After visiting Tupizza in Bolivia where Martine had a ride on horse who liked to gallop but not stop, we moved back into our favourite country - Argentina. On a beautiful square in Salta we sat back and enjoyed the wine while watching the world go slowly by. Then after having our shoes shined we enjoyed the best beef steaks we have ever had while watching Tango dancers and traditional music. Martine got so carried away with being back we bought a CD from each band and a DVD of the Tango dancers.

We then went south to stay with a family who help run an Arts and Crafts school based on traditional Indigenous techniques and partly funded by an Italian/Luxembourgish NGO. This was very interesting and great fun. Especially when we visited a group of ladies who made woolen products from scratch - it takes 30 hours to produce 1kg of wool (enough for one pullover). This time I got a bit carried away and bought a scarf which was just being finished with a brush made with spiky parts of a plant.

Oh I must mention that on the way down we popped into Cafayete which has a micro-climate that is perfect for growing wine. Martine was able to follow the Spanish guide who explained all you need to know about the wine grown there-I just enjoyed drinking it while munching a cheese platter.

Concha K

On our first night at the Salars, we arrived in the small village called Cocha K. Stu and I went out for a bit of a walk. To be quite honest, Stu had heard the words 'Plaza' and 'cerveza' in one sentence and was determined to find the local pub. Local pub we found, although slightly different from home. It was a lady's kitchen, with little signs of 'pollo' and 'hamburgesa' on the window. Yet, she had several bottles of beer for sale, kicked out her friend and served us two bottles with a charm that was difficult to resist. As it was about 18.30. we couldn't really see much of her home, as the sun had set, yet (so we were informed), electricity in the village was only switched on at 19.15. So there we were, sitting in the lady's kitchen, at candlelight, looking at the naked ladies on the wall (goes well with beer it seems) and chatting about how the weather has ruined their harvest of quencha (a cereal similar to couscous or wheat, on which most villages around there survive). At 19.05, out romantic atmosphere was killed by the sudden emergence of electric light. Within seconds, blankets were removed from what seemed like a box...and the TV switched on. The lady almost got herself electrocuted as her self-made extensions had metallic boards on the back- but SHE COULD WATCH HER NOVELLA (soap)! And WATCH was all there was to it, as there was no sound. It depends on where in the village you live, you see, she said to us. Up the road, they had sound, but no good picture. Here, we have a good picture but no sound. And if you live all the way down the village, you'll have sound AND picture. We know where we'll move then:)

How many hats can you wear?

Salar de Uyuni

A jeep. Six backpacks. Six backpackers. A cook. A driver. That was the combination for our 4 days in the Salar de Uyuni salt flats of Bolivia. To be honest, the lack of space at the back of the jeep put me old flashpacker into a bit of a panic, but I got used to it, and fortunately we got out and had a walk about very often, so our legs got a bit of a stretch. Those were four fantastic days, in the most fascinating of landscapes: salars (so much salt and no chips, can you believe it...), Laguna Verde, Laguna Colorado with a total of 2 flamingos ( the others had died as the fish feeding them had been poisened by some metallic substance in the water) and finally the colourful rock formations around Tupiza. Given that we still haven't found a geology book explaining all the different grey and red shades of colours in those mountain ranges, I just assume that some freak from Hollywood has decided to film a really wild cowboy movie out here and has painted the rocks...dengdenggedeng BONANZA...

The most amazing part of the trip, however, was the accomodation. While we stayed with some of the loveliest small Bolivian villages providing lovely lama fur on the bed to keep us warm (yuuummm...) or military accommodation camps, they all had one thing in common: the maximum temperature at night was -10C. We had been warned, but despite wearing every single layer of clothing (plus all the scarfs and ponchos you will be getting as souvenirs, thank you), we were absolutely shivering. All that only so that they could get us up at 5 a.m. at -15C and take us to the 'Gizas', hot water springs with pressure coming out of the holes in the ground at 130C... some warmth...so near yet so far....Bolivians are really cruel.

