaca for around 3 hours, wow that lake is so big and very beautiful. Reality? Super easy, no drama llamas, just off the bus with your gear, into the building ( you get a scan code on the bus as you leave, on which you pre enter all your destination and personal details) someone scans it as you wait in line. Queue up, get an exit stamp, put all your backpacks through the scanner being super cautious not to be caught with anything you shouldn`t have like fresh meat, certain fruits, animals, bunnies you know the sort of things...( I had a ham sandwich, oops, to which our bus driver winked at me and said `shove it in your pocket...` ) Once the bags were scanned, it was back on the bus and off we went. Absolutely no issues whatsoever. La Paz, highest capital city in the world, here we come. First challenge. A taxi to our destination. Now, if you are staying at the Hilton, or the Ritz, or other brand name hotel, that isn`t a problem as most taxis would know those places, however our privately owned apartment was unhelpfully named Villa Florita, in one of South Americas biggest cities! Taxi driver number one knew the approximate area, (we had access to the address, but not the map) and took us there. Adamant he had taken us to the correct place he insisted we got out. The nearest building, (on the most ridiculously steepest hill imaginable, in the worlds highest city, was numbered 1038, whereas our building was 1379. We knew we were nowhere near, and asked two lovely elderly ladies for additional directions. Both immediately pointed up the hill, with gestures of up up up.... :-( We could barely manage more than a few steps without gasping for air. Taking a break right next to a taxi office was a sign that our guardian bunny was taking pity on us. Taxi number two, took us to the nearest number he could find, a restaurant called Qaytu. Three relieved bunnies found to a woman standing waiting for us, without we would never have found our accommodation, and our most perfect apartment. We were so delighted with our little apartment with its views over La Paz city.....oh how we would giggle about this later in the stay!! Our first venture into La Paz was to find a certain camera shop. Our little bunny has a broken camera, which I shall elaborate a little more about given the appalling customer service received by Sony. skip this paragraph unless you are curious or affected by Sony and their shocking customer service. Nutshell version, as brief as I can. Purchased new camera August 23, with 2 years extended warranty. A vlogging camera. June 24, South America, camera goes faulty. We get fault diagnosed at a Sony repair centre , emailed Sony for confirmation on how to proceed, who replied ` we cannot help` Numerous emails exchanged with Sony , who insisted the camera should be repaired, not refunded. Sony refusing to acknowledge the logistics of such a repair. Repair timescale btw, 6-8 weeks..  by the way we don`t offer repairs in South America. Eh? Sony refuse point blank to help or offer support. We have no choice but to purchase a new camera and take them to task on our return in 12 months. (Both barrels they are going to get!) Considering Sony`s appalling lack of help or acceptance of the problem, I have no qualms telling the world which camera to avoid. Sony ZV1 , and guess what people, if you buy a vlogging camera expecting to use it abroad on your holidays, Sony will void your warranty!!! Isn`t that just wonderful customer service NOT.  rant over. La Paz . They have one camera shop. One. or at least we could only find one shop listed. After a 20 minute somewhat hair raising downhill taxi ride into the city centre, why would said shop be open, when every single other shop to our destination, without exception, was?!! Grrrrsss. Finding a few touristic streets nearby we wandered around before heading off to find the weird stalls of the Witches Market. I really wish I knew what earth people do with dried out llama foetus, hmmmm. We didn`t find La Pax particularly appealing. Maybe it does have nice parts, but we certainly didn`t feel inspired to go hunting for said areas. We did slog our way up to the `oldest street in La Paz, adorned with restaurants and artisan shops`... but found them all shut. Last chance to salvage the day, we opted to ride the Teleferico (cable cars) across the city. By chance we had come across a couple of backpackers who told us the Blue and Red cable cars would take us over the city and up to the market of El Alto. This nervous bunny tried hard to drag her bunny feet and dawdle in the hope that said Cable Car would also be shut, but alas, it wasn`t. We purchased a round trip ride taking in the Orange line, the Red Line, then the Blue line, and back. What started off as a hair raising bunny toes tingling ride, turned out to be quite fun and wonderful. Remember I said we had `views of the city, and that we would giggle later?`...this is when we started giggling. To give La Paz and its size some context, If La Paz was a dart board, from our apartment window what we could see was merely the bulls eye. wow that city is ridiculously big. The Teleferico. Orange line over the city, jumping stations to the Red Line that proceeded to climb steeply up the mountain, my poor bunny nerves sorely tested, we arrived at the landing point for the Aimara Market. Our sights were set on the cable car ride, not shopping, so, and very thankfully, we boarded the Blue Line. As we boarded the cable car and rose up high, we each said, look there is the market. What we didn`t realise is that we would still be saying `look there is the market` for another 10 or so minutes of travelling overhead! I cannot begin to describe how big that market is. It stretched across what appeared to the main road road through the town/area of El Alto. Around 8-10 stalls wide, as far as the eye could see, in both directions, and down every side street as well!   the only side streets that didn`t appear to have market stalls, were filled with taxis and vans. Given that this 5 square kilometre market runs twice a week they must have this jigsaw puzzle off to a fine art. Seriously impressive. For any travel bunnies thinking this could be a must visit, take heed, it is not for the faint hearted, it is there purely for the essentials of local people, and us bunny tourists, we would stick out like ears on a rabbit. The ride over the city was fun, it would appear that the city architect was a Marvel fan, so many of the buildings that sided the Teleferico resembled the distinctly Marvel type facias, one even had a giant Iron Man head, which alas I saw too late to take a photo. Our time in La Paz was brief, we have had enough of cities and chose accommodation to reflect the same, allowing us peace and space. We spent one of our few days re jigging our trip, Mr bunny had a rather large hissy fit, deciding that if we left for Patagonia on the 26th of the month we wouldn`t have enough time to enjoy the area. He huffed and puffed, decided to hire a us a car (collection El Calafate) , so now we are leaving for Patagonia on the 26th but now we have more time.....(go figure) Prior to leaving La Paz we opted to try the restaurant that quite literally backed onto our apartment, Qaytu. it had some rather good reviews and decided to try for ourselves. Now, much as Mr Bunny loves cooking and inventing rather good meals in very small and challenging kitchens, why did we wait until we were leaving to sample the wares of this particular restaurant? Greeted like old friends by the owner, he then lovingly described every meal on his menu, using terms such as ` a beautiful experience` `palate teasing`, `flavoursome and aromatic` Was he wrong? Nope!! We had 3 dishes of the most exquisite tasting food, two desserts, four drinks, (mr bunny always seems to require the urge to sample a second beer) and our bill was a staggering £33. If any travelling bunnies fancy sampling the delights of this culinary establishment, with its lovely staff, fabulous food and spectacular vistas, head off to the Mirador Killi Killi, ( ask any taxi , its worth it) then follow your bunny noses around 5 minutes in a downhill direction to this wonderful restaurant. Even this bunny with an aversion to all things food, enjoyed the meal. My choice if you care to know was the* non vegetarian meat/no meat burger. *was designed for tourists, but the restaurant owner says that he gets more locals than tourists, hence the veggie meat, no meat description

Puno We had heard mixed reviews about Puno, the town that sits at the edge of Lake Titicaca, and couldn`t decide whether or not this was a town to visit. However, if you wish to visit the floating islands of Uros, this is the place to start that journey. We reluctantly left our lovely hostel one afternoon for the shortish ( 6 hours) bus ride to Puno. Humph, not only did it take us a very slow plodding one hour to finally leave Arequipa, thereby appreciating its sheer size, but 3 hours into our journey we stopped. For a Very Long Time. Turns out there was an accident on this very narrow winding road which created nothing short of chaos and a huge tailback. We finally arrived almost 3 hours late to yet another of Marlon`s Houses. When you find something good, why change? Marlon said he had a place in Puno, so that`s where we stayed. Equally good. No bath however, but still perfect. We had planned to spend the next day, our 13th Wedding Anniversary, on Lake Titicaca, but a 9 hour bus journey had tired out these bunnies, so instead we spent our special day wandering around Puno, and eating a quiet lunch at the towns oldest cafe postponing our trip to the Lake until the following day. Why Puno is described as feeling unsafe, or gritty, another term we had heard, is unknown to us. Puno is just your average small town, nothing special, nothing to write home about, and odd to us, not a town with a lake side path however. Personally I think Puno is missing a trick there. All I can say honestly about Puno is, expect a town, and you will get a town. No frills, no smart plazas, just a nice little town. Lake Titicaca / Uros floating islands Marlon (again, he of hostel name) was also a tour operator, and arranged for these three bunnies, a two day Lake Titicaca Island tour, perhaps it is a good job my bunny ears, big as they are, were a little deaf to the trips intricacies as I may never have gone, but I am so glad we did. Picked up from the hostel at 8am we were driven to the port and there boarded our smallish riverboatish type cruiser boaty thing, along with around 15 other travellers. The day started well, the Lake beautifully calm, a gentle breeze, all was well. We landed at the Uros Islands, hmmmm, local they may be, and yes they do float, but do they now exist purely for the tourist trade, or are they still a genuine source of local habitation? We had passed very many floating islands, but if you look into any tour shop window or on booking.com , you will note that these islands contain picture perfect little bungalows, with terraces, bathrooms, and views onto the Lake. So local habitation or tourist destination? I admit I fell briefly for the lure of one of these rooms, but nothing about it felt `right`. They are undoubtedly lovely, but very expensive comparatively. I chose to cancel in favour of experiencing something a little more authentic. Uros Islands. We landed at one these tiny islands, which contained 3 or 4 little reed houses, an arena of reed seats on which we sat, surrounded by a small array of locally produced handicrafts set out on gorgeous eye catching table cloths. We listened to a short talk by the village elder, translated by our guide, about how they make the islands, the houses, the textiles. We were then invited to board a large reed boat for a short punted ride amongst the reeds, where our `punter` (boat captain, pusher alonger....) pointed out some birds eggs. hmmm....Fair enough we are in the middle of a ruddy great lake, but birds eggs?? As a tourist I would have been happy just to enjoy the ride, sat on the floor of this large handmade reed boat, without the need to see birds eggs. Once back on the floating island we were invited to spend 15 mins of free time to peruse the local handicrafts. They are undoubtably lovely, and well crafted, but it is also very difficult to just look and walk away. To appease our guilt we purchased a small boat, a reminder of our yellow reed boat punted lake ride. From the Uros Islands we motored on to the next island, Amantani, another one and half hours away. As we pulled up at the harbour wall, I waited for the ladder to appear, or steps, or plank...nope. We quite literally had to climb from boat deck to dock side. Absolutely no problem if you are tall, agile, nimble or athletic, but Mrs Bunny here took one look at that wall and had a vision of being stuck on the darn boat! Being hauled up by two handsome Peruvian men whilst your bunny hubby shoulder hoisted me up, was not fun. Still, at least I`m on terra firma at last. The group were met by our local hosts for the night, and we were all allocated a family. Leeta, was to be our host (apologies if the name is misspelt) and we, and another family from Peru, were designated to be her guests. For a lovely lady of ample girth, Leeta fair shifted up that hill, followed puffing and panting by her 6 guests. Whilst the altitude of Lake Titicaca is comparative to the altitude of Cusco, the position of the Lake, makes the air even thinner, and oxygen even more precious here on the island. After a breathless uphill route march of around 20 mins, we arrived at Leeta`s house and shown our rooms. Perfect. Simple, local, and with a view to die for. The Peruvian family with whom we were paired were delightful. Santiago, the nineteen year old son was an absolute joy. He spoke perfect English, was well educated, well travelled, and knowledgeable about many unusual topics, from the monarchy,(ours) to Downton Abbey, Harry Potter and James Bond films, we had quite a laugh, all while he translated to his mum and younger sister. (They had their own room, just to clarify) We were served a satisfying local lunch of vegetable soup, and a plate of potato, roots, and other veggies, and a block of what appeared to be egg, but alas for Mrs Bunny, turned out to be fried haloumi cheese. Mr Cheese Face Bunny, and even little bunny both waffled their little bunny noses in appreciation. After lunch we walked once more down the path to the village square, where we met the other members of our boat, to start the climb to the viewpoint, the Pachamama monument (aka rock pile) and sunset. Already suffering from the altitude, this bunny had no desire to climb yet another big hill, the views of the lake from the square where I sat were perfectly adequate thank you very much. After sunset, the group descended, and once again we climbed to our hosts house. Our evening meal was much the same, except this time with the addition of rice to the other carb laden items on our plates. Once replete, we were offered the chance to dress in local attire and attend the `party` in the square. Super touristic though it felt, we happily donned these gorgeous local outfits, the ladies in skirts, blouses, waistbands, and head shawls, the men in simple ponchos and woolly beanie hat, and headed once more into the village. The party, a gathering of tourists in the bar with music supplied via a mobile spotify was a bit of a laugh. Not wishing to diss the mentality of certain travellers, ones from a certain country do leave a lot to be desired with their secular attitude and lack of (ho hum) personality.... If the cap fits, wear it, though you probably don`t realise that I`m referring to You! We retired to bed at 10pm, in preparation for an early morning start. Day Two. Started at 6.30 with a call to breakfast. Pancakes! With jam, tea, no milk of course and coffee. Then at 7.30 our final climb back down the hill to the port and that boat. Oh what a contrast to the calm lake of the day before. The Lake was so choppy, and the ride to the next island was an hour of sheer panic and hell. I think I mentioned in my post about Galapagos, that bunnies and boats don`t mix, and once more this rang true. I don`t think Mrs Bunny has ever felt so upset, or unwell or scared as on that particular boat. That small boat rocked and rolled like an aged drag queen for over an hour as we crossed the lake to Taquile island. Needless to say on landing, this green wild eyed motion induced vertigo suffering bunny fell off that boat, and promptly vowed to never get on a stupid boat ever again! Mrs Bunny and her utterly adorable and protective Mr Bunny had no choice but to insist the tour group set off as planned on their trip, where as these two bunnies would stay put on the harbour side and wait for their return. Oh the hardship.... We sat and watched as the group trudged slowly up yet another long steep hill, from the comfort of a park bench, in the sun, with a cushion for comfort, the best view of the Lake Titicaca, a cold drink,( water for one, beer for the other.) Darn, it was tragic, and such a shame we couldn`t join them. Oh dear, what a pity, never mind, the disappointment lasting a whole 32.5 seconds. For 2 hours, we had to sit there in blissful contentment, until once more the group returned. From what we were told, we missed an over enthusiastic discussion about marriage, much to the chagrin of little bunny, a village square of limited interest, and a meal of scrambled egg or trout. Here`s to Vertigo!! The hours of peaceful relaxation had also transferred to the Lake which in turn had turned calm once for the long, rather tedious, two and half hours return to Puno. I wouldn`t discourage anyone from doing this 2 Island, 2 day trip on Lake Titicaca, yes it is super touristic, but it really is excellent. Just be aware that the hikes are challenging, the paths are steep, and the altitude sucks ! Lake Titicaca ends our time in Peru. We have had the most wonderful adventures here, the country in amazing, the history incredible, the ambience of the Incan Empire resonating in our hearts. This country should be on every persons bucket list, and time should be spent here to do it justice. We could easily have spent many more weeks or even months here discovering its rich history, but time marches on, as we prepare for yet another country, and more discoveries.

