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.