Nothing too exciting today so I'll keep it short. The main purpose of the day was to fly to Santiago from Arica. This was via the smallest airport I can remember visiting, with just one security officer, and two gates. The whole process felt more like getting a bus than getting a plane, since it was a 'hopper' service going from La Paz, then Arica, Iquique, and finally Santiago.

Today was another travelling day, as I made my way from Arequipa down to Arica, the northernmost town in Chile.

After 10 hours on the bus last night we spent the morning catching up on sleep until our white water rafting booking at 11.30am. This was a first for both of us and something we had been strongly recommended to do in Arequipa. The whole package only cost the equivalent of £15 and it lasted for almost 3 hours - brilliant value.

The second day of our tour package saw our earliest start yet, with us waking at 4am (after just 3 hours of sleep) in order to hike up to Machu Picchu for the start of our guided tour. The night before I had specifically asked the guide whether it is light at 4.30am. ‘Yes of course it is already quite light at this time’ was the answer, so we confidently packed our bags without torches.

Our main mission for today was to sort out a tour for Machu Picchu. The standard 'traveller' thing to do is a 4 or 5 day trek through the jungle, but we don't have time (and perhaps the inclination) to do so. Instead, we opted for a two day tour which visits the sacred valley on the first day, before a full guided tour of Machu Picchu on the second.

As the locals say: feliz 28 de julio! Today was our last full day in Lima, so we took the chance to check out the main downtown sites. Turns out there wasn't actually that much to see other than the expected town squares and cathedral, though we still had a good day.

Here it is! I am sitting in Atlanta airport (the busiest in the world), waiting for my connecting flight to meet Marc in Lima, Peru where our travels will commence.