(so far..) Despite months, even years of watching You tube what not to pack, and do not pack Justin Cases, we did. Well truthfully not everything was justin cases, some things in our bags were simply duplicated items, or bulky items we struggled to pack, or items acquired along the way. Deciding to send some items back to the UK via DHL, because of their reputation rather than the local Peruvian mail was a mistake. No matter how diligently you translate conversations, list every item, under exaggerate the value of your box contents, when the office staff fail to tell you that your contents will be opened and scrutinised at UK Customs, expect to pay another £70 plus, on top of your already expensive box of mistakes.  Lesson One . Do Not Overpack . When they say you can buy anything you need on the road, you truly can. And so much easier than you can in the UK. There are shops by the thousand everywhere you go. These shops sell absolutely everything you could possibly want, and more besides. I swear that in a 5 block radius of any main town or city we have been in, you could buy everything from items to build and furnish a house, buy a car, maintain it, purchase dog clothes, human clothes, coffins and hospital beds. Every second shop sells food, and every third shop is a pharmacy, as for dentists???? on one street alone I counted 4 practices. Lesson Two . You don`t need to pack shampoo. Many of our hostels have provided such, and for those that don`t, you can buy single sachets from most supermarkets or tourist shops. Shower gel is overrated and unnecessary, ordinary soap and a scrunchy works just as well and is far easier to carry. Lesson Three, get off your high horse, and accept that yes, you really can wash pots in cold water. The washing up `liquid` here in South America, isn`t liquid, but comes in hard soap like substance that works exceptionally well, use it, trust it. By all means boil water for that extra greasy pan, but generally, cold water will suffice. Lesson Four and one that I find so difficult to accept, despite all the horror stories of being scammed or ripped off, people everywhere are for the most part genuinely delighted and willing to help you. Use your wits and common sense, but don`t be afraid. Not everyone is evil, some are desperately poor and will try it on, but be kind and understanding . Lesson Five,  do not walk anywhere anywhere with your nose stuck in your phone! Trust me when I say that the sidewalks/ pavements are littered with holes, raised flags, missing tiles, dogs toilet, overly high kerbstones and other challenging obstacles, use this opportunity to put the thing away, look up (and down) are be aware of your surroundings from your feet upwards. Lesson Six, plugs hang off walls, electrics spark, light switches and plugs can be found in bathrooms, showers are electric, with the wires usually hanging out of the wall just above the shower head, and try not to be overly alarmed when your host tells you that the water is at its warmest when the electric light goes out. It can be nerve wracking, but there are millions of people living like this, so join the club and embrace it.

We opted to fly to Arequipa as the bus suggested it would take several hours, whilst a flight would get us there in around 65 mins. As flying goes it was also a relatively cheap flight. It was also the most unusual flight, it was quite an odd feeling seeing mountains out of both windows and quite close by, immediately prior to landing. We had been very much looking forward to this town as it is quoted as being a beautiful place and one of Peru`s safest places. Odd when we have felt perfectly safe no matter where we have been in Peru. Arequipa, in this bunnies mind, Arequipa was a quaint small town, with old colonial buildings, narrow streets, small markets etc , oops my mistake, turns out that Arequipa is quite the city! As per all our accommodations, we were placed in very close proximity to the city square, which as per all city squares is named Plaza de Armas. ( turns out this actually translates to parade square, now the name makes sense, so the sheer size of Arequipa was lost on us until the day we departed. Our room in Arequipa was by far the best we have had so far. It was a room that had all the things we had been missing to date. You would think that the owner, Marlon, had listened to all the whinges of travellers, and put in situ all the things you need. A bathroom shelf, so simple, yet it takes not having one and the wandering about with toiletry bag in hand, wondering where to put it, and settling for the floor, makes you realise just how much you miss a bathroom shelf. A towel hook, bathmat. A bath!!! a real bath. We have got used to the description of `bath` to mean the 3" of raised tiles surrounding the shower, but here we had a real chunky dunky bunny bath. Little miss bunny took advantage of said bath, whilst Mr and Mrs Bunny applied sunscreen and watched the mountains/volcanoes from the hostel roof, under a cloudless blue sky. In our room we also had shelves, we could actually unpack our bags for the duration of our stay. A lamp, a coat stand, big chunky pillows and extra blankets for the finishing touches. Add in lovely staff and the tiniest but perfect little kitchen, ascended to via cute little spiral staircase, we were just so suited. Marlons House. Arequipa had always been on our radar as a place to stop, to do nothing, to rest and recoup, to address the contents of our bags, and generally do not very much. We made a pretty good job of this. The town square was a very short walk away, and reaching it meant we had to pass our favourite restaurant of Peru, Tanta. Needless to say we spent a pleasant six days, ambling aimlessly from hostel to local shop, to the supermarket in the main plaza, back via Tanta, and back to our hostel rooftop. Arequipa is also the town if you wish to, to purchase silver jewellery. I have never seen as much silver jewellery, a lovely lady on the artisan market told us that around Arequipa there were ( please don`t quote me) 27 silver mines. Of the 757 silver mines around the world, 126 are in Peru. Lady bunnies, if you fancy a little silver treat, this is the place to make those big bunny eyes flutter at your probably reluctant, but resigned Mr bunny. This bunny managed to squeeze a silver bracelet out of her Mr Bunny. Even little bunny treated herself to a tiny little humming bird ring.

We planned to start our adventures in Peru in the mountains of Huaraz, what we didn`t know was what the journey would entail. Faced with a journey of 24 hours by bus including one border crossing, this was going to be epic. Now epic, bus journeys and retired more relaxed bunnies do not go together well in my book, so it was decided we would bunny hop our way to Huaraz stopping first at Chiclayo, then Trujillo, finally arriving at Huaraz. First the border crossing, I diligently read everything online, safety, what not to do, how to do it, corrupt border crossings, you name it, I read it. the truth? Peasy !! more easy peasy orange squeezy than anything I was expecting. We departed Cuenca at 9pm, expecting to be at Chiclayo by 9am (ha, we actually arrived at 1.30pm). At 1am we arrived at the border crossing. 2 buses in front of us, so we sat on the bus, and waited. A very long time granted, but there`s nothing difficult about sitting on a bus. Around 2.30 am we got off the bus taking with us all our on board bags, at the same time the bus staff removed all the luggage from the hold. We queued in the border crossing building, got our passports stamped to leave Ecuador, and moved to the next booth to have our passports stamped to say we had arrived in Peru. And that my bunny friends was as scary/complicated as it got. We had to grab our bags and put them through a security scanner as you would an airport, but that didn`t take long, and by 3.45 every bunny and all the bags were reloaded onto the bus and we were on our way to Peru. Chiclayo, we eventually arrived here 15 hours after leaving Cuenca. Just a quick stopover so unfortunately I cannot comment on the town of Chiclayo. Food,(nearest cafe) Netflix and sleep were the only things on our mind. 15 hours on a bus was a bit hard work. The younger bunny generation make it look easy, but for us older retired bunnies, we tend to need to fidget a bit more, and stretch aching body parts. Early morning saw us on the next bus to Trujillo. 5 hours later and we arrived at what looks like a pretty city, but alas this was another city with a priority of food, the large and well advertised restaurant of El Rincon de Vallejo, provided our evening meal, and the Hotel Jorge Chavez, our bunnybeauty sleep. The hotel promised us breakfast in bed, that was a first, but alas the early morning breakfast tray consisted of cool black coffee, a fruit juice of unknown origin, 2 bread rolls (no butter) and jam. Planning on arriving at our destination of Huaraz today we set off for the bus station nice and early (unfortunately not quite early enough), and goofed. The bus to Huaraz left twice a day, we had just missed the morning bus so now had a wait of 10 hours until the evening one at 10pm.. Cue quick google search found ourselves heading for an impromptu day at the beach at the nearby town of Huanchaco. Very pleasant indeed. Not a sandy beach, but clearly an easy going beach town popular with backpackers and locals alike. Big shout out to the Chocolate Cafe, a pitstop of perfection. Back to the bus station for an overnight bus, and Huaraz our destination. Huaraz Mrs Bunny found the journey here very difficult. With a pitch black view from the window, and an inability to see the road ahead, the bus took on the persona of a wild mouse rollercoaster. (or for any Disney fans, a slower paced Space Mountain) Not only were we climbing through the Andes, we were also on a multitude of switch backs. This bunny had a green face and a belly that threatened to make food reappear by magic. Add in the altitude headache and I for one was not a happy bunny. We arrived as dawn was breaking, dropped our smallest bunny at the busiest hostel in the town and headed for own which was a slightly more remote hutch. We were welcomed by a lovely host, who showed us to a box room housing a single bed, and an old shelving unit on which perched a 1970s box tv. If you could kindly wait here a few minutes whilst we prepare your room, were our instructions. Given how ropey we both felt, we quite happily perched on that small bed and even managed a catnap, desperate as we were for rest and sleep. A short while later she returned and invited us to join her on the terrace for a hot drink.....I cannot deny it, that hostel roof terrace view was just spectacular. The altitude was a killer, but the view, wow. Add a tiny cute puppy called Laya, who was wearing fluffy pjs, and we thought we had hit the jackpot. Until we were shown to our room. Turns out, that tiny box room with the single bed, zero space and 70`s tv, was ours! Only now it contained a double bed. Gutted was an understatement. Booking.com what have you done to us! " 2 double beds, flat screen tv, shared kitchen with electric kettle, bathroom with bath and shower" where are you !!? Long story short, was a festival weekend and the hostel was overbooked. We were offered a reduction in price, and we made the decision to suck it up and deal with it. the bed was comfy, the small tiny roof ceiling height window, wasn`t too big to be draughty, the shelf unit with cupboard was useful and the private bathroom had a shower with hot water. winner. Then we found the kitchen. Truly you couldn`t make this up. The fitted kitchen as per the photos, was actually the kitchen in the hosts private apartment, and the shared kitchen/ours was a wooden hut on the roof. But you know what, we came to love this place. Sometimes first impressions need to be shelved, and Mr Bunny does like a culinary challenge. The Mountains of Huaraz . Huaraz sits in a valley surrounded by some of the most spectacular hills and mountains and is known for its superb hiking trails. Hiking here had never been on my bucket list, and being there at such high altitude meant it would be a non starter for me even if I had wanted to hike. Im finding as a retired bunny, my need to climb every mountain has been surpassed by more relaxing itinerary Our super fit smallest bunny took herself on some some glorious hikes see miss.tiff.travel s for more information, but one hike, the famous and utterly spectacular Laguna 69, was a must do for Mr bunny and little miss.tiff. They set off at 4am, leaving on a bouncy bus for 3 hours, followed by a 4 mile uphill challenging hike to the Laguna 69. I saw the photos on their return, and for once, Instagram is absolutely 100% accurate. that laguna is every bit as blue and beautiful as every picture you see. I had to admit I was a little jealous and sad that I was physically unable to see this for myself, but I am so proud of the efforts of my bunny family. Huaraz the town. In my opinion this is a town to be used as a base only for hiking, or in my case, for sitting on a roof top terrace under beautiful cloudless skies with a cute pup and a good book for company. It is not a pretty town at all, in fact I would go so far to describe it as slightly run down, scruffy, dusty, and with a lot of air pollution at ground level due to the extreme age and condition of most of the cars there, coupled with the terrible state of the roads. Would I recommend it? If you like your hiking, absolutely. If hiking isn`t your thing, I would probably give it a miss. Lima A tale of 2 halves, from Huaraz to Lima, a bus journey of around 8 hours, but this time, with recommendations from hostel guests, we discovered the bus company Cruz del Sur. Game changer! Every other bus journey we had made we had either travelled with whoever shouted the loudest, departed at a time when we wanted to go, or was the only company we found at the bus terminal. Now, Cruz del Sur have their own bus terminal, and their own schedules and for us it was like travelling business bunny class instead of regular hutch seats. We didn`t find them particularly expensive, just on a par with everyone else, but the buses are beautiful and so much more comfortable. If only we had found them sooner :-( . Knowing we had booked accommodation in Miraflores, we knew we had to disembark at the second bus station. And