It had to happen,

... a bad day. Well, it's not likely to be a great one if you wake up with diarrhoea. I have no idea why, but then the rest of the day was like some medieval torture.

You see, the plan for the day was to travel from Tacna to Lake Titicaca, a 6.5-hour bus journey.

However, things started to go wrong very quickly. The bus we had booked didn't exist. There is no notice at the station, nobody from the company. We ask other companies for options. Nothing. So I suggest to Flo we should hire an entire mini bus, and a helpful lady from another bus company helps her to find one. Well, not a minibus, but at 7 seater car.

He will take us to Derepaque, and another car will take us to the Bolivian border ( we go to the lake on the Bolivian side).

So after filling up at an informal petrol station ( smuggled or stolen fuel), we set off for the 1st part of 2 hours through the Atacama desert. It's totally dry and hot. The aircon doesn't work, so open windows will have to do. Roads quickly climb to 3000m.

In the second part, it starts to become slowly green, the roads continue to ascend to 4500m, and the roads get narrow and windy ( as in wine-dee, nothing to do with wind). The temperature up top is chilly, and late afternoon, it even snows (a bit).

Eventually, at around 330pm, we reach our interim destination. I was so sick I tried to sleep, and I dosed, but when I looked at my watch, only 5 min had passed. Well, at least no altitude sickness on top. 🙃

The roadblock is not what we imagined. Not a police stop, but rather a huge pile of earth to block the road.

No worries, only 90 minutes to go, or so we thought.

The 2nd driver tells us we have to wait 1.5 hours. It's not clear why, but maybe 40-50 other people are also waiting. After 1.5 hours, it's extended to 2.5 hours. Oh, and then he explained he couldn't use the main road and had to use backroads, so it would take 4 hours, not 1.5.

We asked during the wait if we could drop Titicaca and head for Cuzco. "No, that road is blocked, too." At this point, I realise we might get really stuck if the way in and out is blocked, to the extent that we couldn't get in the Southern border to back into Peru. Result, we abandoned the 2nd ride, and instead, we headed most of the way back to a town called Moqoque, where Flo quickly found a decent hostel. It took 3 hours to get there.

I collapsed into bed after a relaxing hot shower. The kids feasted on potato crisps .

12 hours squashed in a car with my luggage, heat, high altitude, windy roads, high up it was cold,stomach cramps, sweat and more, but today I am fine, ready to plan the next days.Read more