So, just a quick update to let you all know that I arrived safely in Bolivia. Have spent most of the day travelling so am pretty tired but am looking forward to exploring La Paz tomorrow.

Spent the last couple of days around Lake Titicaca where I spent a night witha local family and got to se some of the local culture up close. It was such fun. The eldest daughter from my host family dressed me up in local dress (yes, there is photographic evidence!) and then the local community taught us a local dance and we performed pretty poorly, sometimes making up our own steps when our memories failed, but we had a lot of fun. To give you some idea of how bizarre I looked, the local dress involves 5 very brghtly coloured skirts one on top of the other (for the poofy effect I imagine?), a little black jacket with a shawl draped across one shoulder, a bowler hat and a string of pom poms attached to my arm (to enhance my dancing obviously!). I looked very glamourous. The bowler hat probably requires a little explanation. According to our guide when wealthy English business men came to trade for alpaca and llama wool, they brought bowler hats in exchange. The men of Peru were not impressed by these silly round hats but the women loved them and still wear them to this day. Not sure whether to be proud of this cross continental bond or apologise for inflicting bowler hats on the Peruvians?

Anyway, the stay was wonderful. Our host families treated us very well amd we ended our tour of Lake Titicaca witha trip to the Uros floating islands - they are artificial islands made by the occupant from reeds and the total number of them and their situation in the lake changes regularly. The locals made us feel very welcome and even sang for us! (They also dressed us up again - perhaps this is for their own amusement?)

Only have a couple fo days left now so may not geta chance to update this again but it has been a wonderful trip and I look forward to boring you all with stories and photos very soon.

Mum - see you in Ponti's in 4 days time! Get the lattes in... x