Cusco is a must on all travelers tour of South America. The jump off point for tours to Macchu Piccu and the Sacred Valley as well as a beautifully restored town and well known party city.

The Plaza de Armas is the meeting point of the city, surrounded on all sides by beautiful colonial architecture and boutique shops. A ticket to see all of Cusco's historic monuments can be quite pricey but just walking round the city you can tick the big ones off your list and pay separate entry fees for the few you may choose to see inside. The Cathedral of Santa Domingo is the big must see and the Church of the Jesuits in the main square is equally impressive.

All around the city you can see memories of the Incas. The huge stones used to build the old city walls still stand and in them you can find images of pumas and toads. Some are a little harder to see then others so tagging on to the back end of a your can help you pick them out.

Cusco's central market is a great place for a spot of lunch, a typical almuerzo will set you back a dollar or two and you can always be sure of a surprise treat you weren't expecting. And if you're not hungry, you'll soon work up an appetite with all the souvenir shopping.

The Inca Museum was a great spot with loads of artifacts on show from pots to gold and maps of cities and stars. It's a good place to get in the mood for Macchu Piccu.

To tell you about Cusco's nightlife might be telling a little too much, the best way is always to search out the hotspots for yourself. Most of the clubs are clustered up and around the square and many stay open into the early hours of the morning. My hostel recommendation for Cusco is Kokopelli, they have three other hostels in Peru and are a great place to start the party as well as a cool place to chill if you don't want a wild one.

Macchu Piccu was at the top of my bucket list and was the thing I was most excited to see in South America.
Most people do a 4 day Inca Trail (booked 6 months in advance) and others take a tour from Cusco a few days before, either a similar 3-4 day hike or for those who don't want the hard journey up the Inca train and then coach to the top.
I had booked a 2-day Inca hike along the original Inca Trail before leaving the UK (I don't find hiking particularly pleasurable) and was so pleased I did.
I woke up early on the day of my hike and was put on the Inca train where I went about a third of the way up and was hurled off on the side of the tracks. There I met my guide and we started up hill. The rest of my group had cancelled due to sickness so I got a private tour which was excellent. I practised my Spanish and learnt as much about the Inca's as I could.
The scenery along the way was spectacular, waterfalls, valley views and smaller Incan and pre-Incan settlements kept us entertained and were beautiful spots to take the necessary breaks. We chatted about how different we thought the world might be today if things had turned out differently for the Incas. Known for their warrior mentality the Incas had a great respect for 'Pacha Mama', the earth goddess. They only took from her what they needed and gave back when they did. They were also great thinkers, who built civilisations with complex water systems and mapped the stars. When they first met the Spanish they gave them gold as a welcoming gift, bad idea.

My favourite thing about the hike was walking through the Sun Gate and seeing the great Macchu Piccu nestled amongst the hills. We sat for about an hour looking at it, after regaining my breath which took some time!. My guide told me how no matter how many times he sees that view it is always like he is discovering it for the first time. It was magical.

After walking down to the town we had dinner and a good nights rest ready to see the site in all it's glory the next day. We got up early to see the sunrise, taking the bus up to the site (I got a stamp in my passport!) and then we waited for the sun to appear through the sun gate that we had walked through the day before. Their are too many amazing facts to share about Macchu Piccu, it truly is mind boggling. The stones within each temple fit together like a jigsaw, each block unique, and yet you cannot fit a blade between each rock. In one place, just to show their craftsmanship and skill the Incas built a curving wall between two natural stones with no purpose other than beauty and showmanship.

Complex stone hinges meant the city was secure, and a water system meant crops and inhabitants were hydrated. Scattered everywhere were signs of their belief systems, water fountains in the shape of frogs and an underground vault which opened up to the mouth of an eagle, believed to be where the dead were prepared for burial and then reborn.

Then I learnt about the Sacred Valley, a series of Incan settlements that lie around Cusco, and of which Macchu Piccu is a part of. The Incan king foresaw that the end of the world was near (which coincidently was foreseen to take place around the time the Spanish invaded, spooky). Believing that you travel to the afterlife via the Milky Way, the king began to build his own Milky Way on earth in order to control his destiny and pass through to the next life when his end came. Each town within the sacred valley lies directly below a constellation and from an aerial view the cities are built in the shape of each constellation. It literally is the Milky Way on earth. Pretty impressive huh?!

Many people sidestep Ica and head straight to Huacachina to sandboard and Nazca for the unexplained desert lines. Some come to Ica to volunteer to help restore the city after the devastation of the 2007 earthquake. I however made Ica my base and set off on day trips while contributing to the local economy. The town square was pleasant with winding streets surrounding it and a cheap lunch deal can be found on every corner.

1. SANDBOARDING AT HUACACHINA

The oasis at Huaachina is stunning and I can see why people want to spend a night here. A short cab ride from Ica the magical palms spring out from the desert and for me the place had a 50s nostalgia to it, where vintage screens sirens might come to live out their own Arabian Nights.
The real pull here is the sandboarding and I would recommend opting for a board an buggy package. For a third of the price you can just have the board but the dunes are steep and the real trill comes from ragging it full force. After a few crazy wheel spins and some face first tabogganing we watched the sun set over the dunes and all was calm. Until I screamed like a baby on the drive back!

2. ISLAS BALLESTAS

Las Islas Ballestas are known locally as 'The poor man's Galapagos' but then so are most other islands off the west coast of South America so don't get too excited. The trip consists of a few hours boating where you get up close and personal with penguins, boobies, pelicans and seals. I'd seen many of these animals somewhere more secluded on my trip so it wasn't super exciting but animal lovers and bird watchers especially would live this trip. I did find myself zoning out, imagining myself a crew member on some great expedition to research the mating rituals of sea birds and I felt a smile creep onto my face. Then I zoned back in to a seagull shitting on my right shoulder. Hey ho.

