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Journey through South America. Peru

25 November 2014 • Travel time: with 22 October 2014 on 25 October 2014
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Peru

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I open my eyes waking up from the suffocating heat, why don't we go? My head is about to explode from pain. . . Some Peruvian is snoring nearby. There is absolutely nothing to breathe, and nausea comes from this. I peer into the misted window, not far away is a barrel in which a fire is burning, there are some garages around and no road. I'll go see what happened, but no, we're locked up on the second floor of the bus. It's been 30 minutes since I've been awake and nothing has changed. Damn, how this native snores. Inside, a little fear of what happened to the bus and where is our driver…

Flashback. . . let's go back a little.

A year ago, while walking in the Maldives, I suggested that the next big trip would be next fall in the US. Plan B was Brazil. Now that we are traveling in South America, we are very happy that we chose Plan B. I don't know how it is in the USA.


But what we have already seen, there is clearly no such thing. But if I had been told a year ago that I would also visit Peru next year, my jaw would just drop in surprise. And so we set off from the Bolivian station to one of our main planned attractions. After driving a little, we were all asked to get out and go through border control. While the tourists were queuing, the bus with luggage left somewhere. We chalked it up to what was meant to be. From the excitement of the crowd, it was noticeable that this issue is relevant for many. There is a reminder on the border window that if you lost the waste of migration cards that you were given at the entrance, then you will get 300 bolivianos (600 UAH). Fortunately, we have the entire stack of papers with us. Stamp in passport and visa closed. And then a beautiful arch behind which begins Peru. The first step in Peru has been made, a photo with an inscription as a keepsake.

And here is our bus, well, in general, all the way, forward for adventure!

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We had to drive all night. The prospect of a trip to Peru was also pleasing in that we would soon begin our descent from a height. But not in the first city, unfortunately. At first, I could not sleep on the bus, I decided to listen to music at night. I turned on the first song, but something is quiet somehow, I look at the mobile phone, but I have already lost and the whole album has ended. So I'm still sleeping, but I think I'm not sleeping, hmmm, okay, just close our eyes...

“I open my eyes waking up from the suffocating heat, why are we not going? ”At 3 am, the driver will ruthlessly leave the bus. When the driver returned after 40 minutes, and it is not known how long he had been standing before, I saw him say goodbye to other drivers. It was their nightly gathering.

Cusco

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Temperature 17oC

Altitude: 3399 m

Flights behind: 6

Moves behind: 7

Taxi, it's 7 am now, there are not many days left before the purchased flight from Lima, you need to solve everything as quickly as possible so that you have time to fully visit Machu Picchu and have time to get to Lima. But according to the experience of previous cities, we didn’t have to look for a travel agency for a long time, Lenin himself met us at the exit from the bus. Now a fight of tigers will begin, a fight between a bull and a bullfighter, a battle not for life, but for a discount, since we both have a good idea where Machu Picchu is (two days are needed at least to go there and back) and how much the road will cost a savage. In this utter early trading on the market opened with a price of $ 300 for two. But we are also well aware that there are others who want to sell this tour. When the auction was over, the rate was already $220 for two. Of course, we understood that it was already profitable for us, but, what if it’s better to eat somewhere.

- When do you need to leave?

- In an hour and a half


To be honest, after the seventh move, we were no longer sure that we could jump to another bus so easily. So, how do we get to Lima then?

- The bus leaves every day and travels 20 hours, but in fact 23 hours.

Only from one thought “The bus is coming” already became uneasy. And such a number of hours was not entirely commensurate with our plans. With this situation, we really lose a day, and we also arrive a couple of hours before departure, if it will be exactly 20 hours to go. Or now immediately go to Machu Picchu, and then after the tour immediately to the 20-hour bus. From such a perspective of the development of events, it’s completely sick, and Machu Picchu in the pictures is somehow not very... Even thoughts slipped through, maybe not torturing yourself for 2 days, for the sake of a couple of hours to Machu Picchu. Uh, it's not very good there, we covered about 20.000 km distance, we need to get there anyway.

Since the chance to get to Cusco on the 12th day was very small in advance, we had a backup plan prepared. We turn on the mobile phone, roaming does not work, therefore, I will not receive SMS confirmation for paying with a card for air tickets online. Okay, let's modify the plan. We take a taxi from the guide with whom we bargained, we go to the airport to look for the StarPeru low-cost airline.

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The guide said that he would meet us in 20 minutes when the taxi driver was lucky back. At the airport, all windows are open, except for StarPeru, which will open in 2 hours, the tour starts in an hour. We have a choice:

1) Do not go on an excursion now, risking that the low-cost airline will definitely have cheap tickets and we will buy them;

2) Go on a two-day excursion right away, but then if there are no tickets returned, we will reach Lima by bus in 20 hours.


