Hi all Hope you are all as fresh as a daisy. Since the last update I've been busy enjoying everything Cusco has to offer, with the absolute exception of grilled guineapig - pets for supper -no ta! Spent 5 days doing an amazing trek, climbing over the 4600m high passes near the glacier peak of Salkantay which culminated in a spectacular sunrise in Machu Picchu. Although the actual trek was challenging, the hardest part for me was camping out for days with absolutely no facilities - eugh! It was definately well worth all the bad hair days though, as the views of Salkantay, especially on the second day, were spectacular. Machu Picchu and its surrounding views were also incredible, particularly as we arrived on the solstice, which is the best day to see the sunrise over Machu Picchu. I treked with a really lovely group of people which definately added to the great experience. Our guide however, although well meaning, certainly wasn't English speaking and there were many 'lost in translation' moments, e.g. Maria the guide would spend ten mins explaining one part of Machu Picchu in Spanish, Laura would translate the Spanish into French to Stephan and Stephan would translate the French into English. So what took Maria ten mins to explain in Spanish would finally be translated into English as "its a gate"! Another hightlight was watching the Inti Raymi festival of the sun, which is Cusco's most important festival. The whole city celebrated with street carnivals for the whole week, culminating in a re-enactment of the Inca solstice festival at Sacsayhuaman. I really enjoyed watching the street dancing, seeing the both elaborate and traditional costumes and listening to the nonstop carnival music. Have also spent time in Cusco visiting the Sacred Valley which has really impressive ruins, shopping in the markets - am now alpaca-ed up to the max, chilling in the beautiful squares, people watching while eating icecream, having breakfast at Jack's cafe and the obligatory partying in Mama Africas. Regrettably today is what I call a 'business day'. On Friday while at a salsa club a nasty local girl (this is a far politer description of her than what I said at the time!) stole my beloved camera. Thankfully I didn't lose too many pics as had uploaded them recently, but it did mean that I had to spend the weekend at the police station trying to get everything sorted out and get the police report to the insurance company. So a 'business day', means tasks have to be done, e.g. collecting the police report, emailing and faxing insurance claim forms, organising bus tickets to Lake Titicaca, packing up my backpack and emailing you guys a website update. I have enjoyed Peru, but am really looking forward to Bolivia. It will be soooooo good to get back on the backpacker route, rather than being in touristville. Tourist places are far too tempting for me - I have definately been more flashpacker than backpacker in Peru. Email next from Bolivia and will hopefully have a new camera for some pics. In the meantime, enjoy the views of Machu Picchu which rather vainly include lots of pics of me too! Love you all Lindsxxx