Ok, we're up for it. We've seen the culture, visited the kids, sampled the pets ... oops, food. Time to hit the road.
Our first day is off to the Sacred Valley - the fertile birthplace of Inca culture. As we travel along we are stunned by the locations of the Inca ruins - high in the mountains. These tough guys didn't go for the easy route. No, they had a lovely valley with a reliable river running through it. So what did they do?
They trudged hundreds of metres up the mountain side to find a nice convenient crag (it almost killed us at this altitude just to walk up the paths, let along drag building stones weighing hundreds of kilos through to many tonnes). Once there they built their houses and set about converting the 45 degree slope to an ordered series of horizontal terraces, perfectly suited to growing a vast variety of corn, potatoes, etc.
When you consider that the Inca empire only flourished for about 100 years, the shear mass of structures they put together (and so exactly - no slipshod work here) is doubly impressive. They were a culture without writing, based largely on community commitment - everyone devoting months each year to labour on community projects - and they showed the awesome results that people can achieve if they work with each other, rather than against.
Our next stop was a local animal shelter. Animal welfare isn't seen the same way in Peru as it is in Australia, but you still get the same wonderful passionate people who dedicate their lives to animals in need.
Ok, this one wasn't suffering anything more than a severe case of embarrassment, but still I felt for it. Why do people like breeding hairless dogs and cats? I know they are warm etc, but that's why God invented hot water bottles.
We also met some puma, coati, llamas (no vicuña thank heavens - I was starting to get nervous) and some condor.
Ok, so that last one isn't a llama, but you can see my point about hairless dogs.
I was really pleased when we saw the condor. Terribly endangered, they are huge birds - the largest flying bird with a wingspan metres across.
But for once I wasn't the centre of cross-species attention! One young bird, with a wingspan of a mere 2 metres decided that our guide Effy was his long- lost parent, and it was time for a bit of father-chick bonding.
Given they normally use their razor-sharp beak ripping rotten carcasses to shreds, I don't think I'd want a love-kiss either!
I'm starting to worry about these Peruvian animals ...
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