The second option is certainly more reliable, but let's think logically, if after a very difficult night road you immediately go on a two-day journey, where you have to walk another 10 km after 6 hours of serpentine, and all this after 12 days of continuous travel and flights, then there is a chance to survive not big. In the first option, we will definitely survive, but if there are no low-cost tickets, we will either get expensive tickets or stay in South America to live.

Since the first option contains the word "Live", we took a risk. We settled in calmly at the hotel, and after a couple of hours we returned to the airport for tickets. We approach the worker.

- We need two tickets to Lima.

- Oh, no, no, no, the planes are full. For a second, I felt sick.

We are not flying today.

- Ahh, there are so many places with a good price, but I won’t sell you, go to our office on Salt Street.

The quest continues, we sit in a taxi.

- Sol Street!

- Avenida de Sol?

Moreover, the English driver did not know.

- StarPeru!

- Si-Si, Star Peru, Avenida del Sol!

Well, they seem to understand each other. The office has just opened. The girl was happy to write tickets for us.

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I decided to clarify whether buying tickets gives me a 100% guarantee that I will fly away. “Maximum, take off an hour later! "So, we've got it all figured out. A taxi in the city cost between 20-30 UAH, which greatly simplified the movement. Now you can find out the price from the locals for Machu Picchu. All travel agencies spoke only Spanish and the average price per tour reached $ 300 per person. Well, of course, any tourist who arrives dreams of going on a purely Spanish excursion at a higher price. Lenin really turned out to be inexpensive. Okay, let's call Comrade Lenin from the hotel Gestapo and say that we agree on his price.

It was possible to get to Machu Picchu by train, tickets for which cost $ 1.5 for locals, and for tourists about $ 50 per person one way. But a heavy downpour washed away the rails and now part of the road must be taken by minibus, and then take the train for $37. Entrance to Machu Picchu costs $50 per person. Also, stay overnight at the hotel.

We took a $220 tour for two from Cusco by bus, which includes transfers, entrance, meals, accommodation and a guide. That is, in all respects, we win. True, there are some nuances here, but more on that later.

Fortunately, all org. issues are resolved, you can continue to enjoy the trip.

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Street names


In Cusco, everything is very beautiful, everything is well-groomed, flowers and hummingbirds, corn in leaves is sold on the streets for 1 salt (5 UAH), but inside the leaves there is a boiled cornmeal pie with vegetables.

The names of the streets are written on beautiful tablets and a lot of things are decorated with ancient coins, there is even a large fountain with an Inca coin. Cusco in Peru is the cultural capital. There are a lot of cool sights around the city, but unfortunately most of them will not be able to see on our route. Let's go to the main one. Coming out of the market, a Peruvian immediately ran up to us and asked if we should accidentally go to Ollantaytambo? And the bus is almost full. Oh, we were lucky to do such things)

Ollantaytambo

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Temperature 17oC

Height: 2792 m

Flights behind: 6

Moves behind: 8

We did not know what kind of attraction it was, but it is considered very famous. In the photographs of all guidebooks, it was indicated by some two small columns, with a third column lying transversely.

Looking at such an impressive photo, there were big doubts whether it was worth going there from this heavenly Cusco.

The ride was no more than two hours, but due to the fact that it was necessary to go up and along a serpentine road, it didn’t seem enough. After such a move, we sat for 30 minutes in a cafe, and I was moving away from the symptoms of motion sickness. The town is surrounded by mountains whose height reaches 7682 m. Looking at these mountains, not only captures the spirit, but also really starts to feel dizzy, as you can see all the greatness. And those two columns from the photo, this is a small piece of the ruins, in the most unattractive place of this giant pyramid city, archaeological park and stone fortress, that we realized that the Peruvians do not know how to advertise their sights.

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At this point, we really hoped that Machu Picchu had the same story, and the photo from the tourist map underestimated its beauty.


I don't know how to describe all this beauty, but it was really beautiful. And throughout Peru, the fields are cascaded one above the other - terraces. From a distance it looks like steps for giants and all the time you feel like a character from minecraft.

Very low rain clouds everywhere. While we were driving along the serpentine between cities, it turned out that we drove around a thundercloud. It's already getting dark, we need to hurry to Cusco. There is no minibus, but the taxi driver calls for a similar price in the car. Well, ok, we are sitting, and he is helping people so that the car is completely filled. When the place was over, he went to invite more. Dasha and I were all wondering where he was going to plant them. As a result, having caught a mother with a child, he put them in his spacious trunk, it looked epic. We returned to Cusco already quite in the evening, we wound a circle of 120 km in a day. By the way, the name of the city of Ollantaytambo has become the most difficult to remember proud of our trips.

