We started out Bolivia with a three day jeep tour through Salar De Uyuni. We saw the salt flats, a hostel made of salt, an active volcano, rock formations, flamingos, a red and green river, geysers and much more. And we relaxed in a hot spring... It was so cold getting in but it was totally worth it. Two common factors on Bolivia... Paying to use the grossest bathrooms ever, and no heat. And I can't forget to mention the altitude. On the first day of the tour we went up to an altitude of 5000m. Holy moly, my body reacted pretty badly but the intake of coca candies, coca tea and coca leaves helped! One of our tour guides ate an entire bag of coca leaves and was quite the ball of energy. Feliz... A hilarious and wonderful lady. After Uyuni we took a bumpy overnight bus to the big city, La Paz, where we stayed at the hostel Wild Rover. A backpackers party place really. We met some awesome people, and had some looong nights. Our last stop in Bolivia was Copacabana... We visited Isla De Sol and found an awesome veggie restaurant that we became regulars at. Bolivia is such a cheap place. We had a three course meal for $2.50 (15 bolivanos) and stayed in a private room (our first in ages) for $3.
From Copacabana we made our way to Cusco, Peru! We stayed at the oh so popular Loki... Yet another backpackers party place. We only stayed for a night before we took a two day tour to Machu Picchu. Such a beautiful place and such an incredible history. The Incas managed to keep the place secret for so many years. The design is amazing as well... Resilient against natural disasters, perfect for agriculture and rainfall... Just breathtaking. Hilda and I decided we were tough, and climbed up Wayna Picchu (if you look at any picture of Machu Picchu it's the BIGGEST hill you see). I huffed and puffed the whole way up! It was a pretty hard hike, but the altitude made it worse for me. We decided to blame everything on the altitude :) Unfortunately it was a cloudy day so the pictures from the top weren't that amazing, but we were proud of ourselves for making it up there!!
Next we made our way to the highly recommended Huacachina. There we visited Isla Ballestas by boat, where we saw penguins, pelicans, sea lions and more birds than I knew existed! We also finally got to sandboard in Huacachina! They take you out in a dune buggy, where the driver seems to get off on the fear of the passengers... Then you wax up the board and slide down these massive dunes. I tried twice to slide down standing... And got a face full of sand, so for the rest of the hills I was quite content laying down on the board. Really fun experience, and we saw an amazing sunset at the end as well! After that we made out way to Lima, stayed one night in Miraflores, and it was time to fly home! I can't believe how fast three months went by, but they were definitely the best three months of my life so far. I met some incredible people, saw incredible things, and really lived an incredible lifestyle! Something I won't soon forget.
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