found out why the female llama’s have pink ribbons clipped to their ears, this is to identify them as females, not so easy with all that straggly wool!! The llamas are kept until they are about four years old then unfortunately they go to meet their maker so to speak, but at least they have four very happy years.

After about an hour or so we were back in the jeep and heading off into this isolated land. This trip was definitely starting to turn into a moving National Geographic magazine, but instead of turning the pages you just need to turn your head and watch out of the window!! The landscape transformed itself into a million different colours and skies that captivated your imagination like only high altitude skies can. We were also treated to some great tunes as Hualdo had an Ipod adapter, which meant that Rob and Fiona could indulge us with some superb travelling tunes. Happy vibes were

buzzing all around and this was only day one!

We passed through a small settlement and were met with happy smiling children running and waving at our jeep. We stopped here for some photos and a toilet stop. The kids loved to see their faces on the back of our camera and posed for us, some with wary faces others with big happy smiles. This place was quite literally in the middle of nowhere and how people can manage to live and be so happy here is a testament to their hardy nature. They were also pretty inventive on the toilet front. There was a newly built tourist toilet that you had to pay for but hey it made a welcome break from the usual bushes! The village had a church and some drying bricks along with the toilet but that was about it really, us spoiled Westerners wouldn’t last five minutes out there before we started complaining we needed something! You can only admire people in those