So, tomorrow we start our way to one of the main planned sights.

Road to Machu Picchu

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Mountain Serpentines

Machu Picchu is considered one of the coolest attractions in the world, as it is not only a very beautiful and unusual place, but also very hard to reach. At 07:30 a bus picked us up and took us on a six-hour journey. Not far from Ollantaytambo we had an optional breakfast at our own expense. I had a neat snack, as I understood what road awaits us. The tourist who was traveling with us said that he knew us, as he had already crossed paths with us somewhere on his tourist route. Minibus all the time went along the rails of the train. At one of the stops we were overtaken by a train. In one of the carriages the orchestra was playing loudly and everyone was having fun. Tickets for such a train cost $350 per person, as we later found out.


At one point, the road for the minibus went sharply serpentine up, and the rails went down. The foot of Machu Picchu is located at an altitude of about 1000 m, and now we were at an altitude of 2792 m. But before descending to Machu Picchu, we had to move a very high mountain. The minibus climbed higher and higher into the mountains, making sharp turns. It was evident that the driver was a professional in his field, as without slowing down, he drove even those inversions where there were no bumpers. The views are certainly indescribable, and in addition to the landscapes, the snow-capped mountain peaks are very close. The minibus was gaining and gaining altitude and soon we climbed into thick clouds. The road began to be covered with flying nebulae, and soon it became completely impenetrable, it was only visible a couple of meters in front of the minibus. It was such a strange feeling, it’s like you’re not on an airplane, but outside the window is something that you saw only there.

We climbed even higher, but the layer of clouds was so thick that even a gap was not visible. Soon the minibus stopped abruptly, ahead was a landslide blocking the entire road. Through the impenetrable fog it was possible to see how the outlines of a huge excavator were raking stone blocks. Workers stood on the road, stopping traffic.

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The idea that it was possible to meet the landslide even closer, for example, to hit them on the body of the minibus, did not please at all. In general, in this whole kingdom there was some kind of feeling of magic, as if you were in some kind of parallel world. Within 20 minutes, the landslide was cleared, and we moved on. Soon the descent began and when the clouds parted, boundless horizons opened before us with a half-dried river somewhere very far below. I don’t know what kind of views there are from the train, they say that they are beautiful, but obviously not as impressive as they were here.

The minibus rushed down the serpentine, like a plane coming in for a landing. On the way all the time we overtook extreme cyclists. Very often, mountain rivers that flew from the tops of the mountains swept right along the road and flew further into the cliff, and the minibus passed them at speed. On one of these rivers, there was an unsuccessful meeting with a cyclist. He stood on the river, waiting for the group, apparently to indicate that there was a river on the road, and our Boeing was rushing and was not going to slow down, perhaps it was dangerous to pass such places at low speed. We only saw a wave rapidly growing from the minibus in his direction, since the height of the wave turned out to be greater than the minibus, which was not known further, but in the worst case, he would simply be pressed against the mountain. Soon we went down to the very limit and a specific heat began to grow in the minibus. That is, we left Cusco warmly dressed, since the word “heat” hasn’t even been heard anywhere for the last week.


And then it felt like we had moved to a different climate zone. Geographically, this was indeed the case. Outside the windows were the tropics. We soon made a stop for lunch. It's good that lunch was not before crossing the mountain, otherwise everyone would need lunch again. In the restaurant all the time tourists clung to something weighing in a bag, then we found out that it was a hammock with a sleeping baby.

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Baby in a hammock

But apparently, the child is already accustomed to such an environment. Although our six-hour journey was coming to an end, the road to Machu Picchu was just beginning. We passed a place where the river flowed straight out of a round hole in the middle of the mountain. We arrived in the village of Hydroelectric.

Hydroelectric

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Beginning of the path

There is no further road, to climb Machu Picchu, you have to spend the night in the neighboring town of Aguas Calientes.

You can get to the town by train, but if you are not a local, then again, the price is not quite right, but you can walk along the rail, only 10 km with all your things. We made a tactical move in Cusco, loading most of the things to the hotel for free storage, since the hotel didn’t understand much English, they didn’t really resist) We accepted the things, I showed on my fingers that in two days we’ll be back for them and for one let's spend the night. We only had one backpack with us. But due to climate change, I really had to take a lot with me on the road. The road was through the jungle and mountain rivers. All sorts of exotic things grew on the trees.

