September 24, 2018 – September 25, 2018
We headed away from Lake Titicaca, getting some last views of the huge sapphire lake as we climbed high into the surrounding countryside. We were driving to Tiwanaku, an important set of ruins in Bolivia, and a place that some consider to be the cradle of Andean culture.
September 20, 2018 – September 24, 2018
We drove through some beautiful, rugged, rural landscapes towards the border with Bolivia and Lago Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. Lago Titicaca was extremely sacred to the Inca, and today remains sacred waters for many of the indigenous people of South America, as well, it would seem, for foreigners seeking alternatives to Western spirituality.
September 18, 2018 – September 20, 2018
Although we really enjoyed the city of Arequipa, we were happy to be back out in the countryside again. We were driving to the Colca Canyon, which is only a hundred or so metres shy of being the deepest canyon in the world, and more than twice the depth of the Grand Canyon in the United States.
We drove past this erupting volcano on our way to the Colca Canyon
September 11, 2018 – September 18, 2018
Derek made arrangements for new tires for the truck in the Peruvian city of Arequipa, and they didn’t come too soon…we were losing pea sized chunks of rubber and had started to lose air and although we hadn’t had a real flat tire since Colombia, we were anxious to get the new tires installed before we headed into the remote regions we were hoping to visit in Bolivia. We decided it was also a good time for new brake fluid and to replace the brake pads.
September 9, 2018 – September 11, 2018
In the streets of Cusco we had seen advertisements for tours to Rainbow Mountain, or, Winicunca to use the local name, but I couldn’t find anything in our slightly out-of-date guide book about the hike. As it turns out, the multi-hued mountain was covered under a layer of ice until recently. With the changing climate, the ice has now disappeared, revealing striped, rainbow like slopes, and the locals soon figured out that tourists would pay to hike to such a magical place. Interestingly, most of the tourists were Peruvian, possibly captivated by the natural representation of the age old Incan rainbow flag.
September 8, 2018
We debated about whether to visit Machu Picchu or not. Dogs definitely are not allowed, either on the Inca trail or at the site, so that meant we needed to get back to the truck within the day and thus take the train to the site, which would be an expensive ride. They have now also changed the entrance rules: you buy a ticket for either the morning or the afternoon, and you are limited to 4 hours for your visit. We had read that the site would be crowded, and we were worried about getting there and being disappointed. In the end, we decided that we would likely never have a better opportunity to visit Machu Picchu, and that we would regret it if we didn’t go.