Hi folks! Its been quite a while since I updated my postcard section but thats to do with the fact that I have been up to sooo much since Ecuador!! Since leaving that part of the world, living with the family and brushing up on my spanish I caught a flight to Lima Peru and stayed there for 5 nights with a friend of mine. Lima was good nightlife but the city itself left a lot to be desired (it is covered in a constant smog which just hangs depressingly over the city)so towards the end couldnt wait to leave! My mission in Lima however was to wait for my sister and Fez to arrive from London to join me for two weeks of adventures. They arrived at about two in the morning so I waited for them at the airport with a smiley faced balloon. I stood out like a sore thumb with my glow in the dark baloon and a pink poncho but I thought it would givew the girls something to laugh about when they arrived but probably got a few sniggers from the locals too!! It was wicked to see them and we had such a fantastic two weeks! We did soo much that it still hasnt all really sunk in and they need another holiday to get over this one! Here a little recap...We were doing constant bus journies, some good some bad and some UGLY! One of the buses we were on got stopped and searched by the police about 6 times looking for drugs we think, another one we thought we were going to die as the bus was a wreck and the driver was going like a maniac. We had one night in Lima and went clubbing and the next day booked us onto a bus to head for our next destination, we went to a place called Huacachina Ica which is where we had a day of sandboarding down some of the biggest sand dunes in the world, the little twon we stayed in was set in a valley with the huge sanddunes as the back drop it really was a sight to behold, like some thing out of arabian nights...magical little place. The sandboaring was soo funny , a group of 10 of us were driven up and down the sandunes in this huge buggy, it was like a roller coaster as the driver was like a lunatic and did his best to scare the lives out of us and in the end our engine exploded and we all t hought we were going to die!! We lived to tell the tale tho and did some wicked sandbhoarding, kind of like snowboarding but on sand...cool! Our next stop was Nasca to take a flight over the famous nasca lines which are ancient Inca drawings in the mountains and no one really knows why they are there and what the strange phenomenon is all about. At one point the aliens from outer space were getting the blame for it but it was actually the Incas who carved the drawings themselves and we flew across them ina little plane that we thought was going to fall out of the sky but it was great to see the famous lines and the strange carvings in the shapes of monkies, a bird etc 14 in total. On the way to Cusco ( which is where we were set to do the Inca trail)my sister and I got food poisoning so were really sick for about 3 days, we put it down to some dodge chicken we had so decided to steer clear of that for a while....everyone gets a dodgy belly out here at some point. Luckily we were all well and good to begin the Inca trail on 8th August for 4 days. The inca trail was fantastic one of the best things I have done so far, it was very challenging both mentally and physically all three of us loved it. Our first day we walked for 6 hours to our first base camp and that was easy going, me mirinda and fez shared a tent and our camp was in a farm with rabid dogs, sheep and doinkies roaming around...the first night in the tent was freeeeeeeeeeeezing, went to bed in about 6 tops, scarf, gloves and hat, a sleeping fleece and a bag and was still cold! The 2nd day was an early start...6 am, had brekkie in a tent and set off for the dreaded "hardest day of trekking". This day was all uphill and a killer on the joints, we had to walk to the highest pointon the Inca trail which had an altitude of 4200 metres. The combination of walking and the high altitude was very hard but when we reached that high peak after walking for 5 or so hours it felt like a real achievment, there was 17 people in our group in total. The real achiement however was finally reaching Machu Pichhu on the fourth day..we set off at 4am to try and beat the rush into the "lost city". It was a 2 hour walk in the dark with torches, we made it to the sun gate to watch sun rise and could see Machuu Pichuu from the distance, It was another 2 hour walk to Machuu Pichu and we got there at 8am. I didnt feel as elated as I thougt I would, I thought I was going to be toally blown away. It is a fantastic place, the ruins and the whole history is fascinating but there was too many tourists to enjoy it completely but the Inca trail was brilliant and my arse stil aches from all the exertion! Mindy and Fez left me to go home on 13th so it was back to being on my own again and after a couple of days crying I made my way on a bus to Bolivia and stayed in a town just across the border from Peru called Copocabana, did a day trip to a nearby Isle del sol which was beautiful and involved another trek , then got yet another bus to La Paz,the capital of Bolivia and the highest capital in the world. Here I met with my mate Sarah who I met in Ecuador and we went out in La Paz, got smashed and she missed her flight to Brasil the next day so since then we have been traveling together. We flew to Sana Cruz in Bolivia and stayed in a 5 star hotel for 3 nights (20 quid a night!!) sunbathed by day and drank by night, it was a well needed luxury after all that trekking! We then flew back to La Paz for a night and then we both flew to Santiago Chile two days ago. Santiago is loveley and sunny and it is a culture shock being back in such a civilised place after Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia etc. It is like London, the Chileans call themselves the English of South America and I can see why! Tomorrow we are going snowboarding, as the ski resorts are 90 minutes away (cant wait!!) will prob spend most of the time on my bum! The day after we go white water rafting and wine tasting in one of the famous chilean wineries..bring it on....! After we have done all that I am going to head to Argentina for a few days, then come back and fly to Rio in Brazil on 1st Sep to join Sarah and her mate for some partying in Rio!!! I am well excited but also aware that its really dangerous there so will have to be on our guard all the time..but thats what I have been up t the last 4 weeks or so.... Time to go to the hostel now and confirm our trip for the morning and then go sunbathe and work off our red wine hangovers!! Ciao for now Caroleeena ( only five weeks til I am home ahh time is flying!!!!!!!!)