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Our guide of local origin, ardently said goodbye to everyone and said that in a couple of hours we would meet in the main square of Aguas Calientes. Where the area, he did not particularly explain. Okay, let's figure it out. The journey took 2.5 hours.

Having overcome all this exotic way, we reached the city at dusk. I remember how the realization came that already tomorrow we would go where we planned as one of the most important and final points of the route six months ago. Even when we bought tickets, I was not 70% sure that we would physically be able to get here in time, and Machu Picchu was most likely empty hopes from the trip.

Aguas Calientes

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Temperature 17oC

Altitude: 1000 m

Flights behind: 6

Moves behind: 10


Oddly enough, the area was really easy to find, and our guide appeared within 10 minutes. He was supposed to give us tickets for tomorrow's entry. It looked like this, he gave everyone money, so that we went to the checkout and bought) $ 100 for two had already fought off the tour. The city is really cool, it is very small and everyone comes to it to stay only for the night.

Almost the entire city is cafes, small hotels and souvenirs. There is a beautiful fountain in the middle of the square. We were all gathered in a restaurant for dinner. Everywhere there were memos about the coming ascent, and videos with all sorts of tips and options for ascent were played non-stop on televisions. It was cool that it was focused specifically on a specific travel agency, since they even showed our guide on the video so that we would remember him.

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Our guide was easy to remember

The guide divided us into two groups and spoke sharply in English. We did not even believe that at least somewhere there would be English. Here's a dry ration for you, tomorrow at 04:30 in the morning we will meet near the fountain. Whoever does not have time, or decides to take the bus up, meet at 06:30 at the top. Buses run every 20 minutes for $10 per person one way, almost to the very top. But even here we decided in principle to overcome the climb on foot. Let's go to our hotel to sleep.

As it turned out, not only on the streets everything was thematic, but also in the room there were paintings from Machu Picchu. When I fell asleep, through a dream I heard a downpour, the last thought slipped through “Damn it! ".

All the symptoms of altitude sickness, including severe shortness of breath, left us forever.

Machu Picchu

! ! ! Note to tourists: You must have a passport with you. Tickets are sold on it and it is also checked at the entrance ! ! ! You will also need a change of T-shirt upstairs if you decide to climb on foot; )

At 04:00 it was already raining, and when we went outside it stopped altogether


At 04:30 there was no guide, no tourists on the square. We came to the conclusion that they had already left, so we would find our own way. But it was not difficult to search, tourists came out from all the hotels and confidently walked into the dark distance. Even early in the morning it was not cold, we were not used to it at all. First, it was necessary to walk 2 km in the direction of Hydroelectric, the entrance is considered to be a bridge over the river.

When we reached the bridge, we were among the first tourists who came, the entrance was still closed. That is, our guide was late for the meeting point. The gates of the bridge are opening and now the biggest ascent will begin.

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We had to walk 1 km up some very steep stairs. Buses go along the serpentine, and tourists go straight along the paths. The climb took 70 minutes and I set my record for how much I sweated. I must have lost half of my body moisture. A dog valiantly got up with us, she also did not want to pay for the bus. Filled buses traveled all the time with tourists. But I can’t understand, given the opportunity to bring down the price of the entire road twice, how can this not be used. At the top, the guide approached us within 10 minutes. Everything was cloudy and it started to rain, we put on our patriotic yellow and blue raincoats.

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In the clouds

The guide, after examining the sky, said that in an hour and a half everything would be blown away. He spent about an hour and a half interesting excursion, driving around the Inca settlement, and at this time all the clouds and clouds rose into the sky and completely dissipated. Before us opened those famous views of Machu Picchu!

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Lyokha Onischuk and Katya Barukhovich, I am passing the baton to you, during the journey I made a wish that you be the next acquaintances who will come up here and I hope that it will come true soon. I remember how you always inspired me with stories about the beauty of this place.

Well, what can I write, beautiful, mega-beautiful, super-beautiful, ultra-beautiful. Yes, it really is so beautiful! The city is located on one of the peaks of the mountain, around there are beautiful views of other mountains, covered with tropics, everywhere you go it is beautiful.


We all walked around several times and if time and strength allowed, we would also go to the adjacent attractions located further up the mountain. There was a cafe next to the entrance, which in our ranking took first place in terms of opening views during a meal, displacing the view of the Mediterranean Sea from McDonald's in Larnaca, Cyprus. Imagine how you are sitting at a thin long table, over a cliff and looking into the distance at beautiful tropical mountains, and a river flows far below.

