Where we stayed: Peru

Lima: Most visitors to Lima stay in either upmarket Miraflores or slightly bohemian Barranco.  The old town is reportedly not very safe for tourists at night, although there are hostels and hotels there too.

Into the Colca Canyon

At the start of the trek

Arequipa is a ‘jumping off’ point for lots of hiking and adventure activities, including trekking into the Colca Canyon, which was thought to be the deepest canyon in the world at 3,400 metres, until its neighbour the Cotahusi Canyon was found to be 135 metres deeper.

There are lots of companies in Arequipa offering tours into the Colca Canyon, but having read up on it, I could see that there was a very doable round trip into the Canyon (with a night at the bottom at the ‘Oasis’) that we could do on our own. And generally we like to try and do things by ourselves where we can, particularly where the route looked as straight forward as this one did.