Cruising is wonderful but some countries are inaccessible by sea, or better traveled by land. So after two years’ onboard Letitgo and some fantastic adventures, we decided to get on the road and explore Peru and Bolivia.

The bags are packed, the first two bus tickets are purchased, and instructions to our boat sitter have been passed on. Letitgo will wait patiently, anchored in Bahia de Caraquez’s estuary in Ecuador. We have had our nervous blow out, in other words we are ready for a vacation, after all the stress we encountered in the last few months.

The last two days have been a rush of last minute errands, orders for spare parts to be dropped off at a friend’s house back in the States, who will return here in October, a visit to the wood maestro to order the last three grates. Phew… Telling you, we have been overworked, and need to regain that equilibrium we had achieved in the Sea of Cortez last summer.

With all that said, departure time is tomorrow morning at 8:30 am. We will be on the bus toward Guayaquil, which represents a 5 to 6 hour drive – enough time to rest, listen to music, and simply enjoy the scenery.

Our “To Do” list is securely left onboard Letitgo and will be tackled upon our return. For now, let’s enjoy land travels and a different way to visit. Peru and Bolivia here we come!

Ladies selling their wares on the street in Peru.

Today we want to share a recap of our tour, with the costs and link to our blog, and our thoughts on it all as it is still fresh in our memory. The itinerary we had put on paper, with the help of our friends in the cruising community, was close to perfection, and the route made it easy with the buses and avoiding going to the same place twice.

For our hostel reservations, we used the Hostelbookers website 90% of the time with great success – the travelers’ reviews were spot on. If you want a more detailed, day to day kind of itinerary, the first post is here.

Budget

We spent on average around $40 a day per person over the period of 43 days. Most of our meals came from street food or markets, and whenever we were able to cook our own meal at the hostel, we would shop from local markets. Not to worry – we didn’t come back skinny! For our lodging, we always had a private room with en-suite, and although a dormitory would have saved us a few $$, that was not part of our compromise. We know that we could have saved a few more $$ in our transport, but keep in mind that if you do, the transport can also be more “rustic”, especially in Bolivia… and for that we wish you good luck. Museums: the main cost is pretty much our Machu Picchu day trip, and the boleto we purchased in Cusco to visit all the main sites and exhibits.

In other words you can still visit South America economically without trying too hard.

If you are traveling in this part of the world or intend to travel there in the near future, you may be interested in looking at our detailed itinerary. This itinerary shows you where we traveled on a daily basis, where we stayed, and things to see and do.

Things We Would Do Differently

As mentioned before it was pretty close to perfection, but what would we do differently?

• Stay one or two more days in Arequipa to get used to the altitude – the Colca Canyon tour gets you really high, quickly.
• Bolivia: do not plan to do a 3-4 days’ tour in the Salt Flat. Skip it all together – colonial cities are plenty in Peru, and truly La Paz is not the most pleasant after a few hours.
• We would only spend 2 days in La Paz and spend more time in Sucre (Bolivia). La Paz is not the most attractive place and it is very busy, whereas Sucre is absolutely charming, with a lot of history.
• We think that visiting Machu Picchu in the end was the best, working our way up the site’s crescendo. And keeping the “wow” effect till the end, totally worth it!
• Remember – if you are interested in visiting the Salars in Bolivia – start the visit from Tupiza not Uyuni.
• And finally taking your time while visiting the sites/ruins is definitely a bonus – it takes time to get oneself fully immersed in the new environment.

Valerie and Laurent Devin (Letitgo) in Bolivia on a land cruise.

If you wish to have more details or information, just contact us directly and we will answer you personally.