so we travelled from Huaraz. Passing desert landscapes, tiny village, smallish town, and more desert landscapes, and more, and more and still more. So much land, so few people. Until that moment when a small shop was next to a larger shop, next to a street, next to full blown neon lights, a beautiful and huge city. Lima really did seem to arrive out of nowhere. For 3 bunnies who really enjoy the green country side, after our time in Huaraz, Lima arrived like a cool drink on a hot day. We thought the first side of the city, ( as viewed from the bus) was pretty special, but travelling another 30 mins to the second terminal and the area of Miraflores we felt quite giddy. Our hostel I want to describe as the little house from Up, just at that bit prior to the balloons when the little house is surrounded by high rise buildings and blocks of flats. It was a 2 story building painted orange, with arched windows and a small garden, totally out of place within the area, but oh so perfect. (So perfect in fact we returned to stay here again, but more about that later). Less than 5 minutes from the promenade and the Pacific Ocean, and 15 mins walk from the centre of Miraflores, we couldn`t have had a better placed hostel. True we took more than 15 taxis during our stay to reach other parts of the city, but as hostels go, Great Partners is perfect. Sunday, a perfect day. Bright, sunny and warm, we geared up for a walk along the beach front. (Actually the road runs along the beach front, the promenade itself runs for around 6 km along the cliff). There are many different parks and green spaces along the promenade, we watched dogs at the dog park play (all wearing coats or jumpers of course as seems to be the norm in Peru), boys at play flexing their muscles and rather nice bods on the climbing frames/gyms, people playing tennis, brave bunnies floating around in the air on paragliders, wet bunnies flopping off surf boards, and the skinny bunnies in their micro leotards and earphones jogging. (not sure why, but hey ho, each to their own). Such a perfect day. Monday came and we found out that we had seen Lima weather at its best. Apparently Lima is notoriously grey, cloudy and chilly, at least during the winter. Chilly has to be a description best used loosely, the locals wore jumpers, puffy coats, scarves, some wore t shirts and loose jackets, us brits wandered quite comfortably in just our t shirts and jeans. Take our hostel, it was difficult to tell what difference opening a window made, the ambient temperature inside and out were pretty similar. There are archaeological ruins in the centre of Miraflores an easy walk from the hostel. Afraid I`m no more a ruins fan than I am of birds, we did a guided tour but all I managed to glean from said information is that this big pile of bricks, shaped a bit like a pyramid are made of mud and have sat here for around 1000 years. Yes, its interesting, but as far as archaeology goes, I far more enjoy seeing the collected artifacts than the piles of bricks left behind. (See Larco Museum). Day 3 found us at the Larcomar Shopping Mall. I am in need of a long sleeved thin jumper, but this was not to be the place to shop. Very tiny, situated on the cliffs overlooking the ocean, Larcomar consists of mostly super expensive shops, and a cinema, but it was there that we found the Tanta restaurant chain. Oh Yum. The food looked superb, but so did the cakes. 3 guesses which we had. So ends our brief time in Lima, but we are to return.... Huacachina . I proper had to stamp my little bunny feet to persuade Mr Bunny that this was a place worth seeing. He was very much of the opinion that our destination of Atacama later in the trip would be much the same, so why do we have to go here?. His little bunny nose waffled in frustration, but Mrs Bunny won the draw as usual. A short bus ride from Lima (about 4.5 hours) and we arrived in Ica, from there to Huacachina is the shortest bunny hop ever, literally just over the sand dune, (or round the sand dune if you are driving) you could walk if needed, but that is only recommended on weekends and holidays, and for bunnies without heavy backpacks. We caught our first glance at the oasis of Huacachina just as the sun was going down, and an instant apology from Mr Bunny ensued. He even dared to say those 3 little words we all crave, You Were Right. The tiny town oasis of Huacachina is picture postcard perfect. It was hard to tell that first evening just how much we were going to enjoy our brief stay there, but morning came, and all was revealed in a blaze of glory. What you see is what you get, it really is that tiny. The only natural oasis in South America (yes, it is natural, but yes, it is also topped up by hosepipe as and when required) Huacachina is also surrounded by the biggest sand dunes on the continent. And sand dunes mean only one thing, tired legs, dune buggies and sandboarding!! (ok, 3 things if you want to be picky) The morning of day one we paid our tourist tax (no ticket, no dunes) and duly climbed the tiniest little sand dune ever, just to get a giraffes eye view of the Oasis. From that view point we also found all the ticket sellers for dune buggy rides, and the dune buggies themselves! Oh wow. They come in all sizes from small and cute, think small children and pregnant woman, to full on adventure types with roll cages and bull bars. We each knew there and then that this was a must do activity. We also knew that we wanted to go armed with cameras, go pro, buffs, glasses, jackets, water, and a private buggy driver who would respect our individual needs. Back into town, we found a tour guide with impeccable English to ensure no misunderstandings, and one hour later we had a private buggy tour booked, leaving at 4.30pm that day so that we would also catch the sunset. Excited was an understatement. We stressed that whilst we or rather Mr Bunny could endure a lot, we didn`t think his back surgeon would condone a wild buggy ride! Turns out the buggies need driving at a certain speed (super fast) simply to get up the dunes. We have never had as much fun ever, we traversed those dunes so fast, we had the ride of our lives. To compare, the "Adventure Buggies" were flying over dunes, driving down massive dunes, with hard speedy landings, whereas we just went flat out keeping all 4 wheels on the sand. Sandboarding next! Who knew. We hadn`t realised that we had body boards strapped to the back of the buggy. One biggish dune and down we went, then up a second smaller one, finally boarding down a third. Not a sport I could do all day long, at least not without a sandwinch, not to eat, but to hoist my bunny butt and its sandy board back up the dunes, what a leg killer! Finally as the sun started to go down, we were driven at full hop to the highest dune our driver could find to watch a perfect sunset. What an amazing couple of hours. Once the sun set, Myself and Mr Bunny waited whilst our little bunny was taken on a wild ride around the dunes, we heard the screams of laughter from quite some distance away. Day two. Mr Bunny quite fancied the wine tasting tour. Who knew Peru made wine? Turns out they don`t, well not much anyway. He described the vineyards more like small fields, where wine is only produced in March. Still, he had fun, and enjoyed the small wine samples offered. Whilst big bunny did wining and dining mini adventure, bunnies two and three had a picnic at the waters edge. Huacachina is all about dune buggies, sand dunes and sandboarding. To be honest, there isn`t a lot else to do. You cannot even take your picnic onto the dunes without paying the tourist tax again. (disclaimer, yes you can from the road or further afield, but I am referring to the immediate area around the oasis) You could if you so wished exert a little effort by hiring a pedalo to enjoy the lake, or even hire a small boat that came with its own rower if you didn`t fancy any more leg work, but other than that, and eating/drinking/late night Karaoke, im not sure what else there is to do in the immediate area. A tour to Paracas could have been an option, but when it is described as Peru`s mini Galapagos, we figured we would just stick to our memories of the real place. Day 3. Another day that wasn`t to go as planned. It had been my intention to get a taxi to Ica, a bus to Nazca, and take a flight over the Nazca line the same afternoon. But the bus company I researched, and I think what the tour guide tried to tell me, but I failed to understand, was that the buses don`t leave Ica in sufficient time to arrive at the airport before the flights stop for the day. My bus times were either 2.30am getting in at 5am or left at midday arriving too late. Time for another organised tour!. Nazca. Picked up at 7am by car, with a 4th person, we were driven to Nazca by a lovely tour guide who talked continuously for the whole 2 hours 30 mins journey. Our ears ached, but his information was enlightening and interesting. Including facts such as his two children were representing Peru in a maths competition in Malaysia. (well done kids!) He himself was an ex cycling champion, and that asparagus grows 15 cm in a day and can be cut twice. He also drove like Nigel Mansell. To say our journey was hair raising at times would be an understatement. I could tell you that we stopped at an aqua duct, but truthfully to me it was more rocks and water. The museum dedicated to Marie Reiche was a little more interesting, despite the fact that all the original artifacts dedicated to her life had been stolen and what we saw were copies. Marie Reiche is the German woman who spent a lifetime studying and mapping the Nazca lines. A truly incredible feat given the sheer size and area that they cover. So, to the airport. This may have been a bucket list experience for me, but it still didn`t calm my overwhelming nerves or fear. Oh my bunny knickers, what on earth was I thinking! Those planes are like oversized remote control toys, flown by geeks in anoraks on Sundays afternoons, and you want me to go in that !!! Insult number one, we each had to be weighed. Humph. If those scales are accurate I`ll plait fog. Anyway, turns out Mr and Mrs Bunny cannot fly together. Mrs and Miss could, but Mr Bunny would be going in a separate plane. Once we boarded our respective planes it was clear that this didn`t really matter. Its a bit like riding a super cool rollercoaster, your friend may be next to you but you each enjoy the experience on your own. Mine and little Miss plane was super tiny, I sat in the front, little miss at the back. You each wear headphones so that you cant hear the screams...I mean so that you can each hear the commentary of the co pilot, and we were off!. We had been given a map of what we would see and where to see it, on the ground or on a mountain side, or on a plateau, and the plane would first fly so that everyone on the left could see, then did a wide circle to back track in a way that everyone on the right could see the shapes. The plane and the terrain were both terrifying and fantastic at the exact same time. The Nazca lines are incredible. I never knew just what an immense area they covered. There are shapes, and patterns, animals, birds, a cat, a `baby dinosaur` and lines. Perfect straight lines that go on for miles, yet nothing of which can be seen from the ground. The flight lasted 35 mins which seemed to be the limit of most people on board. I think any longer and the bags located in the seat pockets may well have come into play. For someone who hates flying, I am so proud of myself for managing to overcome this fear long enough to fulfil my dream of flying over the Nazca lines. Mr Bunnies experience of the lines was very different to mine. Their co pilot failed to give enough information as to where to look for the shapes so he missed seeing quite a few, and their plane was a small jet shaped plane, more modern looking than ours, so they had to bank further so that the passengers could spot the lines at the wing tips. For any bunnies out there wanting to experience the lines from above, make sure you stamp your little bunny toes and get the information prior to take off. Return to Lima We returned to Lima with the intention of staying in the same hostel, Great Partners, it ticked every box including comfy bed, hot showers, decent price, why go hunting for anything else?, and also to visit the must see tourist spots that we missed first time around. These included the `famous` water fountains/water park, Lima Zoo, Larco Museum and Barranco. The fountains and the park were nice, nothing spectacular, but it passed a pleasant evening. Lima Zoo, for a zoo tucked away in the City Centre, it wasn`t bad. They do have a large array of the more unusual animals and birds, but personally the animal enclosures are far too small, and lack stimulation for the inhabitants. It was sad to see the walking path in its entirety for 2 full grown tigers. Sadder still was the very small aviary housing the worlds largest bird, the Andean Condor. For a bird that can soar at heights of up to 16,000ft his cage was pitifully small. I just hope he was a rescue bird with a story to tell. We did meet the real life Paddington, aka the Spectacled Bear. They were fun, and their play space a little better than most. Larco Museum. A very pretty museum, with an equally pretty (and expensive) restaurant on site, most definitely not your average museum cafe. The museum itself is unique in such that it has many of its archived artifacts in visible floor to ceiling glass cabinets. Much as I like seeing old artifacts, once you have seen one old vase with an eagles head, the other 155 start to look pretty similar. The more precious artifacts, gold jewellery and other fine objects are displayed with the decorum they richly deserve. If you chose to visit with younger bunnies, especially those under the age of 16, you may wish to skip the erotic pottery exhibition, but for older bunnies it was quite fun seeing the artifacts depicting you know what....and not just the what, but the where and the how !! Barranco, in order to appreciate this district we opted for a free walking tour. Have to admit though, we were very glad it was a free tour, for if we had paid to be shown just one square block in the district of Barranco we would have been stamping our bunny feet with the greatest of displeasure. In a nutshell we covered the Bridge of Sighs