Bolivia to Peru on TACA

The alert from Jeremy buzzed through at 1.30am. David leapt out of bed and along with Roger Goodwin from Car 15 promptly met with Jeremy from 'Bespoke Handling' in the foyer of Los Taijbos to arrange for our beloved Itala and Roger and Gillian's Healey to be returned home.
We have handed over 'the care plan' to him for their safe return to British Soil..
We have every faith in them..

The next alert of the day was the alarm clock going at 4.10 am. We have a 7.25am flight to Lima and then a 11.30am connection to Cusco.

All went to plan and we were briskly checked in at Bolivian's only airport and after some 'frisking' we were on our way.

Ladies are very politely asked to go into a room to be searched. I saw Gillian being summoned into the room and i thought oh no not the rubber gloves :((
But it was just a quick check to see if we weren't smuggling any 'un necessaries'...

The Bolivians are extremely thorough and all bags seem to be automatically checked as you enter the departure gates..

David had some explaining to do as his little blue exit form that we had received when entering Bolivia had been so badly damaged /soaked by all the Storms that we had been caught in that it looked like there may be a problem.
But a quick check by 2nd in command and he had the 'OK'

We were soon waving goodbye to Bolivia. Its climate had been so unkind to us but the people of Santa Cruz certainly made up for that..

Still cant believe what has happened and more news this morning that another crew has retired, again under some very dangerous circumstances..
And a possibility of another casualty, we will know later today.

'Tests' it seems are still continuing despite
some serious issues arising on a daily basis..

The remaining crews are now facing Altitude problems, and not just mechanically!!
Just hoping that there are enough 4 x 4 for us all or Tracy's 'Party Bus' may be the solution lol

Have emailed a few companies to see if we can get a vehicle that we can use throughout the rest of the Route Book.
So will see later today if this is a possibility otherwise it will be in and out of Hire Vehicles at the borders, which will probably turn to .....
We will then be able to report on the antics of the other crews over the remaining few weeks from a more comfortable position.

We have Evert hopefully waiting at Cusco airport.
Evert is apparently the Top Tour Guide in Cusco and is a dear friend of one of our neighbours so we should be in safe hands for the next few days. :))

Wow we just flew over Lake Titicaca and that is the closest we will get to it on this trip.
We had been so looking forward to getting 'up close and personal' to this wonderful sight but alas along with the Salt Flats, which are said to be truly awesome will have to wait for another time or even 'lifetime' ..

Am sure Machu Picchu will make up for it.

Will keep you posted x