Day 1
Once again we Had an overnight but so arrived in thr city early at 6am. This time Josh had managed to sleep but Rachel had not so Rachel was very hopeful that we could go straight bed when we got to the hostel. Fortunately we could so that's what we did. Once we were up we had breakfast and went on about planning our day. We decided to go to Alpaca world as it was free and you just don't get tired of seeing Alpacas. Here told us all the differences between alpacas, llamas and other animals related to them. After that we went to a crepe place we had seen on our way for lunch which was delicious. We then had a little time before the free walking tour we wanted to do so went to the supermarket to get some water and some food for dinner. The walking tour took us all over Arequipa and it was very clear that it was a beautiful city with fantastic architecture which was full of people that are very proud of the city. After the walking tour we went to where the tour had started to book a chocolate making class for the next day before heading back to the hostel to relax and have dinner.
Day 2
Rachel was a bit run down, the air on from the bus had given her a bad cold, so we decided to spend the morning relaxing at the hostel in the sun before heading out to the crepe place again. We then headed to the chocolate factory to learn about making chocolate and to make our own. The person taking the class, Adrian, was a chocolate sommelier and producer of chocolate for this company. We began by looking at the cocoa beans, and sorting the good from the bad. If the shell had any type of damage then it was no good for chocola t making as it would burn when being dried out. Instead, these beans are used to make tea. Tea from cacao beans is actually healthier than green tea, as cacao is the biggest source of natural antioxidants. Even though the tea smelt delicious and chocolate unfortunately the taste did not match. We then de-shelled the beans we hadn’t sorted that had been dried out in an oven before grinding them up to make a paste. Machines that do this process to get the beans fine enough takes 4-6 days. We then learnt about the ingredients to make real chocolate. Only 4. Cocoa mass - provides colour and bitterness. Cocoa butter provides the aroma. Powdered milk and sugar. And that’s it, just in different quantities to produce different types. However the production of real chocolate is very expensive, so more often than not company’s substitute the real  related  similar effect. Palm oil, sunflower oil and rapeseed oil replace the cocoa butter. Vanilla, vanillin, coulourings and bitterings replace the cocoa mass. Liquid milk replaces powdered milk, which then results in malt, solidifies and emulsifiers having to be used otherwise the chocolate would be unable to set. The sugar doesn’t get replaced, just increase hugely in amount. After the heartbreaking new season that all chocolate is fake we went to make our own real ones. We put some flavours in our little modules like salt, peanuts, coca, coffee before filling the, with chocolate super quickly and tapping them to get all the air out and mix inthe flavours, once these were in the fridge we had a chocolate tasting to see if what we had learned had paid off - could we distinguish between fake and real chocolates. We could!! We got all 5 right. We had such a good time at the workshop and learnt so much, but it certainly won’t be stoppping us from enjoying the fake chocolate back home.

Day 1
Day 2

Day 3
The ‘easy’ day. We were relieved to have reached this point in the trek, with most of the third day being down hill or flat... or so we thought. Unfortunately we woke up and it was raining, cloudy and misty and just all round terrible conditions for hiking. The first 30 minutes or so was pretty step up hill. We can’t tell you much about the views because we couldn’t see a thing. Lucio told us what was there and we had to use our imaginations. We visited some Inca sites and got information about how they would live and why settlements had been built in certain places. Every now and again we were treated to a slight view but the weather changed so quickly these moments were fleeting. About 30 minutes before our lunch and camp site for the evening we went up to a large Inca .... The third day was short so we could all rest up for the big day. We napped, and then as a group we went to another Inca settlement with terraces which was incredible.

Day 4 
The big day, what the three days of struggle all lead up to. We woke up at 3 to set off to the control gates. The gates didnt open until 5:30 but there’s only room under shelter and with seats for around 20 people so you want to get there early. Luckily we were just in time managing to sit down before the queue really began to build up. After quite the wait the gates opened, we had about an hours walk to reach the sun gate (first view of Machu Picchu). The views around were stunning but we were trying to go as quickly as possible to the sun gate so it wasn’t too crowded when we arrived. We were very lucky, we arrived and it was pretty empty, and you could actually see Machu Picchu!! We took some very quick pictures because we could see a huge cloud rolling in about to hide Machu Picchu from us. Even from so far away we could tell just how incredible it was. We then had about another 40 minute walk until we reached and got inside of Machu Picchu. When we arrived it was already so busy, and we had to go in the opposite direction to the crowds in order to actually validate our tickets and in again to follow the actual path. We had a 2 hour tour wi5h our guide who told us all about the area. Although very interesting we were all so tired and aching as there’s even more stairs to get up and down in the town. After this we wandered on our own for a little before heading Tom get the bus down to Machu Picchu town. Once we arrived we went with 3 of the others from our group to get a well deserved drink. We then had lunch and caught the train down to Poroy a town close to Cusco. 5he train had some electric faults meaning it took longer than expected so we only got to our Hotel in Cusco around 8.
Despite the challenges, this was without doubt one of the best things, if not the best either of us have ever done.

