Colombia: Santa Marta - 16th to 18th January (Days 66 to 68)

On the 16th of January we woke up around 6am and had breakfast with our friends at their apartment. We also met their friend and his daughter, who were also staying with them at the same apartment, spending some holidays all together. 

After breakfast we walked to a shopping mall to get cash and got a bus to Buritaca, a beach close to Tayrona National Park that is at the end of a river. It was quite a long way, more than an hour bus ride and then around 20 minutes walk from the road to the beach, and when we got there we had to swim through the river to get to the other side of the beach. 

Colombia: Cartagena - 12th to 15th January (Days 62 to 65)

On the 12th of January we woke up and had breakfast at a bakery in the main square. We got all our bags and got a bus to Pereira terminal. In there we had a quick lunch and then waited for a local bus to the airport. 

While waiting for the bus (it was for more than 40 minutes as the frequency of this bus is pretty bad) we were hearing the guys shouting and announcing the destinations of the buses that were continuously coming into the bus stop. We finally got the bus and boarded the plane to Cartagena, which lasted less than an hour. 

Colombia: Eje cafetero - 8th to 11th January (Days 58 to 61)

On the 8th of January we woke up in Elizabetha Hostal, Salento around 8am and the lady of the hotel served us a nice breakfast. Salento is a small village in the heart of the coffee growing area in Quindío, with colourful houses and surrounded by green valleys. When we finished our breakfast we packed our bags and moved to another hostel just two blocks away called Cedro Negro, where we booked for the next two nights. 

Colombia: Bogota - 4th to 7th January (Days 54 to 57)

On the 4th of January we woke up around 9am and had the last breakfast with Luz and her family. Luz's cousin ordered a taxi to the airport for us with the app Beat, which is cheaper than Uber. Once in the airport we went through the security check, where they threw our shampoo and body milk away as we were boarding to an international flight to Bogotá. In the boarding gate they were calling all the passengers that did the check-in online to check the size of the luggage, so we went there one by one just with the small day packs to get a blue tag which allowed the bags to go in the cabin. 

Peru: Lima - 31st December to 3rd January (Days 50 to 53)

On the 31st of December we woke up around 4.30am to get an Uber to the airport. We took a flight at 7am to Lima. When boarding the plane, Ari pretended to be sick to avoid paying for the bags and to get seats together. As usual, she managed to get what she wanted.

Once in Lima we got an Uber to Luz home but the address I indicated in the app was wrong as there was 2 different streets called the same (Micaela Bastidas is her street's name). We had to get another taxi and a man in the street helped us to order it (so we got the local price). When we finally got to Luz home we left all our stuff in our new room and we went to the local market with Luz and her mom. It was crowded but we managed to buy different fruits, yellow flowers and fireworks for the night.

Peru: Arequipa - 27th to 30th December (Days 46 to 49)

On the 27th we woke up in Cusco around 4am and walked like 30 seconds to the airport. From there we took a flight with Latam at 6am to Arequipa. It was a very short flight, just about 45 minutes. When we got there we walked out of the airport to get an Uber. Arrived at Pablo's home, which was refurbishing some of the rooms. The refurbished rooms were fine, but the house was a bit dirty. We rested for a couple of hours and then walked to the city centre.

Peru: Machu Picchu 24th to 26th December (Days 43 to 45)

On Christmas Eve day we woke up around 6am, left our big bags at the Airbnb apartment and left just with our day packs to spend the following two nights in Aguas Calientes, which is the village close to Machu Picchu. We walked to Plaza de Armas and waited for a van that had to pick us up and drive us to Hidroelectrica. After a while waiting in the main square, a woman came and told us to go to another square just one block away. We waited there with a bigger group of people and we heard many contradictory information about the road to get to Hidroelectrica: some said the road was closed due to a landslide caused by the heavy rain of the past few days and we should change vehicle after Santa Teresa and some said it was already repaired or that there was an alternative route. Anyway, the driver finally arrived one hour late and didn't clarify anything about the road status. The trip was even more delayed as the van needed to refuel. The driver was crazy, he started the engine and accelerate while refuelling the van! After that we finally left Cusco and started our trip. We stopped near Ollaytantambo for 30 minutes. A couple of hours drive later there was a truck blocking the road before Santa Maria, so we had to get an alternative way up to the mountains.

