So, like the troupers we are, despite not being able to walk we did manage to go out and dance away finishing the Inca. After a quick stop at the highest Irish Bar, we went out for a meal with our group and then headed to some crazy Peruvian club. When we walked in there was this whole group doing the salsa exactly to time and looking pretty good. Despite our Inca trail guide trying to give us a hasty lesson, our British dancemoves really didn´t compare. Not quite sure what happened, but suddenly everything changed; the bar was set alight with Sambucca, classic english dance songs came blaring out and everything suddenly went slightly crazy. All in all a pretty messy celebration and we decided wine is definatley the solution to most problems. The day after we had a quick explore of Cuzco (actually a really pretty city, that has a European city feel to it) and decided it was time to leave Peru...

Time to experience a lovely overnight bus across the border. The seats were actually pretty good, and we slept well until we got near the border to Bolivia. Then, for some reason, it seemed like none of were going to get in to the country. It started with some crazy spanish lady shouting at me for god knows what and not responding to our response of "we don¨t speak Spanish mate" well at all. Sophie then chose the exact moment we were getting our passports stamped to shout out "oh look thats the photo of the crazy dictator thats in rule", which meant the stamp person wandered off when alex tried to get through.

We got to Copacabana, on Lake Titicaca, which was stunning. Had a quick look around but then descended on our room (treated ourselves to a triple at a shocking fiver a night) to watch Friends and a load of rubbish films that Sophie seems to have a knack of knowing every storyline. Sheer bliss.

Then it was time to go to La paz, which is where we are now. Checked into a real nice hostel, where we found out about the crazy politics going on. It turns out that that "crazy dictator" soph was going on about is actually that. This weekend, the whole city shuts down to vote on whether the consitution should stay as it is, or whether it should change which means our friend "Evo" will be in power for ever basically. it looks like its going to go that way, but it doesnt stop protestors charging down streets and policemen firing shots to calm them down. From midnight tonight there´s no alcohol allowed anywhere, and groups of 2 or more can be stopped by the police and held for up to 3 days. Knowing our luck, we would go on a harmless stroll and end up in a Bolivian prison. So we¨ve chosen to leave this crazy city and head on an overnight bus (yay...) to Uyuni, where we will do a salt flat tour for 3 days. This time the bus is a local one, so no heating, no toilet. its going to be a fun 12 hours!!

The tourist books recommend strolling around markets and looking at Cathedrals when you are in la Paz, but we didnt quite fancy that so ended up bribing policemen to get into the local prison here. What an experience ' spent 3 hours locked up in a prison with Bolivia´´s hardcore prisoners (as a guide told us, they´re not all druggies you know, there´s murderers and rapists too...). Official guides got banned years ago and its now illegal so instead we got shown around by a prisoner that could speak English. Official guards arent allowed in either so our "bodyguards" were other prisoners. Worringly, we werent sure who they were and they seemed to completely change as they showed as round the narrow corriders with wires hanging just above us. Our guide was actually a really nice guy, convinved he didnt actually deserve to be there for his drug trafficking and currently trying to work out how to bribe his way out of there (a pretty common occurence). He clearly hadnt learnt his lesson as when we asked where he was off to after he was let out he replied simply "Amsterdam". Despite it being pretty scary it was also really interesting...the prisoners are able to bring their children in and many do, seeing children being bought up in a place like that was horrific and it really got to us. Not much time to think about it though, as soon we were locked up in a room with 6 prisoners paying to get out and insisiting that no we didnt want to try their cocaine for about the millionth time. Thankfully we got out alive but still cant quite manage to scrub off the number they wrote on us to check we all actually came out. Seems like we will be #15 and #18 forever....!

Yesterday, we had a nice girly day while Alex decided it was a good idea for him to throw himself down the world´s most dangerous road on a bike. Sophie being the ´non risk´taker she is decided it would be better for us to ride some horses in the Andes (at least thats where we think we were), about 30 mins south of la paz. The horses were absolutely gorgeous and luckily it was just us 2 instead of the usual size of 10. Soph¨s horse seemed to find a happy medium of walking along at a nice steady pace, mine hated me so went from strolling along very very slowly, to trotting very fast and trying to catch up. The views were stunning and it gave us a totally different view of La paz. the city itself is ugly, chaotic and noisy, but up in the hills it seemd completely different. despite very very sore bums this morning we really enjoyed ourselves.

So its time for another few days without make up, hairdryers and showers on the salt flats- watch the photos get steadily uglier....! SJ (p.s in case you cant understand us (im looking at you Dad jenkins) then can we just explain that south american keyboards are actually quite hard to use)

Just a quick note from me to infrom you all that disaster has struck. while attempting to happily staighten my hair in copacabana something along the lines of a big blue spark and a very strange noise ended the life of the straightners. we are not coping well, in fact its safe to say we are a little devestated. frizzy hair and just general ugliness depresses me greatly but we are both powering through and even attempting to embrace the travelly dishevelled look we are sporting. hot stuff. SH