3. THE NAZCA LINES

I did the Nazca lines in a day from Ica. I remember it seeming difficult but it really wasn't, an early bus gave me time to book myself a helicopter ride, see the lines, have some food and catch the bus back before nightfall.
The lines were awesome. The flight is expensive, there's no two ways round it and you can see two of the lines from a viewing tower just off the highway, but its not the same.
Waiting for my flight to fill up I watched the National Geographic video play on a loop getting more and more excited. After a bumpy 20 minutes in the air it was all over, I'd seen them. It was ticked off the bucket list and I felt a sense of accomplishment. I have no answers for you. I doubt the alien connections, it's easy to see how man could make the lines, especially men with great mathematical and scientific minds capable of such wonders as Macchu Piccu and other similar Mayan civilisations. The why is still questionable but I won't ruin it for anyone wanting to go, the spirituality of these civilisations is evident everywhere in South America and for me it shows more of mans strength than it does anything else.

SURVIVAL TIP:
Take some snacks to the airport. I was advised not to eat before the flight due to air sickness but I booked the flight at 9.30am and didn't fly till 2pm so was bloody starving!

Nothing sucks more than being sick, especially when you're travelling, especially when you're travelling alone.
I boarded a night bus for Ica, heading south from Cusco, having partied a little too hard and spent the last few days drinking lemon and honey.
I spent much of the journey liberally blowing my nose, much to the annoyance of my fellow passengers and finally passed out at around 3am. At 6.30am I felt a light tap on my shoulder and the kind attendant was telling me we had reached my stop. I knew this from the way she was urgently pointing at the door, I also knew this because her mouth was moving. I did not know what she was saying, not because she was speaking Spanish but because in the few hours I had been asleep I'd gone deaf.
Just imagine, a banging headache, a throat like sandpaper, the sun beating down on your back, a bustle of people starting their days around you inbetween uncertain stares and nothing but muffled silence.
Furthermore I was couchsurfing with a guy who wouldn't be home until 6pm, I hailed a taxi and asked for the hospital.

By this point one ear had gloriously popped and I could make out general sounds and conversations even if I was shouting back at people like a cantankerous old biddy. The 'hospital' was an emergency clinic made of concrete slabs and a dust floor. Luckily I looked so lost and in need I was helped straight away. I was able to roughly translate the words 'pain' and 'no listening' and a look down my throat proved I was blocked up with bacteria. The doctor wrote a long list of drugs on a piece of paper, told me to go across the road, buy them and return. Return for what? I wondered.

At the pharmacy I handed over my cash and received a bag filled with a few pills, vials of clear liquid and syringes. Brilliant. Back at the 'hospital' I was taken round the other side of a curtain that was used to give privacy to someone having what looked like kidney dialysis to a stained bed covered in nurses coats and handbags. As I leant over and revealed my left cheek I questioned whether this was the right thing to do. Would I get better or would I get AIDS? I risked it.

With 10 hours to kill before my couchsurfing host would open his doors to me I checked in to a mouldy hotel (with cable TV), blagged a cheap rate for half the day and cried. I cried uncontrollably for about and hour and half, before I realised Girls of the Playboy Mansion was on E! and everything didn't seem so bad.

My couchsurfing host was a dream, I slept for days at his house and he took me each day to get more injections (3 bum injections in total) and soon I was feeling better again.

SURVIVAL TIP:
Don't let it get this far! I hate going to the doctor for silly little bugs and think your body should and will fight it off naturally. However when travelling you're always moving, not meeting your normal sleep and dietary needs and the stress of having injections in a dirty clinic is never good! Plus you never know in these sorts of places, if Cheryl caught malaria, so can you! So nip it in the bud quick!

Lonely Planet describes Puyo as Disneyland made of reeds, or something to that extent. It was my least favourite place on the trip so far but one I wasn't going to miss out on as there is nowhere else like it on earth.

Las Islas Flotantas are situated on the Reed lakes just outside of Puyo, somewhere all visitors will pass through if coming from Lake Titicaca. We decided to do a tour which included a homestay on another of the islands on Lake Titicaca a had heard how touristy the reed islands were and didn't want this to be our only memory. A good decision. The reed islands where amazing and great inspiration for artists or story tellers, tiny islands made completely out of reeds, come on! However the whole thing felt not only as though we the tourists were manipulated (every 10 steps something cost you more money, a boat ride here, a souvenir there) but also that the inhabitants were trapped in a tourist machine. They sang us a song in numerous languages and showed us inside their homes while their Adidas tracksuit bottoms snuck out from under their traditional dress. It was worth going but totally weird, especially as they shouted 'hasta la vista babies' as we set sail and waved goodbye.

The homestay had a similar feeling but nowhere near as bad. We stayed in a beautiful farmhouse with children's school achievements pinned to our bedroom wall. We hiked to the top of a ceremonial mountain, leaving rocks of thanks and wishes at the alter on our way up to watch the sunset and then dressed up in traditional clothes to go to a dance. This last part was a little awkward but it was fun to dress up and dance stupidly to the local band.

Our last day consisted of going to another island where the men wear hats to show their status, single, married etc and the men with more decoration showed their wealth or political status. Very cool.

SURVIVAL TIP: Take extra cash when visiting Puyo, it's expensive but the island people are generally ripped off by the tour operators and at least when you buy their local crafts you know the money's going directly to them.