or Punta de los Suspiros, (hold your breath as you cross and make a wish), a little artisan market, buy the Picarones! yummy yummy, a bridge tunnel covered in wall art, and an advisory of the best (or as it turned out for us the worst) restaurant in which to eat. Walking tour of Barranco? Pah, go yourself, you will see so much more. By the way, the best restaurant serving the local speciality, Cow Heart, meat on an skewer, was voted a resounding failure. ( I wont reveal the restaurant name as that would be unfair, they were very busy, but with a local clientele). Perhaps Cow Heart is an acquired taste. There was nothing about the taste or texture of this traditional dish that floated big bunny`s boat, and he is usually a proper meat foodie. Mrs Bunny had chicken, and corn on the cob, but nothing at all like the yellow sweet corn we are used to at home. to say we were disappointed in our choices in what was advised to be the best restaurant, would be an understatement. With our time in Lima at an end, it would be true to say we were a little sad to be leaving. Lima, we have loved you. Cusco From Lima we opted to fly to Cusco rather than endure a 21 hour bus ride. such a good decision. What a fantastic flight, the scenery was just fabulous, watching mountains out of both the left side and right side of the plane simultaneously, hitting the deck as we landed at the airport whilst still viewing said mountains was quite special. Take a deep breath everyone, Cusco, we are here. Located in the middle of the Andes Mountains at an altitude of 3399 metres above sea level, Cusco really does quite literally, take your breath away. Everything you read about visiting Cusco implies that it is simply an overrun tourist city, a place for which a couple of days will suffice, and the starting point for Machu Picchu. Where on earth do people get these ideas? Cusco is just beautiful. We loved every minute of our time in Cusco. We stayed for an extended period of time for a couple of reasons. Acclimatising, we aimed to give ourselves 3 days to adjust and adapt to the altitude. We then needed a further 4 days, allowing little bunny time to walk, sorry, hike the very challenging Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu. A hike of some 4 or 5 days covering a distance of up to 46 miles. We then spent a further 2 days at Aguas Calientes/Machu Picchu, before returning to Cusco for a further 2 days, giving glutton for punishment little bunny a chance to visit the Rainbow Mountain (for full details of these hikes, visit miss.tiff.travel s) Personally Mr and Mrs Bunny had seen enough photos of Rainbow mountain to know that the vivid colours as portrayed via Instagram or other adverts were a little exaggerated. We really didn`t find it necessary to endure more long drives and high altitude to take photos of coloured mountains with a multitude of other tourists. Cusco . What a beautiful old city, so very different to anywhere we have been. cobbled narrow streets, winding paths, large open squares, tourist shops galore, Cusco has a lot to offer. Yes, we did find ourselves overwhelmed by the hassle of the street sellers, most, but not all understanding that No, really does mean NO, and not yes I want to buy something I neither like nor want... but they are friendly and their pressure selling is a genuine need to make money. Many of the items are very nice, but so is your money, and if you don`t want something, be firm but kind with your rejections. The main square of Cusco, Plaza Mayor is a fabulous place to people watch, or even watch a parade,(we saw three in our brief time there). There are many balcony restaurants dotted around the square, and all have great views. We had a personal favourite, it faced the old cathedral and was situated in one corner. The food was pleasant, the coffee ok, the beer was cheap, the tea tasted like smoked sausages, but the view and the hospitality made up for everything it lacked. When you cannot cope with the altitude, have no desire to hike or go on endless days trips or face the barrage of street sellers, or the endless tat of t.s. shops these restaurants make for great bolt holes. Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley Where to begin? The biggest bucket list destination of our entire 5 months South America trip. To sit at home and see pictures of Machu Picchu in all its enigmatic glory, perched high in the Andes Mountains, built by the Incas, and knowing that there was a chance I could go? What a dream. We planned our entire first half of South America around this special place. What I didn`t expect after endlessly researching how to get there, was how easy and relatively cheap it is to visit. It is no harder to visit MP, than it is to visit the Eiffel Tower. From the moment you enter Peru you are battered with tours to Machu Picchu (MP) day trips, two day trips, 3 day tours. Every single tourist shop flaunting pictures from every angle, fridge magnets, t shirts, mugs, cups, plates, toys, pin badges etc of this wonderful place. Truth be known I became quite sad and disillusioned. The MP of my dreams, was a quiet, special, remote, and unique place, not a glorified over booked tourist destination. The reality prior to my visit, and especially in and around Cusco, bordered on a disappointment that such a magical place be treated with such irreverence, to an overwhelming excitement that I really was going to go and see it for myself. Even acquiring tickets for your circuit of choice (do your homework bunnies) is not the nightmare people insist it is, unless you want circuit 2 classic which is booked up months in advance. We purchased 2 tickets, for Circuit 2 lower, twenty days prior to our visit, peak season. You buy the tickets online, being careful to use the correct official Ministry website www.machupicchu.gob.pe you must then purchase the transport of your choice. MP, or rather its closest town of Aguas Calientes, (AC) is accessed by train only. There are many trains each day, and you can choose between IncaRail or PeruRail. You could choose to pay £1000s and experience the very beautiful Bingham Luxury trains, or simply take the cheaper, but still fabulous Peru Rail bus to Ollantaytambo, then the train to AC. All buses go via Ollantaytambo, and all trains take the same fabulous 27 miles route through the Sacred Valley from there as well. We opted for the very beautiful Peru Rail vistadome train/coach, with a return journey in what we thought was going to be a normal train carriage, but turned out to still be a vistadome carriage, with just a few less trimmings. The return Bi Modal transfer was approx £57 ppew. The Journey. Still apprehensive about the over commercialisation of Machu Picchu, and how the journey would pan out, my fears of en mass cheap coaches leaving busy bus stations, filled with chatting tourists, backpacks and cameras quickly abated as we approached the Peru Rail Railway/Bi Modal Station. Greeted by a smartly dressed railway host we were escorted quietly to the most beautiful waiting room with its peaceful ambience, tranquil sounds of the Beatles music played on pan pipes, the smell of roast coffee, comfortable chairs and carpeted floors. Guests were appropriately dressed as befits the majesty of Machu Picchu, and suddenly I felt calm and relaxed. We were escorted across the railway lines to the small but smart little transfer buses, the whole process of transferring people immaculately organised. On board the coach for around 2 hours of the most glorious scenery, we finally arrived into Ollantaytambo. Whilst we were not given chance to view anything of this small town as we were briskly escorted to the soon departing train, I have a feeling Ollantaytambo is a place that we could quite happily have spent (and dearly wish we had) several days. The train the station, the feeling of excitement is almost palpable. Every aspect is exquisitely managed, from the railway station cafe to the boarding of the trains. You are left in no doubt of where you need to be at any given time. Of course you will always find one set of `those` people, the instagrammers who believe a place belongs solely to them, the overly loud person who thinks everyone and their dog should listen to their conversation, and the travellers who are convinced you need to take oversized suitcases to every destination.... (get a life people!) We all boarded the trains to the sounds of Inca chanting and bells, as dancers whooped and chanted along the trackside and we were off. The Sacred Valley. No amount of research or videos could have prepared us for the majesty, serenity, peace and vistas of this glorious train ride through the Sacred Valley. We had eyes on stalks as we surveyed every inch of the views through our multitude of glass windows in our beautiful railway carriage. The extra few dollars spent choosing this particular carriage was more than worth it. Truly Magnificent. Any other words would diminish the beauty of this valley. It truly does seem sacred and unspoilt. As the train joins the river side you are treated to the scale and sheer size of the rocks and boulders with which the Incas had to work. Even the river itself offers a taste of beauty. Every now and again we caught glimpses of the hardy trekkers and their devoted porters ( our own little bunny included) as they traversed on foot the paths the Incas made before them. We salute you. For twenty seven miles and one and a half hours of spectacular scenery we wended our way through the mountains to the town of Aguas Calientes and the valley home of Machu Picchu. Aguas Calientes. From the sublime to the ridiculous. This town is the epitome of tourist central. As soon as you disembark the train the mass commercialisation hits you full in the face once more. Aguas Calientes serves only for tourist to sleep, eat, drink, shop, and to catch the bus (or walk) to Machu Picchu, which thankfully cannot be seen from this blight on the landscape of The Sacred Valley. A slight miscalculation in my timings put us in the town for 2 nights. With better planning and a little knowledge, one night is more than sufficient. There are pockets of beauty within the town itself, but nothing compared to the journey you have already done. Purchase yourselves a return bus ticket up the mountain, the shop is well sign posted and easy to find, 12 dollars ppew. And now, with tickets in hand, eat, sleep and awake fresh and excited at 4.30 am, your visit to Machu Picchu has begun. Machu Picchu. The bus queue, which you simply cannot miss as it winds down the street by the river, starts at around 4.30am, with the first bus leaving at 5.30am prompt. Your tickets and passports are scanned as you queue, and the boarding is fast and efficient. The little buses are boarded quickly and leave immediately. The speedy journey up the mountain takes around 25 minutes. As you depart the bus, clearly signposted Banos( bathrooms) are in front of you, with very clear indications that there are no toilets within MP, nor will you be allowed to back track or leave/re enter once in this sacred place. We had planned to arrive at dawn, to see the sunrise over M.P. Alas mother nature, or in Peru ,Pachamama will always dictate the weather. We arrived onto the classic viewpoint, a cloudy morning meant that we were unable to view MP in all its glory, but instead it did give us a very atmospheric almost eerie view of the sheer height and splendour of this amazing place. Due to new regulations and visitor numbers, the authorities have produced `circuits` limiting numbers of people to certain routes, and guiding people along on well marked but very specific pathways avoiding hot spots and overcrowding by maintaining a strict one way system, but this does actually work. There were many many people at MP, but at no time did we ever feel crowded or rushed. The guides are knowledgeable and respectful, giving you sufficient time in each place to talk and discuss the building and daily life of the Inca people of MP, before moving on as the next group arrived. We never overlapped, nor did we ever have to jostle for space. Is it everything we ever dreamed of? Oh yes. Very much so. It was also very respected and with zero tolerance for noise or silliness. Once more I felt at peace, knowing that Machu Picchu was truly respected for the sacred place that it is. I feel proud, privileged and humble to have been able to fulfil my dream and tick off yet another bucket list item that is Machu Picchu. Salineras de Maras and Moray A short trip away from the centre of Cusco brings you to these 2 places. We were picked up from the main square of Cusco at 8,45, driven for around one hour to a nearby town where we had a short but interesting demonstration of textile making, (why has nobody marketed that plant shampoo?, I have never seen dirty wool wash so clean with good old Persil..one quick grate of a certain plant, add water and wash, voila, pure white wool, was amazing!) anyway, every good demonstration( attentively watched by 3 nosy alpacas), has to end in a shop and this tour was no exception. A wonderful shop granted, but like any tourist tour shop, just a little overpriced. A note of consternation, the pens in which we had our little demonstration had a small run to the side of us containing little guinea pigs, they looked ever so cute and tame, I couldn`t help wondering if they knew they were destined to be spit roasted..... We continued onto Moray, which is an old Incan ruin of unknown purpose. It is thought that they served as agricultural terraces as it does have an irrigation system. Looking down on the site from above it was hard to appreciate its true size and scale, but when you note that your average sized person would have to climb, not step from terrace to terrace, the scale becomes pretty impressive. From Moray to Maras, only a short drive away further into the mountains, and suddenly you are confronted with the mountain side view of Salineras de Maras, the Salt plateau. A truly impressive sight. Over 4700 salt pools cascade down the mountain side, each fed by natural hot water spring that has flowed through the mountain for over 110 million years. The salt is collected on a monthly basis and each salt pool can produce over 150kgs. The amount of salt produced by these salt pools is quite staggering, 4 million kgs per year has been the estimated production. That`s a lot of salt if you ask me!