La Paz

As requested by Mr John Teale of Luxembourg, I reluctantly carried out a purely Scientific experiment of drinking beer at around 4000m above sea level to measure the effects. In order to verify and comfirm the results I drunk more than one at each meal and on different nights at different locations and various heights. I didn´t drink to excess, but I can confirm that I recorded little difference between drinking at sea level and the dizzy heights of Peru and Bolivia. However, I will endeavor to carry on this level of scientific enquiry as long as I am in Bolivia, moving towards sea level in Argentina, on the plane home and on my return to Luxembourg. I hope you the appreciate the lenghts I am going to for the sake of Science.

One interesting observation I have recorded while travelling at these heights, is that although we have to move very slowly and become quickly out of breath, my digestion system works incredibly quickly especially when I eat salad or that cream cake I had the other night. We did become suspicious when the Chef called over two waitresses to discuss the cake before serving it, but I was too polite to say I´ve changed my mind. So although we are having a great time up here, my bottom is very keen to return to sea level.

As you can see from the pictures I followed another request by Martine to have my hair cut. I wanted to wait until I found the highest hairdresser in the world, but my sideburns were starting to have a life of their own. It is the best haircut I have ever had so I didn´t feel at all bad when the barber obviously charged more than the usual price for a haircut and shave. In fact, due to the care he took in using clean razor blades and sterilising his instruments I gave him a tip of 10 Bolivianos. This brought the price to a total of 60 Bolivianos (6 Euros or 4 Pounds) and we parted company thinking we had both robbed the other.

Crossing a border and the Isla del Sol, Bolivia

June 3rd was a big day for us: we were going to arrive in a new country. In fact, we were really only going to the other side of the lake, not the Stau in Esch, no, no, the Titikaka lake, which involved three hours' drive. Stu was a bit nervous, but I thought: 'How different is it gonna be, there's a lake, there's potatoes, there's panpipes, there's funny hats... at the end of the day, we'll just be crossing a line on a map.'

Well, how wrong could we be... Firstly, the meals still cost 22, but Bolivianos, which means 2.2 Euros, that is exactly half price from Peru. Everything seemed dead cheap and very creative, especially the showers: they actually put the electric wiring THROUGH the shower, so that you get electrocuted every time you touch the (obviously metal) taps. Next thing, we check our email, and the guy tries to rip us off! The price per hour was 50 cents, and he tried to make us pay 80 cents, claiming we had been there for more than an hour, when we had actually only spent 40 minutes there. The cheek! He obviously doesn't know what 30 cents are to two teachers when you've not worked for a year and have been lying in the sun, sipping G+T for three hours before arriving at the internet cafe! In revenge, when we arrived at the Isla del Sol, we haggled so long (with our interpreter Helenka's help) with the lady until we got our brand new ensuite room for 10 Euros instead of 15.

Lake Titi- Taquile- Homestay

When we decided to do a 'homestay' on Island Taquile, we were prepared for the usual: here's your mat, your mosquito net, your rice..and good luck. So we were very pleasantly surprised when we arrived on Taquile and were shown our humble abode: there was a house with windows, we had our own room with two real beds in it and warm blankets, so did Yann and Catherine, our friends from Toulouse. In order to keep the whole thing under the label 'Close to nature', however, we were shown to our real Trainspotting toilet in a wee hut behind the house, no flush, no door, but the most beautiful view from a toilet I have ever had! The bath was called Lake Titikaka. Our highlight, however was the dinner: a room, door wide open (as you do at 4 degrees at 3700m above Sea level), no heating, no light, just a romantic candle planted in the middle of a couloufully set-out table. And just to make us feel at home: the dinner was omelette with rice. We loved it!

Lake Titikaka-Isla Taquile's traditional dresses

Now, whose hat is nicer?

Lake Titikaka, Uros floating Island

Et as net Fuesend, di Madame as och net deck (enfin, net grad esou deck, dei Jupe as e bessen extra), mee esou liewen d'Leit op den 'Islas flottantes' um Titikaka Sei. Hier Inselen sin matt dem koomeschen Strei gebaut, op enger Plaz vum Sei dei net grad esou deif as. Duerfir kennt et fir dass si mueres erwaechen an op enger anerer Plaz erwechen wei do wou se nach owes waren. Who needs an Around-the-world-ticket, if you can swim around on your own island?

Peru's highlands

Summersolden op 3800m- hei fennt een exquisit Saachen fir d'Ouren waarm ze halen! Op den Elvis och sengt?