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At the cafe table

Although the prices are simply unrealistic (even for water, in my opinion, 10 soles (40 UAH) for 0.5), but you want to eat and drink. With you in your hands, you can’t drag it all to the top. Having refreshed ourselves, we returned with nominal tickets and continued to explore the beauty. The sun was so hot that we burned out, or rather our long-suffering faces.

It was so strange that even the day before yesterday it was unrealistic to climb the stairs to the floor, and here “below” a kilometer up went quite easily. By the way, here we met the fourth Russian-speaking people during the whole trip, the guys were from Russia and the first word in Russian that we heard from the Russians talking was “Khuyak! Huyak! ". It's so sweet that despite such a long journey, they were able to maintain the foundations of their culture.

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I originally thought it would take an hour to climb these steps.

Walking through the beauties, we noticed how a small loin was spinning around us, and her dad was trying not to take a picture of his daughter against the background of us. When he realized that he had fallen asleep, he was very embarrassed. I kindly offered him to take as many pictures with us as he needed. His daughter proudly stood against the backdrop of foreigners, and when dad found out that we were from Ukraine itself, he almost dropped the camera in surprise.

The minibus from Hydroelectric left at 14:30, which meant that at 11:20, we had to start our descent.

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Animal


When the time for the descent approached, we sat in the courtyard of an old house, dangling our legs over the cliff. In the first minutes of the descent, we met a rising Chinese woman, who seemed to have lost hope. I told her “Just five minutes”, in response to the machine I heard “Hello! ”, but then the essence of the phrase reached her, and she strewed us with thanks. Then Peruvian teenagers caught up with us and offered to treat ourselves to their branded alcoholic chicha. We were forced to refuse, because now only a sip of wine and the road can not be mastered. In 20 minutes we descended and set off on the 8-kilometer return journey. From this place began the road home.

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Road to Kyiv

That is, this is not the end yet, but our entire further route and its sights were planned solely for the purpose of a timely return. On the way, we bought freshly picked bananas and tangerines from the locals, and walked in a relaxed way. They were happy that they had made a successful ascent. A lot of tired tourists went to the meeting, and they will get up only tomorrow. We greeted everyone, as everyone greeted us yesterday. In the place where yesterday something was noisy in the rock, there were broken blocks that had fallen from the rock.

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Food: )

We had about 20 minutes left, and we turned into a restaurant, which is located just in the middle of the jungle and is waiting for its backpackers. The owner said that he basically had nothing to eat, including the menu. It was more of a cafe with drinks, but he will go and see what he has in the house for food.

As a result, he covered us for 20 soles (100 UAH) a chic meadow for two and treated us to chicha-morada, a traditional non-alcoholic drink made from black corn. It was our most complete and delicious meal since Argentina. We arrived a couple of minutes before the scheduled departure, the tourists had already begun to worry where we had gone. It turns out that since 04:00 we have overcome 10 km on foot, 1 km up, 1 km down and 4.5 hours of walking at the top. The minibus on the way back was a little strange, no one's legs fit, but after half an hour it didn't bother anyone, everyone was in a deep sleep somewhere flying over Machu Picchu.

As a result, we saved about $ 150 on this excursion, due to the fact that we walked everywhere.

At 21:00 we were standing in the central square of Cusco freezing from the cold. It was unusual to return from the tropics to the peaks again. We did not yet know that our hotel, with which we agreed, did not know at all that we had agreed on something with him.


We ran in to have a bite, chose some interesting Peruvian dish, and they brought us two small sandwiches and fresh juice. Wrong choice for dinner on the menu. But street food was sold on the street, which is fried in front of you, so everything is in a bundle.


Me and street food

We arrived at the hotel at night, our things were safe, but "There are no places. " Oddly enough, the search for a new hotel took about 10 minutes, I guess. Walking around the city early in the morning, we met a guy and decided to give tickets to attractions, he said that he already knows us. Here it is, tourist glory!

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I was afraid he would kiss me

Then we hurried to the airport. Near the airport we were caught by a guide and offered to go on a tour to Machu Picchu! Apparently he thought that our faces were so wonderfully burned in the local solarium.

- I'm sorry, but your flight is. . . an hour late. Just like we were told when we bought it.

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Lima

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Temperature 15oC

Height: 0m

Flights behind: 7

Moves behind: 11

Since we had to fly further in less than a day, we decided to check in for the flight immediately at the airport. The girl at the counter carefully studied our passports, called some worker, the worker explained something to her.

- Where is your luggage?

- We fly without luggage.

The girl was even more embarrassed, after which she went somewhere with our passports. Apparently I decided to get a couple of loans for myself) We stand in awkward silence:

- Something is wrong? I asked.

- No, everything is fine, it's okay, it's a common thing. The man answered.