From Galapagos we flew back to the mainland via Guayaquil. A city that at this moment in time has an avoidance advisory. We are careful to listen to government guidelines and local knowledge, but equally we listen to our own hearts as well. Guayaquil was not an exception. It is not a safe city at this time, albeit less so for tourists, but we like safe. So, straight to the hotel we went. Take heed wandering tourists, the German family also from our hotel chose to ignore advice, attempted to navigate the local district, got lost and were promptly bundled into a taxi by concerned locals and told to go back to their hotel. Mr Bunny heeded all warnings and surpassed himself by ordering us Pizza via delivery. Expensive? yes, worth it? oh yes!!!! sometimes a little splurge does wonders for both bunny bellies and blissful contentment. Pizza, Netflix and Ecuadorian chocolate, an evening made in heaven. So, Banos. Banos, adventure capital of Ecuador. We had an idea what was there, and why we wanted to go, we just didn`t research it in too much detail to allow for that element of surprise. Surprise number one. It took 7 hours and 2 buses to get there , not the 4 hours on one bus that I read online. It should have been one bus, but it broke down. The 7 hours part was actually correct, I had misread the bus timetable, 4 hours was just the journey to the town of Riobamba where we got dropped off with several other bewildered local bunnies at a small bus tour shop as apparently our bus was having difficulties. We were each given tickets that said 3 to Banos (or 2, or 1 etc) and got told to sit. So sit we did. After around 20 mins, another bus came and on we piled. 3 bunnies and our fellow bunny locals back on their way to Banos. One hour said the bus timetable, 2.5 hours was the reality. We landed in the late evening into what I can only describe as (for UK bunny visitors Blackpool/ Or US bunny visitors, a mini Las Vegas) Oh I was so gutted. Talk about awful first impressions. Neon lights, music, party buses, young people milling about on the streets, burger bars and street food vendors. We got a taxi straight to our lovely little hostel Timara, see booking.com , shared kitchen but lovely family and perfectly nice rooms, deciding to shelve our disappointment and see what daylight brought. Morning came and I realised that our mini Las Vegas and the disappoint of, was actually Saturday night fun and nothing more. We were in the most gorgeous little town, best described as super touristic, safe, relaxed and surrounded by the most awesome hills. We quickly came to love Banos, for its friendly relaxing happy vibes, ( awesome Chocolate Shop. Blanco Hot Chocolate and Dulche de Leche crepes, wow just saying..). The neon party bus was back in the garage, and all we were left with was a million shops all selling one thing. Adventure!! Canyoning? Abseiling? White Water Rafting? Zip lines? Bungee? When we thought Banos was a small town with one area of adventure, the reality is many choices of adventures and tours all in different places around the valleys and hills. Where to begin. Spa waters! After so many weeks on the road the pull of hot springs and total relaxation was too good to miss. El Salado was our first destination. A place where you really do need to know that the book is so much better than the cover suggests. A grey concrete mass of bland looking buildings, muddy looking brown pools, less than inviting looking changing rooms and showers, and the most glorious hot natural pools. 3 hot or varying warm temperatures pools and one one freezing (to be ignored lol) pool. Day 2 saw us visit the Amazon. Without doubt the most cringy tourist tour and one that I would normally avoid like the plague, but definitely had its merits. Picked up at 8.45, first stop the View Point, Just a stop at the side of the road but a place where you could pause to admire the size and majesty of Amazonia, or at least one little corner of it. From there to the waterfalls. A lovely quite easy, semi paved, walk through the jungle (I did say it was touristy) to the waterfall. Very nice, one of the better waterfalls seen to date, even semi impressing this normally unimpressed wet stuff bunny. From there we went, in the little tourist bus, to the `Indigenous` village. Greeted by the village elder with his parrot feather hat, he proceeded to talk about Chicha, the local drink and the making of, then each of us was given a drink of to taste, from the same cup each time (Who remembers Covid?) Time next for the children in their `native costumes` to come and paint our faces with traditional face paints, showing my age here, but Adam Ant eat your heart out, we rocked the war paint look. Women next, in their fancy grass skirts dressed up the female bunnies in multi size grass skirts and they proceeded to dance around the fire whilst the male bunny variety banged their drums. boys and drums, boys and toys. Mrs Bunny here would have partaken, but alas someone had to take the pictures. Time for the snake picture next, ( I did warn you, proper ts tour) Mr bunny was nowhere to be seen as the snake was brought out, but little bunny quite happily posed with said legless creature. What do they say about every good ride? Ends in a shop! We each bought a souvenir of the day, and left waving goodbye to the `local indigenous people` who were now wearing their presumably everyday attire of jeans, trainers, and the children in their mickey mouse t shirts /nike jumpers. Day 2. We hired a jeep for 3 hours and drove the road along which are 7 decent waterfalls. Making the decision to miss them all on the outward journey, we headed directly for El Pailon del Diablo. so glad we did. This particular waterfall is quite something, as is the walk! the steps were fine, the views were amazing, then we encountered that bridge. The bouncy, high, rope type bridge, that had to be crossed to continue the waterfall walk. After walking, or rather crawling over a very solid stone bridge that was a whole 8 feet high near home, I was super impressed when Mr Bunny hopped across it with apparent ease. Took Mrs bunny a couple of false starts before venturing across, but of course fearless little bunny just bounced across it with barely a pause. As waterfalls go, Pailon del Diablo is well worth a visit. Several days passed with us choosing to do very little, the weather was a little unkind, but the chance to catch up with some online work was much needed. On our next blue sky day we caught a local bus to the Casa Del Arbol, perched on the top of the nearby hill, this is known as the original Swing At The End of The World. Just a little tree house with a swing, perched at the edge of a very big hill. So much fun. Suitable for all age bunnies. Very small bunnies have their own little swing nearby if required. A nice little viewpoint, a bit of fun, and back home we went. An evening spent at another brown water super hot spa pool finished off the day and our time in Banos. Cuenca. Yet another long bus journey. But what a journey, I don`t think I took my eyes off the window view for one minute. Ecuador is just so dramatic. We climbed and climbed so many times, getting higher and higher until we were looking down on the clouds and valleys below us. We finally arrived into Cuenca late in the evening to one of best hostel stays to date. Posada Todos Santos. Easy walking distance to the town, cute little rooms, with gorgeous wall paintings. Cuenca, what can I say except that I wish we could have stayed longer. Totally unlike any other city or town we have been to so far, this place is almost elegant, smart and just different. Ecuador in general is a very tidy clean country, (especially compared to Colombia (sorry Colombia) and Cuenca was no exception. find a little hotel called Terra Rooftop 360 to be rewarded by the best view of the city. You can eat there if you wish, but beware, your little bunny pockets need to be quite deep. we settled for coffee and hot chocolate. We met a couple of fellow bunny backpackers back at our hostel who were hoping to enjoy the national park which was an easy bus ride away. We too fancied this national park, and agreed to join them for a walk. Aron, the owner of our hostel, offered to come with us all to guide us through the maze which is Cuenca bus station, and onto the Park itself. First you buy your bus tickets, then you buy another ticket (only a few cents) to leave the bus station to catch said bus. the National Park was around 45 mins away, and is best described as Ecuadors answer to the Scottish Highlands. Lots of hiking trails in this area, but we chose the easy walk around the large lake. 2 hours with stops for photos, is all you need. A nice break from city life. Our time in Ecuador has come to an end. We are sad to be leaving this beautiful country. There is so much more to be seen in Ecuador, a country this diverse deserves time to appreciate, time which alas we do not have. Good bye Ecuador, we love you.

Do what? Choose a bag, book a bus, plan a trip, get a taxi, or just generally figure out where to start? I admit it has been a difficult journey. Every aspect has been researched at length, but even now we have so many unanswered questions, and so many unknowns. The where was the hardest, so many places in the world and we want to see them all. If I had planned our 15 month journey once, I planned it a 100 times, buy a car and drive through Europe, fly to Egypt, fly straight to New Zealand, were just some of the early days options. It took guts and a feeling of recklessness when I decided (after watching endless YouTube namely Nicole and Mico, and Backpacking Bananas for some truly great and confidence inspiring videos) that South America was the right choice of budget conserving destination for us to start. Was it out of our comfort zone? you bet, are we loving it? absolutely. Bag/backpack, we are committed to backpacking, we really don`t want the hassle of suitcases, as for hold luggage costs, not for us. The charges of adding hold luggage can almost double the cost of your flight. We are each carrying a clam shell type backpack made by Stubble and Co, and they are awesome! 40 litres. compartmented. Neat, look small, easy to manage, and are cabin bag size. Each to their own, but these tick every box for us. Even got a shoe compartment. (and their customer service is excellent) " bunnies are also carrying 30 litre rucksacks as their personal item, whilst bunny three is carrying a love nook bag. This lovenook bag is amazing, my little bag of pockets, but it does have one problem, it doesn`t make for a good turtle front carry bag. Wait, am I hearing you say you cannot travel the world with only a backpack, well take a look at my room photos, do we look like we are missing something? Book a bus, or generally get around?. At home I tried every which way to learn how to get around, and finally decided to stop fretting and figure it out on the ground at each destination. Google and RometoRio. Your new best friends. R2R is just about the best app anyone can have, and when R2R is out for lunch, Google. Unless you plan to bunnyhop across the Andes or roller skate across the desert, I`m pretty certain somebody somewhere wanted to go or has gone exactly where you want to, and has written about it. I`m all for hindsight and experience, who am I to question those who have actually done these trips? Taxi drivers seek you out, at bus terminals just stand around and listen, somebody is more than likely shouting out your destination from their little booth. Staff are always ready to help, hotels or even shops will call you a cab. Getting to your destination is the least of your worries. (add google translate to your friends list, your probably going to need it) I don`t intend making suggestions to which bus or terminal you need, everything changes over time, eg Ambato (if you have been or going to Banos) has a brand new bus terminal, not mentioned anywhere online. but R2R and Google tend to stay up to date, besides, there is more than one way to skin a cat and peoples choices of destination and how to get there should be their own. For example, I feel like we are the only backpackers travelling North to South, everybody we meet is on their way uphill. Do it your way, do what suits you. Still early days yet, but up to now travel hasn`t been a problem. Less is more. Did we learn that lesson? nope, we didn`t. We tried, but failed. We still managed to pack Justin Cases. I did try very hard to follow the instruction to get out your stuff, divide it in half and divide again. Hence the reason I failed to pack a bra and managed to pack 3 green t shirts. Can you have too much? yes, very much so. I could wear a different t shirt every day for 2 weeks, same for leggings/trousers. See earlier blog post when I mentioned we went shopping for missing items...lets just say I got slightly carried away! A new t shirt every day for 2 weeks? That`s when you know you have too much. Best buys? I am living in Salomon trainers for their sure footed grip. I had expected to be wearing my old faithful comfy Skechers, but the terrain so far has warranted decent sturdy footwear. My expensive super light packable puffy coat is amazing. A waterproof is much needed, but splurge. You need a waterproof, but space is premium. Spend the money on the tiniest, lightest, 100% waterproof jacket you can find. Mr Bunnies coat ticks that box, where as my coat takes us more space than I like. Merino wool socks are the bunniesbolox, but t shirts have to suit the wearer. Sweaty bunnies make prefer the merino, but those bunnies who merely sweetly perspire may prefer cheap t shirts ( easily replaced on the road as required) and decent deodorant. Skinny little bunnies just take whatever they like and lots of it. Rule of thumb, the bigger the bunny the less clothes you can take. sucks, but its true. We are still reading the How To Book of World Travel. We have made mistakes, the wrong bus added 3 hours to a journey. Mis reading the room description left us sharing a kitchen. You can book a dorm room for 4 and still end up in a room for 10. You can book a tour and have the best day out, or you can end up with the self important family with the most appalling spoilt child who screams for an hour on a small bus. It is all a journey, and each day we learn to adapt. Ear plugs and warm clothes for buses, with a t shirt just in case. Toilet paper lives in every pocket, as does small change. The wish you had remembered to buy insect repellent, packed more tummy relief tablets, or not packed your most favourite trousers, the ones you live in at home, but don`t seem to have a place for now. We are learning that bus `rules` are pretty stickers with words to be ignored. No food! (but your dinner in a tray is fine) No Pets! but the dog is fine, so is the puppy, and the kitten, sorry sir sheep go in the hold..... And so the journey continues.

