Our month in Peru was mostly spent hiking some of the best trails so far, and eating good food.
First up was Puno, a tourist town just over the border from Bolivia - where we visited the indigenous Uros families who live on 120 floating islands, made from reeds, on Lake Titicaca.
It was abit of a tourist trap, but nonetheless interesting to see how the locals lived (they pre-date the Inca civilizations). We also got a ride on a reed boat and our passports stamped with the floating island crest.
After months of meat-heavy menus across most of South America, Freya was also super happy about the abundance of fresh trout on offer (I think she had fried trout for five days running).
Next was the hiking heaven of Cusco, also the base for everyone's number one Peru attraction - Machu Picchu.
To do the official Inca Trail you have to book six or so months in advance. So instead we booked the five-day Salkantay Trek to the famous Inca ruins.
It was bloody hard work. Most days we were up by 5am, and we ended up walking over 65 miles.
But it was well worth it. The first day was an easy stroll in the morning, followed by a tough afternoon hike up to the beautiful Humantay Lake (4,200 metres high).
We then headed back down and checked into our luxury, see-through fronted dome where we spent night one.
The star-gazing was fantastic due to the lack of light pollution, with the dome nestled inbetween two snow-capped mammoth mountains - including the Salkantay, which we climbed the following day. However it was the coldest night's sleep ever.
After an early rise, we trudged four hours up to the Salkantay viewpoint (4,630 metres). The view was fogged with mist, but we could hear the rumbling of avalanches from the towering peak. With another five hours to our next campsite - it was the toughest day of our trip.
Day three we spent walking alongside a forest, with another early morning on day four to follow a tough uphill Inca trail to Mount Llactapata - where we could see the peak of Machu Picchu as the sun streamed past.
Blistered feet and aching legs, we managed to haul ourselves out of bed for one last early start on day five to plod up the steeps steps to Machu Picchu.
What a place.
While we were that tired we couldn't compute much of our tour guide's information about the lost city, it was jaw-dropping to gaze at as the clouds drifted over the ruins before dispersing to reveal more ancient buildings.
The friendly llamas were also good fun - and enjoyed a selfie or two - and we got a cool passport stamp.
To warm up for the Salkantay trek, we conquered the Rainbow Mountain - a proper lung-buster sitting at 5,100 metres high (where there is the equivalent of 50 per cent less oxygen).
We had superb weather (some reviews suggested it's not worth the trek when it's cloudy), but the multi-coloured mountain was sparkling.
We trekked back through the Red Valley - which is something not all tours offer, but I would highly recommend.
While it's another three hours to get back, the scenery was like something from another planet.
The food in Cusco was also fab - lots of cerviche (marinated raw fish), alpaca (which, when done well, is really tasty), and beef heart skewers (probably my favourite Peruvian dish).
I didn't bother sampling the country's delicacy of oven-roasted guinea pig. I had every intention to, but they are fried whole - with teeth sticking out of the animal's open mouth - and look pretty rank. The locals swear by it, though.
After 11 days in Cusco - a long stay by our standards - we were on the road again (the buses in Peru are a really good quality, thank god), to Arequipa.
The pretty European-looking city is surrounded by three volcanoes - a great backdrop for rooftop drinks at sunset.
We also discovered the popular cheese ice-cream (it's not actually cheese, more vanilla and cinnamon) which is BEAUTIFUL!
From Arequipa we took a local bus to start a two-day hike around Colca Canyon, said to be the deepest in the world (I think this is because of the towering mountains around it, but from cliff-edge to river bottom it's twice the size of the Grand Canyon).
The majority of the first day was downhill which took us to the canyon's base where we stayed at the oasis town of Sangalle (our hostel had a swimming pool which was the perfect tonic to cool off).
The next day was a much tougher, albeit shorter hike - 1,000 metres, and three hours, up the steep mountain face back to the canyon's peak.
The quirky desert town of Huacachina was fun for two days full of sandboarding and dune buggy riding, before we got to Lima.
We took it pretty easy in the capital, visiting the pretty Circuito Magico del Agua light show, wandering around the arty, hippy district of Barranco, and eating good food (the beefheart skewers at Panchita in Miraflores are superb!).
Before hanging up the hiking boots for a few weeks, we did one last walk up to Laguna 69 in Huaraz - possibly the most strikingly blue waters we've seen so far.
Freshly-cooked popcorn in the town square was also delish.
After a quick stop in Trujillo to wander around the ancient ruins of Chan Chan, we spent five days relaxing in Mancora (or that was the plan before we both came down with food poisoning).
But we managed to get in a few beach days, and get our last fill of Peru's culinary treats (some highlights from our trip below - in order: alpaca, soy sauce cerviche (AMAZING), beef heart, normal cerviche, trout).
Next to Ecuador - and the GALAPAGOS ISLANDS!!