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Air tickets

To be honest, I was waiting for the airport security to come and take us somewhere.

After 5 minutes, the girl returned and printed out LAN tickets for us, although our flight was with TAM. A lot has changed in six months, the airline swallowed up its competitor. Now we have another unique opportunity to see how fun the finger travels on the "lunch" box!

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For a 70 gram dinner, finger adventures for free!


The taxi driver in Spanish tried to get some hotel for his mom, they say it's so cheap. I was glad that no one perceived us as rich tourists. Outside the windows, poor neighborhoods and favelas are everywhere. Where the hell are we? ! There was a massive grate at the entrance of the reception. When the hostess saw that we were standing without pistols, she gladly opened the door for us. The hotel itself was also not distinguished by its beauty and comfort. For some reason, the capital of Peru was not as beautiful as all previous cities.

Near the hotel we ate at the fish restaurant. It was very tasty, various seafood were raw, slightly marinated in sauces. Later we found out that we were eating one of the main traditional Peruvian dishes. Now we need to get to the center. Tuk-tuks refused to take us for a segment, but the driver of one of the tuk-tuks told us how much you can safely beat the price of a taxi driver. When we started to catch taxi drivers, by the name of the street, many began to specify “Do you want to go to Lima? No, I’m not going there. ” At first, we thought that we understood something wrong in Spanish, although on the 15th day we already understood it well, but when one taxi driver said: “Yes, yes, I I'll take you there, is it in Lima? » Yeah, so these favelas where we settled are not considered Lima, well, at least Lima is somewhere nearby. We arrived in an hour, for 15 soles (75 UAH).

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Sheep Tree

In this entire trip, I constantly had to get used to new currencies))) In the center everything was civilized, beautiful. Instead of the metro, a network of buses with a separate lane of the road went around the city. That is guaranteed no traffic jams. The frequency of buses is the same as in the metro, every couple of minutes some one drove up. In the center, of course, it’s cool, we walked around for an hour or so. There was a cool exhibition of plastic trees of various shapes. We liked the sheep tree the most. But we will return to it in the evening for a photo, but in general we didn’t come to Lima after that.

- Taxi, park del amor pliz!

At the end of the world

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Pacific Ocean

We drove to the park area of ​ ​ Lima, which are located right next to the high cliffs, and then only the Pacific Ocean. Due to a lot of traffic, we couldn't wait to get to the love park itself and jumped out of the taxi earlier.


We are standing right on the cliff, we see the full power of the ocean, large-scale waves, which are ridden by surfers in wetsuits, but it's all far below. We are standing at the extreme point of our route, we are standing on the edge of the earth! And most importantly, we all made it! We managed to overcome a large land route before the start of a chain of return flights just in time. We spent several hours walking in the parks over the cliff, discussing everything we saw on the trip and congratulating each other on “We did it! ”, we recalled how it seemed that this point would be unattainable, as when we first developed the route, I assured that it was crazy to do so many transfers and flights. We are really great. No wonder our trip was called "Two Oceans". During the trip it was our second ocean, for the year of travel it was the third. I want to note that the Pacific Ocean cannot be called quiet, it is probably the loudest.

Couples in love were sitting everywhere, romance reigned in the atmosphere, a colored night fell on the city. We needed to return home.

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Love Park

Early in the morning we got to the most detailed inspection by the airport security service. Since they are trying to catch the transport of drugs or coca leaves. An officer in white gloves carefully opened our backpack and decided to check the most suspicious package. Unfortunately for him, this bag contained the dirty things from the whole trip, including SOCKS. The package was hermetically sealed. The worker calmly unwrapped the package and began digging through it. We stood at a distance of two meters and tears began to roll in our eyes from the smell of ambergris. I was afraid that the officer at the epicenter of the events might lose consciousness. But he, like a real pro, did not even move his eyes, he carefully packed and folded everything.

At best, he will lose a lot of weight, since his appetite will go away for at least a week.

Everyone got on the plane and said goodbye to Peru, how much beauty could still be seen in this country, but the vacation is not rubber, more precisely rubber, but not so much.

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Cute pillow

In the dutik, we got to taste delicious sweets, there were a lot of dutiks, we can say that we had lunch.

The return flight was practically across the entire mainland and in fact over the tourist sites that we traveled to on the ground, from time to time we recognized these places.

Oh, and here they brought us food with photographs of a traveling finger! In my opinion, we did not get worse.

The bonus turned out to be that we were sitting on the right side and the Iguazu Falls revealed their beauties to us again, but from the plane.

Some passenger strongly demanded that we turn off the camera, otherwise the plane would fall, but it seems to me that sitting in our place he would have done exactly the same.

