Without the bikes, our transport and temporary home (the tent) were not available to us any more. We were now exposed to a whole new experience, getting from A to B using timetabled transport and having to book accommodation by that schedule.

Using a combination of planes, buses, collectivos (multi user taxi service) and taxis we made the haul from Santiago (Chile) to the Colca Canyon (Peru) in 3 days.

We were happy our bus driver from Tacna at the Peru/Chile border handled the desert mountain roads better than this truck driver

We acclimatised ourselves to the altitude in Cabanaconde (3200m) and then headed down into the Canyon, over 1000m below. This is the equivalent of walking down Snowdon (and back up) but from 3 times the height of Snowdon.

At its deepest the canyon is over 4000m, deeper than the Grand Canyon.

The paths are mainly donkey and pack horse trails that have been widened and improved slightly for tourism, but still a bit shaky in areas.

As we walked, slowly, down the condors made multiple appearances, catching the thermals and making fly pasts.

On our previous Andean adventures we have only glimpsed them from a distance, here we could see the colouring to determine male or female and see the massive wing span.

Once at the river there are a series of small villages, sitting on terraces, that use the fertile land on canyon sides to make a living, along with the accommodation for tourists.

For our first night we stayed in a small posada (inn), Posada Roy, with a view of the path we had just walked down.

The route we had chosen ended in an oasis on the 2nd day; a bit of a tourist trap, but had some nice fresh spring fed pools.

From there we could contemplate the walk/stagger back up (with more condor sightings).

About a third of the way up we collected another South American mutt that had been following a group down, he followed us all the way up and back to the hostal where it turned out they knew him. Our calling him "ginger" was nowhere near his real name of "Bigotte".

Leaving the canyon today on the local bus, we passed all the tourists who were leaning over the main condor viewing point (Cruz Del Condor) and could see that four condors were drifting towards the next bend in the road. On cue as we rounded the bend they rose along side the bus, the full wing span of one visible as it soared higher.

Beautiful and majestic in flight, ugly buggers when perched.

This was our third attempt to get into the canyon, in February 2011 there was snow blocking the pass then in December 2012 we failed to get the bike in.

And that is it, the real end of "Pegless to Peru", just some beach bumming left to do.

We may return to South America again, it is more likely than unlikely. There is still so much more to see.