Bye bye Arequipa! We won't miss the crazy traffic and driving for sure. We ate very well but the city lacks a wow factor and even the Colca is only okay. Our next destination is Nazca with its famous drawings. All the way to Nazca is very desertic with small pockets of green. Even by the sea. When it's not rocks it's dunes...
El condor pasa
Yes the title is shameful but I've been trying (and mostly failing) not to make jokes with the title of that famous song on a daily basis. And since the first stop of our Colca tour is named Cruz del condor, I could not resist any longer. On a more cultural note, Colca mean "storage for grain" in Quechua. And surprise, we're back at 3650m...
Arequipa
The ride Arequipa was rough. We had a great bus with seats reclining at 180 degrees. But the road is rough so the night was rough too. We're lucky to be allowed to check-in early and have a hard time to drag ourselves out after that. Eventually we succeed and reward ourselves with a delicious ceviche followed by a good coffee at the alliance francaise restaurant.
The sacred valley
The train yesterday was slow and not even luxurious... Just ridiculously expensive. But I said I wouldn't rant more about that (but it's hard not too!!!). We have sore legs this morning but still a lot to do and since it's Inca stuff, we'll have to climb up and down their bloody terraces ;) Ollantaytambo is a tough name to pronounce but a very interesting place.
Machu Picchu
After many back and forth, we decided to go to Machu Picchu by a less traveled route mixing biking, rafting, zip lining and hiking (the jungle option). Up early for a long day of sport, we hop in a minibus, load the gear and bikes and head to a nearby mountain. We though we were done with altitude but here we are again at 4000+ meters!
Cuzco
Cuzco is the touristic powerhouse of the county and is unsurprisingly overrun by tourists. The city center is especially bad with its throngs of tourists and vendors. It's what it is for a good reason though. The number of Incas palaces and temples, churches and convent, and the quality of these buildings is humbling.
Puno
Goodbye Bolivia, Hello Peru! In reality, nothing changes, we go from one town on the lake Titicaca to another one. It's still high in altitude (3820m) but after that one we'll start going down... Finally ;) The border is super well organized and seamless. By the look of the border office, it's clear Peru is a step up in development. A few minutes after having resumed the bus ride, the police stops us. The driver is very nervous and aggressive. He doesn't have the passenger list (left it at the border he says). I suspect he's not supposed to take additional passenger at the border as he did.
La isla del Sol
Habemus vuelum! The bus fills up and we start heading to the airport... then turn around and head back to the office!!! We're already contemplating the same shit show as yesterday but it's only two idiot who could not show up in time for a 24h delayed flight... We don't leave on time but we make it to La Paz so it's good enough. Not time to linger in La Paz, we catch a bus to Copacabana. For the first time in Bolivia we use a local bus (not a tourist one). It's rougher clearly but still much better than any of the bus we had in Africa. The journey is not event-less with one exploded tire and an interesting ferry crossing.
Welcome to the jungle
Our guide was right about the weather. In La Paz, one can have 4 seasons in one day. Deluge, sunny, drizzle,... Surely they'll have snow later in the day. We don't want to know and have a flight to catch to Rurrenabaque anyway ;) We meet Marie at the airport, her flight is late. We met her at our hotel and did some of the activities in La Paz together. The boarding time comes and go, the departure time comes and go and all of that without it any news from the airline. In the meantime Marie had left but she's back in the airport. Her flight turned back after 10 minutes, pressure indicator problem.
La Paz and Tiwanaku
It's 6:30am when we arrive at Lo alto. La Paz is in the valley below and it's quite the view; A sea of red buildings climbing out of the valley all the way to Lo alto. Half an hour later we arrive in La Paz. We drop our luggage at the hotel and go find a place open to have breakfast. They are clearly not early birds here and the only place open for breakfast is in a nearby hotel. Once that basic need satisfied, we take care of the second order of business: tour shopping! We need to buy the planes tickets for our expedition to the jungle, book some ice climbing in one of the nearby glacier and visit Tiwanaku.