IMG_4742

Iguazu Falls


It was super. Coming out of Brazil's Foz do Iguaç u airport, the lungs were again filled with this beautiful tropical air. There was also a hope to fly a helicopter over the waterfalls, but in reality it was already too late. At the beginning of the trip, we did not dare to take a helicopter for ourselves, as there might not be enough money later. Two weeks ago, we agreed with the owner of our hotel that we would return to her if we had time for all the planes. Unfortunately, we had only part of an overnight stay in this city, since at 05:00 we had to fly further. The hostess greeted us joyfully and was glad that we mastered our route.

IMG_4745

Our re-burnt faces emphasized how much we were imbued with the route. To be honest, of all the cities I would stay in Iguazu, it doesn’t matter in Brazil or Argentina, they are equally cool.

There was a big problem here, when we set the alarm for 3 am, Dasha noticed a bug in the android. At 00:00 you set the alarm for 03:00 and the message “Your alarm will ring in 4 hours” appears. This alarmed me. After a quick test of the alarm clock, I realized that at 02:00 it will “Ring in 2 hours”, and at 03:00 “Ring in 4 hours”. The horrifying truth has reached me, which means that today the time change and 03:00 today will be twice in fact. But this does not apply to Brazil, it is in Kyiv, the Brazilian local belt could not be found out. The problem was solved by moving the belt on the tablet to the one where there is no time transfer today, and on the mobile phone the number was set two days earlier. Accordingly, at least one will definitely ring.

Thanks to Dasha's vigilance, who paid attention to the pop-up window, our route would end successfully, otherwise we would have got up an hour later and missed the plane. We are very lucky in this place.

Saying goodbye to the big mango tree, we flew on. For breakfast we flew to our beloved Curitiba. We had a couple of hours to eat, and the food at this airport is relatively inexpensive and delicious. In order to get to the cafes, we deliberately left the transit zone and then went through all the formalities for boarding again. Have you eaten? Fly further! Our next stop was in Rio. We arrived at 11:00 and departed at 23:30. We were able to dedicate our last foreign day to walking around Rio.

Rio de Janeiro again

IMG_4757

Temperature 35 oC

Height: 0m

Flights behind: 10

Moves behind: 11


It seemed to us as if we were here an eternity ago, these two and a half weeks were very eventful. But apparently this was not enough for us, if all civilized tourists go to Rio, then we decided to go to the neighboring island of Niteroi, depositing all our things at the airport for 20 reais ($10). Since the exchange rate at the airport is not favorable (1.7 instead of 2.5), we decided to change somewhere in the city. After driving over a giant bridge, I decided to have a bite to eat, but first we decided to clarify where you can change money? “There, ahead! ". Well, ok, I had 25 real in my pocket, I ate for 24 ($12), and the exchange turned out to be closed. Okay, let's move on, the neighborhoods are a bit weird, and look "unsafe". The first thing that caught my eye was people living on the street simply or in boxes, the second was deserted alleys where everything was closed. We found an exchange office in a shopping center, but it was also closed.

The girls from the neighboring store really wanted to help us in a crowd, and they tried hard to remember this cherished English word, which will now reveal the whole truth to us, after a three-minute Portuguese brain storm, one joyfully shouted “Tomorrow! "? All the rest also beamed with a smile and felt how cool they helped us to resolve the issue with the exchange. It would be possible to withdraw money from the card, but it remained at the airport... Tickets cost 5 real, which was 20 times higher than our available ones. Here, from one building, some African-Negro, having heard that we were looking for an exchange, called us to him. But Portuguese is not Spanish, and it is completely impossible to understand, but the uncle, it turns out, only knew how to call in English. I show him with gestures that I will give $ 10, and let him give reals, in response he tells me some cool joke, realizing that I didn’t enter the joke, he himself laughed at her heartily. Okay, take 2. I take a piece of paper with a pen and draw $ 10 turning into ? ? Rio.

He thoughtfully looked at the puzzle, and in response drew a bus. The uncle himself was like a wardrobe in terms of physique, I kept waiting for his revolver to speak to us. I think that in such areas everyone has a revolver. Let's try to arrange an exchange with the locals on the street, but apparently it is forbidden for them, and there were almost no locals. There was a beach nearby, where there was a musical party under a boombox, which drove a real topic to real boys. Nobody wanted to change there either, but they advised me to go to an expensive hotel on the mountain. I climbed the mountain, and Dasha stayed to hang out on the shore. The administrator at the reception said that the hotel does not change, but kindly agreed to call banks and exchange offices from the district. After 10 minutes, he said that there would be no case. Near the hotel there is a booth with two guards in tuxedos, in such tuxedos they must obviously wear no less than 50 real.

