I'll start with tonight's meeting. Our tour guide gathered us together sans our driver (oh yes, our driver has a broken ankleand is so hard core, he drove 7 hours over the Andes from Cusco in a truck without any functioning lights or brakes, main reason for the hasty arrival had nothing to do with his keenness to rejoin our group, but rather to do with the fact that much of the journey was downhill) and explained to us that we were suddenly in luck and we have a new drive being sent by Kumuka to take us and our just driveable rig on to Bolivia tomorrow. (We have been assured that this driver, unlike the previous local driver, can actually reach the pedals.)

However, suddenly came the oh so South American 'but, there ees a leetle problema'? Oh yeah, apparently, not only is there a minor civil war going on, it also seems we may not even be able to enter Bolivia because Kumuka has failed not only to insure the recently repaired truck, but attain the proper border crossing papers. So we were given the option of doing a border run to a dodgey and understaffed crossing, which may include a leetle bribe but no great views of the lake and the snowcapped Andes. Of course we as a tour group voted for the photo op, which includes the possibility of being detained at the border- as you do.