We took an overnight bus from Puno to Cusco (Puno was disappointing, we didn’t do a lot, probably shouldn’t have stayed a night there). We got to Cusco very early in the morning but luckily with Bolivia Hop were dropped off to our hostel. We could pay 50% of the nightly room rate to check in at arrival (5am) so we did as we were both very tired and Josh hadn’t really slept on the bus. We headed into the center of Cusco after breakfast and headed to Alpaca Expeditions to sort out the rest of our payment for Machu Picchu. Wandering through the town was lovely, it’s a very clean and well kept place with large squares with fountains and pretty buildings. We spent much of the afternoon doing admin, we booked a rainbow mountain tour for the next day, and sorted Colca canyon tour for when we’re in Arequipa as well as accommodation for there as well. The rainbow mountain tour was picking us up at 3:00am from the hostel so packing for the trip and an early night was very much in order.
Well the second day was quite the experience to say the least! Bearing in mind it’s super early, and we were hiking up to 5,200m above sea level we were very prepared wearing lots of layers, armed with hats, gloves and walking boots. This was the case for many of the people we picked up, except 1, he was in old slip on vans, a tshirt and flimsy jumper - we both found this strange. Then once everyone was on the bus the guide told us we couldn’t do the usual route we had to do one 2 hours longer because of the rain the day before, which was very frustrating for us. Since it was incredibly early still we all headed to sleep. Rachel wasn’t in deep sleep and heard said guy mentioned before who was sat behind her mention he wasn’t feeling too great. He was complaining for quite some time, but she thought it’s fine he’ll just stop the bus if he gets really bad. She was very wrong... he starts to be sick and the person he is with doesn’t really do anything leaving it to Rachel to get the bus to stop. We’re all a little confused by what’s happening but he gets back on and off we go, “yeah we didn’t trek Machu Picchu because it’d be too difficult” he says... alarm bells start ringing... rainbow mountain is said to be twice as difficult as Machu Picchu... this couple clearly had booked this tour with their eyes closed. We stop for breakfast 1.5hrs into the bus journey then jump back on the bus for the remaining 1.5hrs to get to the base. About 15 mins in the bus stopped for the driver to check the tyres and the problem guy goes “thank god we’re here I couldn’t take much more of this” this was not great to hear as I knew what was coming... yep he starts to be sick again once again not stopping the bus, but this time he decides he’s had enough and doesn’t want to do it and wants to turn back (which obviously wasn’t possible). We arrived to the base after clearly not a very pleasant journey - the problem guy stays in the bus and does the 3hr journey back straight away.
Anyway, we set off walking. It was pretty ok at first with mostly flat or gradual inclines to walk along, but once it started getting hilly it was very tough, being at ~4700m you get tired so quickly. We were both determined to power through. In terms of determination, the alternative if you couldn’t carry on was to take a horse. Some reading this may not know of Rachel’s past experience with horse riding but let’s just say there was no way she was using a horse, making her more determined not to give in. The hike was beautiful, the surrounding scenery was so colourful and impressive. We got to a point you could see the the top, but unfortunately the altitude got a bit too much for Rachel and the guide decided it would be best to give her some oxygen. After a few minutes we were good to go again on the final stretch and make it to the peak. Relieved is an understatement of how we felt once we reached the top.
We had one more day in Cusco which we used to explore the local market of Cusco. This only took a couple of hours. We spent the rest of the day relaxing which our tour company for the Inca trail suggested as we had a heavy four days ahead of us. In the evening we had a meeting with our tour guide and group just to get the final bits of preparation before getting another early night.

An early wake up as we were using Bolivia Hop to get around Bolivia and Peru. This was our first journey with them and we were both impressed. We were making our way from La Paz to Copacabana, which was around a 4 hour journey. We got spectacular views throughout most of the journey, and at one point we actually had to cross Lake Titicaca - the lake is so huge it takes forever for the bus to drive around so instead it’s just taken across by boat. We arrived in the little town excited to get to our hostel. Rachel had booked the hostel for here back when she was bored at uni and we knew it was extremely nice. Arriving, we could already see an amazing view of the lake, and there was llamas in the garden!! We had an incredible room with an incredible view and we were both very happy. We relaxed a little before going to look around the town. It was very relaxed and easy going, with some really impressive architecture - the church was a huge which building with intricate mosaic roofs. We headed to the market to buy some food for lunch and had a chilled afternoon in the hammocks in the sun. In the evening we wanted to get up to a viewpoint to watch sunset. Boy this was not easy. Already being at .... meters above sea level the altitude is no joke, but then doing an essentially vertical climb up a mountain makes it even more tough. Nonetheless we made it up in our own time to get an incredible view over the lake. Annoyingly, and just our luck it was pretty cloudy, but it did turn out to be a pretty spectacular sunset so it was all worth it.