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Hi!
I'm just back from a 10-day trip in Peru and Bolivia... amazing! very short indeed, but it really was worth it, we had the time to get into Peruvian strikes and stones falls and Peruvian ability to lie, but also and overall we've seen wonderful landscapes, got into unknown cultures and lived a great experience as a whole...
So we travelled from Santiago to Arica (North Chili) with Thomas and Laurent on Friday 31th Oct. We had to get a bus in Tacna (first ciudad peruana just after the border) to Arequipa. But Peruvian strikes (and they're not kidding with their stones and fire on the road) wanted us to get a taxi for 500 km, across camps and desert, finding "alternativas".
Arequipa, la maravillosa, we arrived on Friday night, Halloween night, and strangely enough, Peruanos love it! Saturday we walked into this typical and historical town, visiting the wonderful colourful monastery Santa Catalina, the local market with its frog juice (they said it has aphrodisiaque effects...), the Inca museum showing how Incas buried children (la Juanita) at the top of mountains to calm volcanoes down.
Then we got into a night bus to Cusco. We visited Cusco slowly because it's already hard breathing at 3400m. Then we met Alex and Quent. The day after, one day travelling from Cusco to Aguas Calientes: 7 bus-hours among villages hidden in green mountains, then 1h30 of rodeo taxi and finally 2h30 walking along rails, arriving under rain in Aguas Calientes. Fortunately Patrick cooked as well as Le Routard had said!! The day after, Machu Pichu, Wayna Pichu and Gran Cavernas, pictures speak for themselves… so beautiful, just magic. Because of Peruanos strikes, no train that day, meaning super bueno: no one in Machu Pichu, but meaning also s***: no train to get back to Cusco…! Thus we get back to Cusco the day after with our 1h30 rodeo taxi + 8hours bus including an hour waiting that stones collapses stopped on the road… take it easy, this is Peru!!! Arrived in Cusco at 16:00 we spent 2 hours in Mac Do on the Plaza de Armas, YES I dare saying it, because we deserved it ;)
Then we got into a fake Cama VIP night bus ;) with Thomas and Laurent from Cusco to Copacabana, in Bolivia… yes ha swindled tourists… in fact worse than all the semi camas we had taken before, freezing all night, and finally dropped 15 min before the Bolivian border at 6:00 am! But tourists were not finished being swindled: we finally got into Copacabana at 9:00 am were our "boat" agency to go on the Isla del Sol turned to be actually a BUS agency!!!! next boat was leaving at 13:30… Thus we climbed the Calvaire up, which really deserves its name because walking up a hill at 3900 m is not that easy!And we enjoyed Copacabana, a very peaceful hippie town. Then we finally got to the Isla del Sol by boat. Unfortunately our timing was very short and we'd been able to stay only 45min on the island before getting back to Copacabana.
Then 4hours bus to La Paz, radical atmosphere change; young people working in the street have cowls on the head to remain anonym and steal bread in restaurants, traffic is terrible, mothers and children are sleeping in the street… but also many many artisanal shops that made us crazy for a day!!! Bolivia, I'll be back…
Ps: I have problems to download my pics, but they're coming soon!!
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