We decided to avoid any difficult border crossing and chose to fly directly to Quito. At an altitude of 2850m compared to Bogota at 2625m we were prepared for the change of altitude and how it may affect us, what we didn`t expect or know, is that Quito is the city built on a hill, or rather a mountain. I don`t think I could be a mountain bunny, as these hills are killing me! Altitude and steep hills just don`t mix. After relaxing for one day to acclimatise, we dived right in with the must see sights in Quito and visited the very famous Otavalo Market, which as per every other must see in Quito, isn`t actually in Quito! Otavalo market, a 2 hour ride into the hills above Quito is huge, there is no other word for it. Often described as a tourist trap, maybe it is? but so worth a visit. I have never seen as many llama jumpers, scarves, ponchos, hats, jewellery, bracelets, stuffed alpacas in one place before. A truly wonderful market, but best enjoyed with 2 things in hand, cash and a willingness to barter. Look, but don`t touch unless you are willing to make an offer. Personally I am not a bartering kind of bunny, I prefer to have a price tag wafted under my bunny nose so that I may either waffle with interest or hop away. We 2.1 bunnies also found it rather difficult to weigh up the merits of an alpaca blanket, when one hour previous we passed the Mitad del Mundo monument, aka The Equatorial centre of the world. Its the Equator and you want me to buy an alpaca blanket? Quito Historic centre. A place we were advised to stay on our visit to Quito. Not sure why. It is pleasant enough walking around, and definitely an older part of the city, but nothing really to write home about. We have found a couple of pleasant squares to wander around, but mostly it is a historic centre of tiny local shops selling just about everything under the sun, eg we have a road drilling equipment shop next door to our apartment, with a sewing machine shop nearby, on the next street is a buckle shop, and a chocolate shop next door to that, whoo what a find (more about Ecuador chocolate later) We loved the Basilica which we can see from our bedroom window. Two huge towers, with two big clocks neither of which tell the correct time soar above us. A few dollars each to enter. we wandered freely around the upper basilica ramparts, (not the church itself) via a set of stairs, the type you would normally find in a car park, not your average squishy uneven winding staircase of hell that you usually associate with an old church building. Brave little bunny climbed the stairway to heaven, which gave us two older bunnies the flutterbies just watching her. A metal almost vertical ladder over the city lead to a small church spire, no health and safety here, just go on, up you go if you fancy. Even brave little bunny had wobbling legs on her return down the equally vertically stairs. Of course there was the proverbial cafe at the end of our climb where we bought rather good coffee with an even better view of the city and its Angel. Quito Angel monument. or Virgin of the Panecillo. Not a lot I can say about this. It looks great looking out over the city, but we were warned that under no circumstances should we walk anywhere near it. Taxi yes, walk, nope. We decided to give it a miss as the Basilica views were more than satisfactory. Mindo, another must see when in Quito, that isn`t. Mindo is a place we were really looking forward to visiting, and it didn`t disappoint. We had a shaky start to the journey after we found out that the 11am bus that we wanted only left from the `other` bus station. Quick taxi, and caught it with minutes to spare. Another 2 hour beautiful scenic journey and we were dropped off at The Cock on the Rock. A large red bird monument sat above a sign pointing to Mindo. Only one other sign and that was Taxi. so there we waited. We didn`t wait long before the best taxi driver in Mindo appeared. We were not to know at the time just how brilliant this taxi man was going to be. Gonzalo is his name. Not only did he take us to our accommodation (oh wow!) booking.com The Temple II Mindo, but he waited for us to check in, then took us to our chocolate tour, collected us, picked us up after dinner, picked us up at 7am for birdwatching, to the waterfall hike, to the butterfly farm, and at each time waited for us. Gonzalo, remember his name. Mindo chocolate tour, El Quetzal, excellent and very recommended. Not only did we get a personal well informed demonstration of the various stages of chocolate making, an informative tour of the orchard with the various fruit trees, the tasting session was pretty yummy as well. Note of caution, when the guide says `place a little powder on your tongue` he really does mean a little , not the large spoonful that big bunny swallowed and darn near choked on! finding out the hard way that dry coca powder is intense! The town of Mindo is tiny and quaint reminding me very much of old western movie sets. Many of the shops and houses were wooden, with old rickety balconies and wooden handrails. Chuck a horse rather than a llama in the street and it would look neither lost nor out of place. Waterfalls hike next. Gonzalo again, picked us up and took us to the start of the hike, which begins with a ride on the Tarabita cable car. for something so small, open sided, higher than the trees tops, it was the most fun thing we have done in a long time. The hike to the 5 or 7 waterfalls, well documented online so no need to elaborate here, is challenging. think mountain goat type challenging. Ignore those blogs that say ` a 35 minute hike` tosh !! Many parts of the trail have handrails, whoopy do, but even so, it was a long hard slog and very steep in places. Worth it? The hike yes, the waterfalls? meh..I`ve seen better and unless the waterfall is particularly really dramatic I`m not much of a waterfall loving bunny. Would I do it again? Yes, but only for the enjoyment of the jungle environment rather than the love of waterfalls. The ride back on the Tarabita cable car was even more fun on the return, as we had a four legged passenger with us. A dog named Princessa hopped on board and casually rode the cable car to its start point. Hummingbirds, tropical birds and butterflies next. Once again Gonzalo picked us up at dawn and drove us to his choice of bird watching venue. Not disappointed. Local knowledge is everything. A house? at the side of the road? Absolutely. San Tadeo bird watching. A back garden with the most fabulous bird watching set up, right there in front of you, no binoculars required this time, no craning your neck to find that elusive yellow beaked flying whatsit, these beautiful birds, were right there in front of your noses at eye level flying, eating, feeding, and generally just doing what birds do best. This bird watching bunny cant remember a single variety, but they definitely came in blue, red, green and blue, black with white stripes, pale blue and yellow varieties. And breakfast. The property owner made breakfast for us as we watched the birdies eating theirs. Then just as we thought we had seen it all, Gonzalo pointed us down a path that lead to the most fabulous view point, looking out over the cloud forest of Mindo, and hummingbirds. These tiny beautiful flying birds were everywhere. Multiple feeding stations had been set up, along with a large number of little bottle caps filled with nectar that you could hold up for the hummingbirds to come to you. some little birdies chose to hover as they drank, other perched quite happily on your fingers as they drank. I had a particularly distracted little birdie sat on my fingers who kept licking my hand as his aim for the nectar continually missed. I assume he was a boy.... Butterflies. Not as cute as the hummingbirds, but still fascinating. A quick look around the pre butterfly nests, the cocoons/chrysalis etc..then into the butterfly house itself. 1000s of them flying freely around us. so so many different colours and sizes. worth a quick visit if you don`t mind flying whatsits, but have to admit 2 of the 3 bunnies in our little party got the heebies as butterflies settled on our bare arms. Birds are decidedly easier to cope with. Quilotoa Lake. From Mindo back to our home in Quito for one night, before setting off again this time to Quilotoa, another must see whilst in Quito, that isn`t.. Long taxi ride in the opposite direction this time to the bus station, one bus to Latacunga, then a second bus to the village of Quilotoa. Around 4 hours travelling time in total. We were dropped off at the village entrance which is gated, you pay a small fee for which you get a ticket that you then show at a second gate. As we entered the village our hostel was right there in front of us. I shall decline to tell its name as there are far better places to stay. Nobody in sight, reception dark and deserted, shouting yielded no replies, what now? Ah, why wouldn`t the gate lady be the hotel watcher, across she came and despite her very best attempts to reassure us that all was well, we declined to leave our bags in the non attended hostel and instead wandered around the deserted town with them. Lunch at a llama cafe was pleasant enough, just relieved that we were the only customers. Dead bunnies move quicker than he did. From there we decided to go and see the main event, the beautiful blue Quilotoa Lake. Instagram you are a pain! Yes, the lake is gorgeous, but brilliant blue it is not. Even the following day when we had clear blue cloudless skies, the lake stubbornly remained lovely shades of blue/green/turquoise, but never brilliant blue. Quilotoa is a well advertised tourist destination, so you would expect clear paths to the lake, not exactly, just follow your feet in between two houses, up an incline of grass and gravel to a very well trodden path that looks down into the long extinct volcanic crater, now home to this beautiful lake. The lake views are spectacular, but so are the clouds. I took 3 photos, beautiful lake, pure clouds, beautiful lake, and my photos are less than 4 minutes apart from the first photo to the last, such is the speed of the cloud movement. Given that it was quite late in the day and getting chilly, we decided to check if our room was ready. The room was, but was it a room or a fridge? We have never been so cold, nor stayed in such an overexaggerated described room. We were given a heater, but said heater after being on all night failed to dry a slightly damp pair of socks. If the darn room hadn`t been prepaid we would have left and found alternative accommodation The relief finding 4 blankets per bed was tangible. After a long chilly night, we rose early and set off once more for the lake. Major tourist destination it may be, but for whatever reason we were still the only tourists in sight as we walked through the village. After much debate, fit little bunny decided to venture down to the lake edge. How steep? How far? A mind blowing 40 minutes of downhill walking, before she reached the waters edge. Chubby bunnies one and two decided they had more use acting as baby bunny bag watchers. It was truly glorious sat in the sun watching the ever changing lake colours, watching chunky alpacas being led to various scenic spots for the proverbial pose with an alpaca photo, and watching puffing tourists clambering back up the hill. 2 hours 50 mins later the little bunny reappeared red faced and exhausted. The guide map gives an average down time as 35 minutes, with a return time of 1 hour 30. Sure thing if you are of the super fit variety, but be warned, little bunnies fit bit watch declared she climbed the equivalent of approximately 120 flights of stairs. Shopping day! We really would like a drone. We are seeing the most amazing places, and to be able have an additional birds eye view of these places would be awesome. Research showed us a choice of 2 shopping malls not too far away. One definitely had a drone shop. Mrs Bunny is hopping (sorry) to find a few bits of clothes that are missing from her bunny bag. Mall one, Scala, not bad, out of town nothing particularly special, quite a good number of shops, but not quite what we were looking for. To Mall two we went. This one is called Quicentro and bless my bunny ears, it was everything we could have hopped for in a shopping mall. All our bunny senses came into fruition as we toured this beautiful shopping centre. turns out Quicentro shopping mall is in the heart of the new city of Quito and what a direct contrast this area is compared to the historic centre. This area is the dogs doofers compared to the historic centre. Pretty sure you wont get $28 per night room here, but if I had a bigger bunny backpacking budget, I would very much have preferred to have stayed in this area of Quito and visited the historic centre, than stay in the historic centre and visit the new. Mitad de Mundo. translated, Middle of the World City, or The Equator. when in Ecuador you just have to visit the equator. Situated 28km north of Quito (another must see when in Quito that isn`t) its a short 30 min taxi ride away. We paid a small entrance fee and were delighted to find so much more than we were expecting. Quick few photos at the monument, probably a shop and a cafe, then home again were our initial thoughts, but how wrong we were. Very much a tourist destination, but well planned out , neat, tidy and exceptionally pretty. There are a large number of little tourist shops, restaurants, an area dedicated to recreating original indigenous housing, (who knew they had flat screen tvs showing video documentaries of the Amazon) hmmm, slightly odd, but we ran with it. A beer museum, where Mr Bunny decided to burrow under for a while, a chocolate museum that of course had to be investigated at length,(ginger and lemonade chocolate, oh yum) a planetarium, Spanish commentary only, and an egg stand amongst other things. Egg stand? Apparently for some clever scientific reason you can balance an egg on a nail whilst at the Equator. Never one for science, I`m sure the more academic amongst you will understand why this is possible. Or in my case impossible. Yes I tried. Yes I failed. It needs patience and a steady hand, and I appear to have neither. Mr smug face bunny obviously had to have a go, and yes I admit, he succeeded. The smallest bunny also succeeded albeit with a sleight of hand magic. The Monument itself is the centre point of the whole park. Standing tall with its large world at the peak it just begs you to take the `hold the world in your hands photo`. There is the yellow equator line that runs the length of the park, but if you want to