Cusco was, and in many ways still is, the Inca capital of the world so after two days spent relaxing in the city's restaurants and bars with friends we'd met earlier in the trip (Shirly from Uyuni as well as Ivona and Will from La Paz), we took the train to Aguas Calientes; the base point for visiting the Inca city of Machu Picchu. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is believed to have been constructed around 1450, at the height of the Inca empire, and was abandoned less than 100 years later, as the empire collapsed under the Spanish conquest. Covered in trees and forgotten for centuries by the outside world, it was brought back to international attention by archaeologist Hiram Bingham who made the first scientific confirmation of the site in 1911.

Situated on a mountain top, several hundred metres above a sacred river, it truly is an amazing spectacle and, as a result, is unsurprisingly a little overrun by tourists. The Peruvian government has placed limitations on the number of people allowed to trek the Inca Trail and there are even murmurings that they are considering closing the whole site for a year to prevent too much wear and tear.

As Dave mentioned in the previous journal entry, we had heard quite a few negative stories about northern Peru from other cyclists and, hence, decided to jump on a bus for 60 hours to Quito in Ecuador and spend the majority of our remaining time in Colombia rather than the Peruvian desert. Having stared at endless, seemingly identical, scenery for about 1000km in addition to noticing that our bus driver had, quite comically, decided to arm himself with a baseball bat for this stretch, we felt we were justified in our decision to skip this part of South America.

Quito is the largest city we've been to in South America with a population of around three million. However, having been off the bikes for a week and a half, we were keen to get moving again and, hence, spent just one day in the city visiting its "Old Town", which earns its name due to the multitude of colonial buildings located here. We took some time to climb the still-under-construction Basilica that overlooks the city and have a wander round this impressive building.

The next day we set off for the three day cycle to the border with Colombia. However, this stretch didn't quite go to plan. I started day one feeling a little under the weather but after 50km of hilly Ecuador this rapidly turned into me having to stop every kilometre to prevent myself being sick while on the bike. Having battled on for about 15km we reached a petrol station and I decided I couldn't really continue so jumped in a truck with Solom, a Colombian mechanic plying his trade in northern Ecuador. He gave me a lift for the 10km ride to the next town. This stretch, unfortunately, happened to include the equator. However, with the way I was feeling at the time, I can safely say this was the last thing on my mind!

After a day of recuperation, we completed the next two days of cycling to reach the Colombian border town of Ipiales. We'd heard conflicting stories about the relative safety of the southern part of Colombia so we thought we better check with the border police. Fortunately, they assured us that the roads ahead were fine as long as we cycled during the day. Happy in the knowledge that we wouldn't have to take any more buses, we sauntered into the town square in search of a hotel. Dressed in our lycra, we were approached by a TV reporter and his cameraman who wanted to do an im promptu interview in Spanish about our trip. This was probably the most nerve-wracking experience of the last six months with a crowd gathering to hear me give my answers to the reporter's questions. Fortunately, I'd already practiced a little at the border when a journalist produced a dictaphone and asked us questions along the same line. I did my best to explain the pros and cons of cycle touring, my first impressions of Colombia and its people, why more Brits don't come to Colombia, and my experiences in the five other South American countries we've visited. He and his cameraman seemed happy enough after and in our off camera conversation they further reassured us that the roads ahead were totally safe, but "very mountainous".

Our day off in Ipiales was spent visiting the stunning "Las Lajas Cathedral," which is built in the most amazing of locations in the canyon above the Guaitara river. Legend has it that a mother and her deaf-mute daughter were caught up here during a big storm in 1754 when suddenly the daughter exclaimed "the mestiza is calling me" and pointed to a painting of the "Virgin of Rosario" in the rock, which was illuminated by the lightning. As a result, the location is considered holy and the subsequent cathedral was built there.

Our first day of cycling in Colombia was definitely a sign of things to come. Out of Ipiales we had a 40km descent from 2,900m to 1,400m followed by a 30km ascent to bring us back up to the height we started at. The roads are the steepest and windiest we've come across and an average day's cycling tends to include a 1500m vertical descent and ascent as we traverse the mountains. With such changes in altitude, come huge changes in culture. When we are below the 1,000m contour the towns have a real Afro-Caribbean vibe, but as we make our way back up to over the 2,000m contour, the towns become more and more predominantly indigenous Colombian in their make-up.

We are really enjoying the challenge of these climbs and this is greatly aided by the ridiculously friendly nature of the Colombian people. We've had countless kind interactions with locals who are more than happy to stop their car for a chat, wind down their windows to hand us lollipops, and generally make an effort to make us feel welcome everywhere we go. During the last few days we've bumped into many cycle tourists (Julie, Daniel, Tobias and Xeno from the US, Francois from France, Steve from Canada and Paul from Belgium) who feel the same.

Our arrival in Popayan didn't quite go to plan as I, due to some dodgy patches and repair work back in Potosi, managed to pick up three punctures in 15km! With the heat of the Colombian sun we found the glue wasn't sticking for any new patches so I had to walk the last 5km into town. Again this provided the locals with an opportunity to demonstrate their good-nature as several road-cyclists stopped to see if they could help in any way. Road cycling is very popular here and we weren't at all surprised when we found out that Solar Hernandez, a Colombian, had won one of the Alpes stages in the Tour de France. The many Colombian climbs and descents that take one through and across some amazing valleys is definitely motivation enough to get fit and jump on a bike.

We used our time here in Popayan to jump on a bus to San Agustin to visit an archaeoligcal park. Dave will pick up from here in the next journal entry...