After Christmas we went to visit the so expected Machu Picchu… The pace is so expensive and so difficult to reach. We could go by train, but for 85 USD, so we choose the cheapest option by minivan we went with our friend Carô and one French girl, Léa, to the hydroelectric of Santa Maria. 7 hours on a road that seemed to be the death road and then we did 2 ½ hours walk to get to Aguas Calientes.

The next day we had to wait for the damn rain to stop and then take a bus to climb about 300m to reach the entrance of Machu Picchu. Definitely the place is WOW. The view of the ruins with the stunning mountain Wayna Pichu on the background is to impress, even if we’d seen this picture many times on postcards and television, seeing it for real is even better.

We climbed the mountain opposite of the Wayna Picchu wonderful view from above. It was a hard climb, 2 hours of endless stairs and breathtaking to arrive at 3082 m altitude, and from the top… We couldn’t see anything! White clouds covered the mountain.

But on our way back down, clouds cleared and we had the opportunity to enjoy the view at various view points. Gorgeous!

We took the all day visiting the site and then we walked down back to Aguas Calientes. The next day we took a train to Ollantaytambo and we visited the city in the Sacred Valley, but the day was rainy and we ended up coming back early to Cusco.

On December 30th we left on a night bus to Arequipa, this time in a more expensive company with two other friends, Bastien and Raquel who came fom Brazil to join us. We arrived in Arequipa on the 31th so we had made a reservation at Zig Zag, one of the best restaurants in Peru. It was a special night, so no savings, we had champagne, red wine, cheese fondue, a delicious alpaca steak and dessert. Mmmm, delicious dinner!

Then we passed the turn in the main square and we went from bar to bar drinking beer and Pisco Sour, interacting with all the people who passed our way. Bye bye 2012, we wish an even better 2013 to all!!

We began our year with a gorgeous view of the volcanoes surounding Arequipa.

On day 2, Bastien made a french dinner for us, a Boeuf Bourgignon to celebrate his birthday.