take the same photos but less tourists in your photos, go to the back of the monument. Exactly the same view, except without the door, and the numbers showing the latitude and longitude. We had quite a bit of fun here taking photos of ourselves walking the equator. There is a viewing platform at the top of the monument, which is actually quite large inside. If you chose to walk the stairs there are displays and information on each level which are quite interesting to read. Free to enter, it is well worth venturing to the top, how many times in your lifetime will you get the chance to say,` I`ve been to the top of the centre of the World` Cotopaxi National Park. Cotopaxi is an active stratovolcano located in the Andes mountains, approximately 30 miles north of Quito. ( another of the must see whilst in Quito, that isn`t) the second highest summit in Ecuador it is the highest active volcano in the world. And we climbed it. We booked ourselves a tour from Quito with active adventures ( oh how I wish I had paid more attention to that tour operators name) as we couldn`t find a way to get to Cotopaxi via alternative means. The bus picked us up at 7am and we were driven along with around 12 other bunnies to our first stop, breakfast. There we were told prior to leaving the mini bus, was where we could also buy hats, gloves. scarves if required. The shop owner repeatedly hugging himself saying Cotopaxi, brrrrr. We chose not to buy anything, hoping that our jumpers, gloves, buffs and puffy jackets would suffice, I mean its a national park, how cold can it be? Famous last words. Its very cold. and very windy. From there we were driven along a flat road, how nice, and a brief stop to pictures of the Volcano and Alpacas, you can never have enough photos of either. Onwards we went and then entered the national park itself. How quickly the landscape changed. From a few trees at the start of the trail, trees that apparently belong to another county, don`t ask me why, then onward to the most barren wilderness ever. Flat plains as far as you could see, with some hills, but no trees, just short stubby bushes here and there, and horses. Wild horses. Seems there are over 1000 wild horses just roaming freely around the National Park. We came to a brief stop, and the guide addressed the bus, Hi guys, can you see that building with the orange roof over there on Cotopaxi mountain? That`s our next destination, we are going to hike up to that, its the refuge. Woah!!! whadda ya mean hike ?!!! I couldn`t see any orange roof? Why? Cos my bunny eyes weren`t looking high enough!!! Granted the little bus chugged a fair distance up the mountain, but I assure you it stopped a very long way from any building, never mind one with an orange roof. Walk. Hike. humph, I was relieved to know that I didn`t need to keep up the patently obvious super fit hikers who set off with the lead guide at one heck of a pace, instead I got my very own slow bunny hiking guide who, along with my very patient Mr Bunny patiently bunnyhopped every step of the way with me, nagging cajoling and albeit false promising me, `just another 5 mins`. We zig zagged up that darn mountain for nearly an hour, every step getting harder and harder. We started at very high altitude, but this climb was taking us to the snow level. I swear I needed an oxygen tank. Then just as I was to collapse and die, there it was, in all its glory, a building with an orange roof, and a sign that said `Welcome to Cotopaxi refugio, 4800 metres above sea level` How high is that, well for comparison Everest Base Camp is 5364 metres. I had made it. This chubby bunny with 2 wonky knees made it. I couldn`t have been more proud of myself. The rest of the group managed several cups of hot chocolate as they patiently waited for me, whilst I managed a bite of a chocolate bar, before being told that it was time to descend. The descent, via a shale and sand scree type surface, took 20 mins, such was the terrain and the incline. Yeah!! made it, and what did the guide say? `right guys, time to get the bikes off the van, and we are going to downhill ride all the way to the lagoon` WHAT!! 3 minutes these 2 female bunnies lasted, being terrified out of our bunnies wits at the steep, fast, shale covered rutted road on bikes that didn`t really suit our bunny butts. Mr bunny continued on his bike, riding along side around 4 other nice steady bike riders, whilst the remaining members of the group passed them like blurs on the Tour de France. Little bunny and I were allowed to put our bikes back on the bus, and get them off again on the last flat part of the ride. This bunny then realised that to pedal a bike that was too small, meant bending knees past their capabilities. cue the most ungainly half pedal tiring bike ride to the finish. Would I visit Cotopaxi again? Yes, absolutely. would I climb it? or Ride a bike? Not a chance. Ecuador. A country that has far exceeded our expectations, wonderful in every way. The journey continues as we venture ever onwards, this time to a Bucket List destination. The Galapagos Islands....

One day I happened to say to my husband, wouldn't it be nice if one day we could walk out of the house with just a backpack and a map, no plans, no pre determined destination and travel? I got no response, just the quiet tick of cogs turning as he sat thinking of my out of the blue (and what I considered rather rash dream). Which is how come, 4 years later I am now writing this blog from Cartagena in Colombia! Turns out my wild dreams of travel were shared, and together we spent the next 4 years dreaming, planning, plotting, saving, YouTubing, and making designs on our retirement so that we could fulfil our dream of adventure. Did I also mention that on telling our daughter of our plans, we got told in no uncertain terms, well your not going without me!! Turns out that certain wonderful schools allow their teachers to take a sabbatical to follow their lifetime ambition to also travel the world! So here we are. 2.1 very happy bunnies setting off on a wild roller coaster of a ride, 15 months of World Travel. Sometimes together, sometimes apart, the three of us are hopping, sorry about the terrible bunny pun, to visit 4 continents, tick off many bucket list items, and generally get out there and live a little. You must be rich! Did I mention the fact we are backpacking with no illusions of grand hotels, or spa resorts? Cheap and Cheerful little hostels and best friends with Booking.com is the way we shall be travelling, at least until we reach a certain slightly less budget friendly country, but more about that in the future. You must be fit and very active! Ha, if only! the .1 little bunny ticks that box, but the two more worldly and lets just say older and ever so slightly chubby bunnies, tick every box bar the fit and active ones. One of us has a dodgy back, the other 2 dodgy knees, and both are hearing the whispers of the word arthritis, boo sucks. But here we are, doing it all the same. Who knows what tomorrow may bring? When opportunity knocks, grab him by the bunny balls and go for it. How did you choose/know where to go? Dear Google, Cheapest countries? South America, Asia, (ok, now I'm nervous), but lets do some research. YouTube, another new friend. Turns out all the main must see places in South America follow a well trodden backpacker route called the very apt Gringo Trail. So we dived in with both feet, booked 3 flights to Cartagena and plotted a 5 month trip from the most Northern (ish) part of South America, to its very tip, Ushuaia, via all the best gringo hotspots (thank you BBC Race Across the World for teaching us the correct pronunciation of Ushuaia. :-) First Stop. Cartagena Colombia. I admit to feeling exceptionally nervous about visiting Colombia, and I have no idea why. We have all heard the stories, but lets face it, every city in the world has its own troubles, but we don't flinch when visiting them, so why here? I still don't know. The people we have met these past two days have been amongst the nicest and most friendliest people I have ever been around. To break us in gently to the land of South America, and Colombia in particular, I chose the Bocagrande area of Cartagena. A long spit of land just to the south of Cartagena, known for long sandy beaches, lovely hotels and upmarket living. We enjoyed the atmosphere of this place, even with its abundance of hawkers. No thank you, not today, or maybe later becomes our most used phrases. Everything from massages (sounds wonderful, but not on a backpackers bucket list) necklaces, so beautiful, hats, surely you must need a hat? food, scarves, dominoes, you name it they come round selling it. It is difficult at first to repeatedly say no to the lovely people, but you just have to. Unless of course you are in the market for a little indulgence. 3 days here and we moved to another part of Cartagena called Getsemani. What an overwhelming riot of colour awaits you as you leave Bocagrande and enter the little area of Getsemani. Wall art, street art, graffiti art, flags, bunting, umbrellas adorn the small winding streets. I believe this area was once a poorer not much visited neighbourhood, but now its an area not to be missed. Beautiful women in traditional dress stand outside their restaurants with smiles to brighten the dullest days. The ladies in their Palenque dresses with baskets of fruit sat jauntily perched on their heads call to you for lovely photographs (at a small charge of course..) From Getsemani it's a short walk across the bridge to the castle of San Filipe with its huge flag, and amazing views across the water to the wider area of Cartagena. Bigger than it looks from a distance, this castle/fortress, is well worth a visit. Not so much so is the exceptionally busy Chocolate Museum opposite. Busy because it is cool and airconditioned after the heat of the steep walks around the castle, but I'm afraid delicious as it may be, chocolate (expensive chocolate) and heat make for poor friends. We tried to order two drinks, a chocolate beer and a chocolate drink, funnily enough though they had run out of both!! I will breeze over the museum part..as they say, nothing to see here. The last days of our stay in Cartagena we spent in the old town. Via Central Park...every walk we took we went via this town park. Sloths in trees! Who knew you could find sloths in trees in a park so close to a town. Not just sloths either, little monkeys, and iguanas also roam freely. Just wander into the park, look up and look puzzled, and very soon one of the very many water sellers or park keepers will be there at your side happily pointing out the various trees in which the sloths live. They ask for nothing, but buy their water please its a small token of gratitude that goes a long way. The sloths by the way came to be in the park when a person was seen a long time ago trying to remove a sloth from its correct habitat. Confiscated and rehomed in the town park these lovely slow sleepy animals are now thriving in this new home. Cartagena old town. Best entered via the Clock Tower, this is yet another area of Cartagena quite unlike the other two places we visited. A walled city with an abundance of small streets with balconies overhead, quite different to the bright colours of Getsemani, the Old Town or Centro could best be described as elegant? Beautiful little boutique shops on every street, a little pricy but so lovely. The first evening we went to the Old Town it was to await the return of our daughter from her boat trip to the Rosario Islands, for more info on that and a very entertaining YouTube/Instagram, follow @miss.tiff.travels . Happy Birthday Cartagena! 491 years young. The whole town was celebrating that evening. There was a stage, singers, live music, and food stalls aplenty. If they celebrate yearly, which I imagine they might as 491 is quite an odd number to celebrate, the first weekend in June is the date you are looking for. Minca. leaving Cartagena we caught a bus to the coastal town of Santa Marta, and a taxi to the hillside town of Minca. This small unassuming little town is a small taste of a green paradise. Set amongst the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, this beautiful area has earned itself the title of Ecological Capital of the Country, and its not hard to see why. I truly wish I could say that I had explored this area a little more thoroughly but the need for rest was more important. Our lovely little hostel has a roof balcony with a full length open window which gave me/us our very own piece of National Geographic, natures television. Following a day of rest, we followed our feet to the famous Pozo Azul waterfall, a pleasant walk through the trees, led us to the waterfall. Grateful that so many were walking towards us, as on reaching the waterfall, we could see how quickly it could become crowded. Leaving Pozo Azul, we headed to our next waterfall, name I cannot recall, it was sign posted, Hidden Waterfall. A rather treacherous and quite challenging path in places, we reached this little gem. Not as grand as Pozo Azul, but the moment we landed on the sandy area next to the waterfall, the heavens opened and a tropical deluge of warm rain descended on us , forcing us to quickly abandon our explorations. To say the trek back up was challenging would be an understatement. The following day we rose at 5am, with a plan to go on a Bird watching tour. Picked up at our hostel by 3 motorbike taxis at 5.55am we were pillioned (woo hooo) down the hill to the town where we met up with our guide and 3 other couples. A quick guide on how to use binoculars without falling over, a quick bout of local bird spotting in the nearest trees, and we were off. Walking through tiny paths, passing what I can only describe as tree houses, houses on stilts on the side of the mountain each with its own incredible views. Our guide pointed out bird after bird after bird. I now know that bird watching is an art form of wandering binoculars, aimed at birds that are definitely not where you thought they were, and a sore neck. I saw lots of birds, they all had wings. Humble apologies to the bird watchers out there, but there are only so many times I can say woo hoo, to yet another little yellow bird even if it is the lesser spotted female version of the other 36 previous sightings of little yellow birds. I admit there was a black one, and one with a tufty head, and another with a white tum. Ask me to name them? nope, not a scooby. I like a nice bird, but "look that`s a nice looking bird" ticks every box for me. Apart from the hummingbirds. I could watch