Met up with Natalie (we went to uni with) and Becky in Santiago - very cultural - went out for a chinese and a few bottles of wine to celebrate seeing our long lost mate. We have now decided to spend a few weeks travelling together to Mendoza and Buenos Aires

Travelled from Lima to La Paz, then down to Uyuni on an overnight bus - got there at 530am absolutely freezing! Booked a trip for 3 days to go to see the salt lakes. Spent the first day cruising through miles and miles of salt flats in a jeep. Next few days saw some amazing sights - see pics.

Arrived in Ica but seemed pretty hectic and sweaty so decided to spend a few days chilling out in a natural oasis 5mins away from the town centre. Whilst there went on a buggy (with a roll cage) and sped through sand dunes. Arrived at the peak of several high sand dunes and attempted to sandboards down them - first few attempts were fatal and Cherise forgopt to close her mouth when going downhill, lying flat and consequently got a mouthful of sand! (see pic)! ...

Finally left Cuzco after much longer than expècted. Went to Nazca - when arrived, wanted to leave asap - not a pretty town! Took a flight over the nazca lines in a tiny, 5 seater plane. Nazca lines, to explain, were constructed by the Nazca culture over 1000 years ago and can only really be seen by air - spooky.

Day after inca trail saw a special offer to go to manu biosphere national park, part of the amazon jungle the day after. We packed our bags and went. 1st day, scary bus trip through cloud forest on windy roads thousands of feet up. 1st night shared a room with half a dozen cockroaches and Lucy got a huge beetle on her trouser leg - the whole camp thought she was being attacked by a snake by the sounds of things!!! Next day great boat trip up the river and sa...