Peru: Cuzco - 20th to 23th December (Days 39 to 42)

The 20th we had breakfast at the hotel buffet again and got a minibus to the airport in Juliaca. The minibus went around the city centre collecting people for around 20 minutes and finally we changed to a bigger bus just two streets away from our hotel...!! After a 45 minutes ride we finally arrived at the airport. It was really small but at least there was a place to charge our phones. We had separate seats but in the boarding counter they changed them for us and we could seat together. We arrived at Cuzco after a short flight of less than one hour. We exited the airport terminal getting rid of the many taxi drivers and got a bus to the city centre. From there we walked to our Airbnb accommodation for about 10 minutes. The apartment was very convenient and it had very nice views over he city. 

Peru: Puno - 19th December (Day 38)

We woke up and had buffet breakfast in the hotel. We wanted to visit the Uros floating village, so we asked at the hotel and they told us to go straight to the harbour. After a 15 minutes walk we arrived there and got a boat to Uros. We hired the tour in an agency for 10 soles each.

After around half an hour sail we arrived at the entrance of the village, where we had to pay 5 soles to get in. The village is formed of 95 floating islands made of plants that grow in the lake. We visited two of the islands, in the first one we could visit some houses and one of the inhabitants explained how the islands are built and maintained and how is living there like. After that he took us inside some of the houses and tried to sell us some handmade souvenirs. 

Bolivia: La Paz and Copacabana - 15th to 18th December (Days 34 to 37)

After around 8 hours bus drive we arrived at La Paz around 5.30am. We were not in the same bus as Gustavo and Getulio so we waited for them. We had no accommodation booked in La Paz yet, so we walked with them to their hostel, called Loki, to ask if they also had a room available for us. That hostel is famous for the parties that they do every night, our friend Jose recommended it as well, so we thought it would be a great option for our stay in La Paz. After a 10 minutes walk from the bus terminal we arrived at the hostel. The room that Getulio and Gustavo booked was for 4 people and the other 2 beds were free, so we shared it with them.

Bolivia: Uyuni - 12th to 14th December (Days 31 to 33)

Around 6.30 a minibus picked us up from the hostel and took us to Hito de Cajon in the border with Bolivia in just around 30 minutes. While waiting for the queue to exit Chile the driver prepared a table with breakfast for all the people in the minibus. Getting the stamp to exit Chile was easy but for the entrance to Bolivia we had to wait around half an hour as the immigration office was closed. When we finally got our Bolivian entrance, we were changed to a 4x4 vehicle from a different agency than the one we were told in San Pedro. In the vehicle we were the driver called Ebrahim, a Chilean couple called Gonzalo and Daniela and two Brazilian guys called Gustavo and Getulio. There was no tour guide, so everything we needed to know about the tour itinerary or the places we were about to visit for the next 3 days we had to ask the driver, who was very quiet and only gave limited information when asked.

Chile: San Pedro de Atacama - 10th and 11th December (Days 29 and 30)

We woke up at Paso de Jama, the border between Argentina and Chile. We had to get off the bus and get into the immigration office for the passport control and baggage check. There was like 5 different windows where we had to queue for different procedures. In the last one, the baggage check, we were asked if we were bringing any fruits or vegetables. In the form that we were given we chose NO, as we were just had a couple of oranges that we wanted to eat before arriving at the border. However, we fell asleep during the whole journey and completely forgot about the oranges. So when we were asked Ari remembered about them and answered affirmatively. When the border officer checked our form and saw that we marked NO, he said that we lied to him and we should pay a 300$ fine. Obviously he just wanted to scare us and I just filled another form saying YES and he threw the oranges away.

We finally arrived at San Pedro de Atacama around 11am and started looking for a hostel to stay the next two days. We were shocked by the prices as it was much more expensive than Argentina. We decided to stay at Hostel Pangea which was one of the cheapest options but we had to share the room with four more people. We didn't have any food with us (not even oranges...) so we decided to go to have lunch at a local restaurant close to the hostel. I ordered the menu (ceviche as starter and chicken as a main) and Ari ordered 4 empanadas. She wasn't feeling very hungry and she thought that four empanadas would be enough as we had the small Argentinian ones as a reference. However, in Chile the size of empanadas is huge, so Ari could hardly finish one of them for lunch.