those little guys all day long. The walk minus the birds was wonderful. Even the wading across the little river because the rains had washed away the path was no hardship. Then just at the point when our guide was about to point out yet another flying doofer with a beak, he laughed and called out look Toucan! there!! Oh my goodness a real life Toucan in all its glory. My day was made up. Unable to get my camera to focus that far to take a suitable photograph, I decided that as I had seen it with my own eyes, pinching a cheat photo from the guy the 15` foot lens, was perfectly acceptable. My time in Minca is coming to a close, and I wish I could stay forever. A village well worth coming to, but come soon, as it is sadly clear that as tourism to this charming place is expanding, areas of this pristine unspoilt simple landscape will be lost to the concrete jungle of the more discerning clientele. Medellin, via Cartagena.. Another long bus ride from the town of Minca, I should mention here that I had quite clearly forgotten just how far into the mountains Minca actually is, as you traverse down the mountain with more twists and bends than a soap opera. The road seemed to go on forever, getting less and less green the closer we got to the town of Santa Marta. Not the best bus ride back to Cartagena, it was very very hot, with not the greatest of air con. The free Wifi was awesome, for a whole 15 mins, then zip, nada, nothing. I mention our return to Cartagena as quite by chance I had booked an overnight stay in yet another little suburb of the Old Town, an area called Centro. Such a great little hostel, the ceilings were so high, it made the room seem so airy. A bed like a brick and I slept like a log. Maybe that`s the new key for comfort ratings? Centro, the place to find smaller less designer and more local yet still tourist type shops, street food on every corner that just makes your mouth water and makes you wish (makes me wish) I was a little braver to try such foods just in case there wasn`t a banos nearby..if you catch my drift. Fruit of every colour just cries out to be eaten. The airport, just a short distance away beckoned us at 6pm for a 55 minute flight to Medellin. Medellin. A city unlike any other city we have been to before, not just Colombia, anywhere. We entered the city late at night via the newly built 7km tunnel that brought you out with the city of Medellin displayed in all its glory down below us. Tiny pin pricks of lights for as far as the eye could see. In the valley, the hills, the mountains all littered with little fairy lights. How big this city, the second largest in Colombia really is, would reveal itself the following day as we explored the oldest part of the town with a guided tour. The tour guide was brilliant, giving us a candid view of the city, from the days of old and the gold miners, to the more gritty and possibly misguided view that may or may not rule peoples perceptions of this lovely country today. Drug capital of the world you are probably screaming at me, yes, maybe, but not in the way you assume. I`m not going to elaborate here, but lets just say Colombia, and Medellin in particular, has the most complicated, multi tiered, intertwined, fascinating, sad, complex, vibrant, resilient and amazing culture that should be respected and admired. Be mindful when you visit, but not fearful. Comuna 13. Once upon a time this area of Medellin was considered the most dangerous area in the world. A certain date in 1993 changed all that. I have no intention of giving said person any kind of platform, but as per our guide, lets just say Voldemort came to a sticky end, and the Comuna 13 of Medellin through passionate, positive and proactive determination to change its image, has succeeded with more energy than anyone could believe. Their history is complicated, their future is still complicated but thanks to its positivity and willingness to embrace change, Comuna 13 is a district to be commended for its love of its people, their devotion to music, dance, art and DJ`s . The escalators to the upper levels are adorned with beautiful graffiti art, not to be confused with scruffy spray can vandalised walls, these graffiti murals are just breath taking. So much colour, everywhere. Visit the Comuna 13, and you will love it. Guatape, a town that featured often on our `how to travel South America favourite You Tubes` We knew we had to go and see this amazing place for ourselves. Leaving Medellin on a small but very comfy little bus, we drove through some of the most beautiful countryside we have seen so far. A far cry from the small shanty towns that we passed from Santa Marta, this lovely bus journey was so green, flowers, well kept colourful little houses, big estancias , mowed grass fields, fat cows and skinny horses, we saw it all. Arriving into Guatape we landed at the small town square. Not choosing to rest, we wandered the town and were mesmerised by the array of tiny colourful cobbled streets, little alleys with their relief panels adorning each house, these panels, or zocolas, each tell their own little story, a school, a baker, a stubborn mule, or maybe just coloured squares. Walls depicting some of the most beautiful wall art, butterflies, hummingbirds or parrots on every street and building. One street is lined with colourful umbrellas, and yet more frescos. This ridiculously cute vibrant little town should be on everyone`s bucket list. Just outside of Guatape, is the big rock, dress it how you will, but it really is a very big high rock, with a huge fissure down one side, that some smart Alec one day thought, I bet if we built a staircase in that gap, people would come to climb our la Piedra, and build that staircase they did. All 750 steps worth. An exceptionally touristy spot, but ignore all that, just go early, go prepared, go with half decent fitness, (ha!) and go knowing that if you plan to climb to the top, and are just a little afraid of heights, go with a pig headed stubborn determined attitude to succeed. Keep your head down, your eyes on the stairs, and advance 25 steps at a time. It also helps if you take a couple of extra bunnies to cajole, coax, persuade and generally offer you moral support. I promise you I have never been as scared in my life. But come hell or high water I was climbing to the top of that damned rock! Yes, I had a paddy, yes I cried, not by choice but by sheer panic and stress. Did I climb crouched down below the eye level of the hand rail? You bet, did I reach the top? Yes !!! Yes Yes Yes! Is it worth the heart pounding fear? Yes, more than just a little bit. The view from the top is nothing short of spectacular. Every direction you look is a view so picture perfect your camera will be begging you to take one more photo, one more.. Once you have taken every view possible, why not treat yourself to a drink or ice cream, because we all know every good place has either a cafe at the top and or a souvenir shop, and Guatape rock is no exception. Once you have had your fill of amazing views, return to the stairs for an equally challenging decent. Unlike the climb up, these stairs meander behind the main stairs, and are set back a little more into the rock itself. Steep, winding and spiralling, but I hasten to add with many many open views to the daylight for anyone with a more claustrophobic disposition. aka me. But, I promise you I am back on terra firma, so the rock whilst challenging, was well worth the tears and terrors. Tut tut, I missed out the tuk tuk. After wandering the streets on our arrival, we got into a tuk tuk for the most fun ride to our slightly out of town hotel. Who knew 2 chubby bunnies, one skinny bunny, 3 backpacks, 3 rucksacks, 2 hand bags, a partridge in a pear tree and a driver could fit into a tuk tuk. Well they do. And if you want to come down from the car park of Guatape rock to street level, the little tuk tuk takes on the persona of a soap boxer racer. Hang on for grim life, and laugh like you mean it. Salento. Not a place I had planned on visiting, but the smallest bunny stamped its little feet and so to Salento we went. Tuk Tuk to town, local bus back to Medellin, Terminal Norte, as every website tells you that is the correct bus station. No, it is not. You need Terminal Sur. Another local bus through the worst traffic ever, to the correct station, to find a coach to Salento. Arriving late into the evening, we fell, literally out of the taxi into our most fun hostel to date. Why fell? I swear the worlds steepest street is not in New Zealand, if it is, then our hostel street in Salento came in a close second. Why visit Salento? Think Encanto, and thank Disney, this is the town that inspired the film, and its not hard to see why. Humble apologies for using the word ` colourful` yet again, but if the cap fits! Salento is the cutest little town, but it is more the base for the spectacular Cocora Valley with its immensely tall palm trees. Not found anywhere else in the world, these palm trees are well worth the walk. To get there hop into or onto, (tell you about that in a sec) one of the very many waiting jeeps, and enjoy the most fun 30 min ride to the valley entrance. 8 people ride inside the jeeps, whilst two people, usually the male variety, but also adventurous bunnies, ride on the foot plate at the back hanging on for dear life. Eat your heart out British Health and Safety. You are dropped off at the car park and from there it is a short walk to the start of the Cocora Valley walk. Two choices, 12 km or 2km. Even the little bunny decided 2km was plenty. Straight away you are hit with a large array of super touristy `props`. You will cringe, but you will still take the I was here photo. Leave these behind, and I promise the walk to the second of the 2 view points is more than worth it. Do I want to go all that way to see a couple of extra tall palm trees? Yes, yes you do. A few lessons learned so far. Sink taps and showers come in one flavour. Cold. Buses come in two flavours, Bake or Freeze. 4 years of watching what to pack on You Tube, does not mean you will remember to pack a bra, enough underwear or to not pack 3 t shirts of the same colour. I did however remember to pack a sink plug, door stop, 3 packs of playing cards and a carbon dioxide monitor. Mr bunny wishes he had listened to Mrs bunny and packed a little more of just about everything, however Mrs Bunny is grateful for the extra space in the big bunny bag for her anticipated purchases. Little bunny found out that Colombia has the most amazing clothes for petite bunnies and is now wishing that the backpack and the budget was bigger. Your new favourite word is Banos. Pronounce this however you wish, you will always get corrected. Gracias and No gracias are used on a regular alternative basis. Your confidence of knowing you spent months learning other Spanish phrases will quickly be zapped when you abruptly realise these wonderful people talk at a 100 miles an hour, barely pausing for breath, making you whisper to your bunny partner `what did he/she just say?` Either take up charades instead before you leave, or accept that google translate is just awesome. If you really, really cannot understand, smile enthusiastically and say Si ! You will now either be going on a walking tour or volunteering for the army. Talking of the army, practise blank nonchalant non-committal facial expressions if one should happen to get on your bus armed with a bloody great gun! Bogota. Fly. The end. We caught the bus from Salento, and started off well. Our comfy little coach positively speed chugged his little way up that first mountain, we passed everything on the road, and the views as we climbed into the clouds were just breath taking. And then the fun started, strictly no overtaking, and just about every mode of transport uses that mountain pass, from bikes, taxis and buses, to humungous low loaders that just so happen to be towing a broken down bus, and in front of us. 2 hours we hugged that broken buses backside until we were finally able to pass it. More spectacular scenery, doing well, chugging along nicely now, until the roadworks started. Never again will you curse the M25. These were not roads being repaired, these were roads being rebuilt and re routed from foundation upwards. We knew the speed as we moved painfully inch by inch by reading the speedos of passing bikes. 12 kph. All the way into Bogota. 1 hour and 50 mins we travelled 9 km. Bogota city. Colombia`s biggest city. Would I come again? probably not. Not certain if too much prior research, first impressions, or the advice to not wander around particular areas especially at night skewed my initial impression, or the fact that we appeared to land when apparently the biggest rally of striking teachers in the history of Colombia was taking place in the cities biggest squares rendering them out of bounds. The entire centre of Bogota was a mass of armed police, security agents, street police with guard dogs wearing muzzles, (exclude the golden retriever with his lack of need for a muzzle on his goofy looking face) Another guard dog was also quite literally leaning on a lamp post, so maybe they don`t take the guard dog persona to heart. Is Bogota usually so well armed, I don`t know. Did we feel safe, both yes and no. Bogota has had an explosive past with a gritty political history. The rallies were peaceful, but the buildings on the public squares were still covered in black netting for their own protection against vandalism and graffiti. We went on a walking tour to learn about the city of Bogota, interesting to a point, but a little too heavy on the political instabilities for my liking. Someone described Bogota as gritty, I would describe it as your average working city. Pockets of interesting streets here and there, occasional amazing street art, but mostly your average spray paint graffitied buildings, a working city nothing more, nothing less. The best bits? The Bogota Gold Museum. That`s a must. So much gold in one place, all or most pre b.c and all of it just beautiful, intricate and fascinating. Monserrate, one of two hills that dominates the skyline of Bogota. Get to the top either by cable car, funicular railway, or for the super fit, shank`s pony, and be rewarded with the most spectacular views of the whole city. Don`t go on a Sunday, the church on the top is a much loved local place of worship. Colombia. You have been amazing. We have loved you. Your colours, your happiness, your welcoming nature, your coffee, your scenery, your art. Not so crazy about your lack of tea bags, or chocolate, but will we return? Yes. Absolutely.