Off to Arequipa to Cabanaconde

We woke up around 8 am after having slept for about 12 hours. It had been raining all the night. Even after we freshened up and had our breakfast at about 9:30 am, it was still cloudy and raining. It looked like the rains had started in this region. We decided to drop our plan for Ollantaytambo since it was part of the same valley and it wouldn't be fun trekking for 2 or 3 days in the rain. We decided to skip this part of the plan and instead head South towards Arequipa. We checked the weather and it showed sun for most of the next few days. So, we checked out at 11 am and took a taxi to the bus station. There was only one bus to Arequipa during the afternoon at 1 pm, the rest were starting at 7 pm and later so we decided to take that. This bus would go to Juliaca first and then get us to Arequipa at 12:30 am. That was quite a detour but it was the fastest option we had.
The bus was from Flores company and was used by a lot of locals to travel towards Arequipa. There were vendors getting on and off on the way. There was even a guitarist who came on and sang a few songs for money.
We reached Arequipa at 12:15 am and quickly figured out that the buses to Cabanaconde were from the regional terminal nearby. Most people informed us that the buses would leave in the morning. We anyways decided to check it out. We walked to the terminal and found a bus leaving directly to Cabanaconde at 1 am, in 20 min. There were 2 seats available on it. We bought the last two tickets and were off to Cabanaconde.Read more