hey guys! how is everyone? i'm fine...just arrived in peru today, staying in a nice little town. Been in Bolivia for the past week...it's been really good although half the tour is recovering from illness...something to do with the food :( when we crossed the border from argentina, it was mad...it costs too much for the bolivians to transport goods over the border so they carry such heavy loads on their backs over the bridge!! it really makes you think cos they are so poor over here. we first arrived in a place called potasi and that was such a cute little town. we then went to the largest salt lake in the world at uyuni and it was truly amazing...the best thing i've seen so far. if you didn't know it was salt, you'd think it was snow and that you were in the middle of antartica or something!! we got to climb a cactus mountain and watched the sunset which was beautiful. the guides and the hotel were brilliant, so really a highlight of the tour!! on the way back to potasi from uyuni, 'trevor' our truck got stuck in mud and it was hilarious. our driver was trying to dig us out but no such luck. after trying to save trevor for 4 hours it wasn't as funny and the bloody sun was setting whilst we were literally in the middle of nowhere. and just to put you in the picture...when the sun goes down here it's freezing...like minus 15 cold :( and there were lamas everywhere to contend with!! our tour guide had to get a local bus to potasi at ten at night with a couple of people and get us a tow truck but everything takes ages here and we didn't end up leaving there until one the next day!! Camping overnight in minus 15 degrees and selina do not go in the same sentence!!!!!!!!! We then went to la paz...bolivia's financial capital city and it is crazy so i immediately loved it :) we had a couple of apartments between the group in our hotel so we were up partying for most of the nights! it really was a cool city...everything is manic from the street vendors to the fact that they have no road rules! we we're basically using it as a chill out place so naturally i went shopping...although 10 pounds here goes a lot further than it does in manchester! turns out that trevor is broken so we had to get a private bus to take us to peru today...hopefully a mechanic will get to it soon and it will meet us on tuesday morning!! today we went to some pre inca ruins which we're fantastic. you can't quite believe how self sufficient they were and how they built their temples and buildings. we arrived in puno, peru this afternoon and it's really nice, the hotel is great!!!! although i've just tried to get cash out of 3 atms and none of them work. had to walk for miles until we found one that worked!! tomorrow we're going to an island on lake titicaca (it's huge) and staying over night with some local familes. we're going for a traditional evening with food and dancing so it should be entertaining!! really looking forward to my birthday but we're celebrating it when we get to cuzco as it's party central ;) we have three days in puno and then three days in cuzco before we hit the inca train and i'm soooo excited i can't wait. there's pics of macchu picchu everywhere so it just makes you want to do it sooner!! anyway, hope everybody is fine and i will let you know how the inca trail and macchu picchu goes assuming i will survive it ;) sel xx