He approached the guards, in broken English-Spanish he tried to interpret the Portuguese language. The guards rummaged around and found a total of 10 riyals, which is two times less than necessary. I also had a $1 bill in my pocket next to a hundred. But it was dumb to shine here with a hundred, so I did not dare to get it. Having failed, I returned to the embankment, and even more infuriated that, apart from Portuguese, they no longer understand any languages. On the shore, I was joyfully greeted by Dasha, who had already made friends with a group of six Ukrainians, who eventually changed the required amount for us. Very, very timely we met them. What are we doing trampled on Niteroi? There was the only attraction there - a beautiful looking futuristic museum, we took a picture and you can take a ferry to Rio.


IMG_4759

Museum

In general, there is nothing for tourists to do there.

Favelas are multi-colored unfinished cascading houses in which far from the most pleasant individuals live. In other words, in the most criminal city in the world, this is the most criminal area. Dachshund, reverse, we don’t go here, we go to another exit and understand that it’s heavy rain outside and we won’t really get anywhere from here, but you can forget about the restaurant. Nearby was a stall with street food and a street food + fresh action for 2 real ($ 1) on average, a meal without a drink in Rio costs from 25 real. Yeah, looks like this is going to be our dinner. While I was finishing the second share, the guys from the district began to cling to us. One did not lag behind and had to send it in a raised tone. It only turned him on, and while I was drinking fresh juice, he began to grab my hand. The situation was very tense, and we understood that we were far from being in a win-win situation. Okay, I'm going for broke. He once again grabbed my elbow, I abruptly stopped drinking fresh juice and squeezed the glass a little, hinting that someone was about to catch

. Although in this situation it was most likely to catch me. The guy quickly ran away. Dasha noticed that most likely for her friends. Okay, let's go over the fence there and wait out the rain there, run over the fence, and there the whole local flavor just lives in camps. The whole situation was strained by the amount of money lying in my pocket. Since they had to carry everything with them. Having soberly assessed the whole essence of the situation, it was decided to score on the downpour and the fuck out of Rio.


We ran under the downpour in the direction of the stop, Dasha orientated herself and jumped under the umbrella to some walking young intellectual. His mother, who was walking nearby under another umbrella, could be seen how she had lost her jaw from such bad manners and did not take her eyes off her son and the impudent person next to him. At the stop it was simpler, an endless stream of different buses and a cycle of normal residents and various thugs.

At one point, our express rides, breaking through the wall of the downpour, we jump into it, the doors close, and we understand that our adventures are over.

The way home

IMG_4765

When we just landed here 17 days ago, I told Dasha. In 17 days we will board this plane and we will feel either strong pride, or euphoria, or disappointment from the route, it was very interesting what feelings will prevail in us. So that's what the answer was. At 23:00, sitting on the seat of a cozy Lufthansa, we fell into such unconsciousness that we did not even notice the take-off and missed the first delivery of drinks. The fatigue that had accumulated over the past 18 days of travel simply hit every cell of the body and consciousness. 6 time zone changes, 10 flights, 11 large and difficult crossings, 3 ferry crossings, dozens of kilometers covered on foot, elevation changes up to 4500 meters, all this was felt at once.

Here is such a short story turned out on 36 pages of A4 text, which was written and published for 43 hours.

In next story, I'll sum up the results, ratings, costs and detail the itinerary for those wishing to repeat .

Translated automatically from Russian. View original
To add or remove photos in a story, go to album of this story
На границе
В Куско
В Куско
В Куско
Колибри
Ольянтайтамбо
Ольянтайтамбо
Ольянтайтамбо
Ольянтайтамбо
Дорога на Мачу Пикчу на маршрутке из Куско
Оползень!
Горная река
Пешая дорога на Мачу Пикчу
Пешая дорога на Мачу Пикчу
Пешая дорога на Мачу Пикчу
Пешая дорога на Мачу Пикчу
Подъем на Мачу Пикчу
Подъем на Мачу Пикчу
Вспотел:)
Небольшой ождик
Зверек
В облаках
Наш гид
За столиком ресторанчика
Мачу Пикчу
Мачу Пикчу
Боялся, что по этим ступенькам придется час подыматься.
Дорога в Киев (Осталось около 12989 км)
Стритфуд в Куско
Куско
Альпака милашка
Куско
Авиабилеты
Лима
Тихий Океан
Тихий Океан
Парк Любви
Подушка милашка
Водопады Игуасу с самолета
Музей на Нитерое
Прощание с Атлантическим океаном в Рио
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