After a sleepless night on an extremely bumpy overnight bus we arrived in the small town of Uyuni. A dusty, unattractive town Uyuni exists now almost solely to serve the tourists wanting to visit the largest salt flats in the world, which, incidentally, included us. Having found a company to take us in their Jeep we ate some Pizza (the only food available) and went to bed early, ready to set off the next morning.
Sick of Liz getting all the attention Adam decided to head out and find a dodgy restaurant and get food poisoning. One dubious lentil burger later he was very ill in bed for the next three days, considerably lengthening our planned stay in the not particularly attractive city of La Paz.
It is not always easy walking around La Paz as the street vendors usually take up the whole pavement and often a large part of the road. We don´t usually go to bed late but we have been out at 10pm and they are still there, obviously there is a late night demand for oranges.
A traditional mask shop. They are incredibly well made and we really wanted one but unfortunately we decided their delicate construction would not survive the journey.
Bolivia is famous for it´s huge mines. Adam found this miner´s helmet in a junk shop and was quite taken with it.
One of the hundreds of textile shops in La Paz.
Adam feeling a lot better after a few days rest. As a treat for being such a good boy Liz let him buy a new guitar because obviously we don´t have enough to carry already.
The Valley of the Moon is a geological site close to La Paz. It was formed by wind and rain eroding the soft rock and so named because it apparently resembles the surface of the Moon, although we are doubtful as to the number of cactii found in space.
The giant sandstone structures are similar to those we saw at Torre Torre in Peru but the area is far drier and desert like. This is one of Liz´s first smiles since catching Typhoid.
The Valley stretching into the distance.
Adam nearly as relieved as Liz that she is feeling better.
Many species of cactii added to the mysterious atmosphere. 
A narrow path wound through the structures. Rather frustratingly we can find no real explanation for them other than erosion by wind and rain. Presumably there is something else otherwise the entire landscape of England would be like this.
At one point we crossed a rather unstable bridge over this seemingly bottomless chasm.
Fascinating as the place was the intense sun beating down on us meant that we couldn´t stay long, soon retreating back to La Paz and a bit of shade.
After several days in bed and very impressive selection of pills Liz finally felt well enough to endure a few hours on a bus. The next stage of our journey was the border crossing from Peru to Bolivia through the arch in the picture.
The road was intersected by a narrow stretch of Lake Titicaca. Our bus crossed on one of these rickety wooden barges while we followed in a slightly more sturdy motor boat.
A couple of beautiful views over the famous lake Titicaca.
After a relatively short bus journey ( by our standards, it was eight and a half hours) we arrived at the Bolivian city of La Paz. Although the largest city in the country and treated as the capital it actually is not, the Capital is called Sucre.
The city of La Paz is noisy, polluted crowded and ugly. They also do not believe in underground cables.
Finally diagnosed with Typhoid fever and on medication Liz obviously had to spend a few days in bed to recover. For some reason she did not want her picture taken while she was ill but here is a picture of our temporary travelling companions Salmonella Typhi, the bacteria responsible.
Not content with simply having Typhoid Liz was also diagnosed with an infection of the parasite Blastocystis Hominis which comes in several exciting varieties. By no means as serious as Typhoid it was perfect for making her symptoms just a little bit worse.
Having spent the night in a comfortable bed Liz woke up feeling much better and so we decided to go and visit a Llama and Alpaca farm and a couple of small ruin sites. The staff at the farm supplied us with food to give the animals and we spent a very happy hour feeding and stroking them.
Definitely part of the inspiration for the Ewoks and Wookies in Star Wars.
This funny looking llama also had dreadlocks over it´s entire body.
Alpaca and llama wool hanging out to dry after being dyed with natural, Andean plant extracts.
The next stage- these ladies can spend many months hunched over their loom to weave a single piece of fabric.
After the Alpaca farm we visited this archaeological site with it´s extremely well defined terraces.
A close up of the top of the same site. Unfortunately as the day progressed Liz began to feel worse and worse again. By this point she was beginning to find standing difficult so we cut the day short and headed back to Cusco. Back in Cusco we got a doctor who did tests and finally gave us the diagnosis of Typhoid Fever. With a huge number of pills Liz was finally on the lengthy road to recovery.
As one of the most famous archaological sites in the world Machupicchu, as you can imagine, gets extremely crowded. Since we had two hours to walk from our campsite we left at 4am to try and get there before the worst of the crowds. Reassured by our guide that despite the early hour the walk was very easy we set off. After climbing probably the steepest staircase we had yet come across, we finally arrived at what is known as the Sun Gate and were greeted with our first sight of the magnificant Inca ciy of Machupicchu.
Liz, despite feeling extremely ill, putting on a brave face, glad to have finally arrived.
Looking forward to exploring he ruins.
The first bright rays of the early morning sun begin to illuminate the mountain behind Machupicchu, the almost equally iconic Waynapicchu.
The sun rose quickly, rapidly exposing the true extent of the enormous ancient city.
It was a difficult day for Liz. Whilst she was excited and fascinated by Machupicchu the yet still unknown Typhoid was really sapping her strength.
Both relieved to finally be at the end and the with the prospect of a real bed that night. We would see many tourist shops with T-shirts proclaiming "I survived the Inca Trail", hardly impressive compared to what Liz had just done. However for some reaon there seems to be a shortage of "I survived the Inca Trail with Typhoid Fever" T-shirts.
Another spectacular view of the city.
Machupicchu has over 30 water fountains, all fed by naturally occuring streams and springs, and all still functioning. The architects used split channels as above to control the flow of the water.
Known for some reason as the Windowed Temple.
A no doubt very effective defensive measure, most edges of the city are almost vertical cliffs down to the valley below. 
Sceptical as always we assumed that the pictures we had seen of llamas and Macchupicchu were faked to create a more Peruvian feel. However there turned out to be quite a lot living in and around the ruins. Having said that quite a lot of the postcards are quite obviously faked, a fact that seems even more stupid given that there actually are llamas there.
The extraordinarily talented Inca architects incorporated the natural rock of the mountain into their buildings, avoiding difficult demolition work and adding the natural strength of the bedrock to the city. 
Some parts of the city have been extensively restored, an issue on which we are in two minds. On the one hand the restored buildings allow for a much better idea of what the inhabited city might have been like, but on the other hand the modern constructions lose much of the romance associated with this massive ruined city in the clouds. 
Whilst Liz rested in the sunshine on one of the many terraces Adam climbed to the top most buildings to get one last shot of the city in the midday sun.
At last we reached the point where there was no more walking and got ready for a peaceful journey enjoying the mountain scenery in comfortable seats. 
However our dreams of a peaceful journey were soon shattered. Obviously the tourist train operators felt they had to do something extra to justify their enormous fares, something extra like having the conductor in "traditional" dress dance up and down the train like a madman with a very tatty looking toy llama. As it turned out it was great entertainment, it was absolutely hilarious although it´s doubtful if that´s what was intended. Anyway after roughly another four hours travel by train and bus we finally arrived back at our hotel and fell gratefully asleep in a comfortable bed.