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.