Before we got to Vilcabamba, we did make a stop in Riobamba in order to go on the train and travel the ´Devil´s Nose´ Railway – a rather amazing engineering feat in that they constructed a railroad from Quito to Cuenca through the Andes back at the beginning of the 20^th century, but one of the problems they encountered was the massive difference in altitude betweeo Simbambe and Riobambe, and the ´Devil´Nose´which is a massive mountain of rock that they somehow had to navigate. So what they did was design a series of switch backs, so that the train zig zags forwards and in reverse to slowly edge down/up the side of this cliff face. And the fun part is that you get to sit on the roof of the train whilst it´s travelling.

The only problem was that we got to Riobambe on the Saturday afternoon, only to find that due to landslides, the train was only running from Alausi to Simbambe (a town 2hours further south). Anna and I decided to call it a night there (having already flown back from Lago Agrio and 4hrs to Riobamba), found our hotel and a great little bar, and would get to Alausi first thing in the morning.

This turned into a pretty epic day, on the 6.30 bus to Alausi, to then wait 1 ½ hours (at least) for tickets, to then find that we couldn´t do the ride until 1 in the afternoon! So we had time to kill in Alausi, but when we did finally get on the train (NB Ecuadorian people do not know how to queue), I thought it was pretty magnificent. Admittedly the ride was much shorter than what it should have been, but the scenery was unbelievable, huge, steep peaks rising up and up towards the sky, green but windblown mountains, and an immediate drop off right next to the traintrack. Obviously everyone wanted to ride on the roof, so which had to switch half way, but the conductor was very kind and let me ride in the open doorway whilst we were sitting below, and then we had the ´wind in our hair´up on the roof on the way back! The switch back was really only a series of three or four zig zags, but it was interesting to experience, as the track had to be switched manually (the conductor jumping off to change), and looking at the rock they had to cut through to make the railway, it was pretty amazing. Really pleased that I did it.

Vilcabamba was a lovely place to stop for a few days – a great hotel with beautiful views of the valley, a fantastic restaurant and plenty of hammocks for reading, lazing and watching DVDs. The only bad thing about this stop was the excruciating pain we were left in after going for a 3 hours horse ride, which turned into 4 hours, and horses that had a mighty strange way of cantering and galloping (Anna and I are convinced the horses had to have something to do with the world´s most uncomfortable horse ride!). Fortunately, the hotel where we were staying did offer $18, 75min massages, so we at least had enough foresight to book in for that before going for the ride!

We took some overnight buses to get to Piura in Peru, and we can categorically say that was one of the worst bus rides ever! The driver was unbelievably heavy on the breaks and took corners really heavily, so it was difficult to sleep. Thrown in the fact that the computer system was down on the border, and it was pretty much disasterous! We did finally get to Piura, and embarked on another big journey down to Trujillo, further down the coast of Peru. Rather than staying in Trujillo, we stayed in the little surf/beachside town called Huanchaco, which wasn´t a particularly traditional Peruvian town, given that everyone was getting around in Billabong and Ripcurl clothing, but a nice spot nonetheless. I had a couple dips in the water, though the sweep was incredibly strong, so it wasn´t much fun, and we discovered some brilliant eating spots. Anna and I were a little extravagant, ordering lots of seafood, including cebiche (raw, marinated seafood – actually pretty tasty), tried this delicious dish (purely by accident), which was this moulded, layered stack of potato, avocado and crab meat (I´ll be raving about this for years to come), and we found what I have deemed to be unequivocally the best Mexican restaurant outside of Mexico! The 28^th was also Independence Day, so there were celebrations and street parties everywhere, and Anna really lashed out and at one of the stalls (run by beauty college trainees) had a manicure/nail art done! Actually pretty cool/cute, but I don´t think Anna will be running out to have it done regularly!

We spent a day visiting some of the Moche and Chimu (native Indian) sites around Trujillo, including Chan Chan, which was the biggest indigenous city in all of the Americas. All in ruin now, but they are slowly excavating bits of it. I was impressed by all of the motifs which had been painted on the walls and by the sheer size of all of the buildings, and I was not overly impressed by the hairless dogs which are native to the area, and really quite ugly. The males did gain some credibility, however, as they tended to have mowhawks!!

After the horrendous bus ride to Piura, we decided to lash out and take an executive class bus to Lima. This meant that we had fully reclining seats, a hostess and a little snack box – much better! And then we had a flight to Cusco.

So we are now in Cusco, and getting a little nervous because we are starting the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu tomorrow, and know that the second day is pretty touch and I´m definitely not overly fit at the moment. Come to think of it, I should probably be worried about the other three days also! But we´ve had three days here, basically all full of market shopping and finding delicious restaurants/cafes. Off to the post office this afternoon to post some more things home…

Wish us luck for the trek!!