I thought it couldn´t get worse. It did. Puno is at a very high altitude 3500 metres and we were warned about altitude sickness. It hit me hard or so I thought. After two days of feeling like death warmed up and staying in bed in our hotel I called the doctor to discover I have severe food poisoning. Today is Thursday and I survied a seven hour coach trip over the Andes yesterday. We went up to 4,500 metres and in between feeling a tad poorly, it was quite spectacular. We are now in Cusco and the good news is my case arrived at Cusco so we went to collect it by taxi, the bad news is I´ve somewhere or other lost my camera. The other bit of bad news is that all the local guides are on strike and we are unable to visit the ruins and Inca sites outside Cusco. If it is not over by Saturday we may not be able to get to Machu Pichuu as the train will not be running and the guides will not be working at the site. That will make me sad as that was one of my ´must do´things but we´ll just have to see what happens. Still one bad week out of five months travel isn´t insurmountable. Had breakfast today for the first time since Monday. The up side is I should be pounds lighter and looking quite trim in my swim suit when I get to Galapagos Islands next week. Take care.