7th January 2025

Another early start saw us packing before sitting down to breakfast. Today would be an 11 hour travel day and included three flights. 

Our first flight took us from Cusco to Lima where we jumped on another flight crossing into Bogotá, Columbia, then finally onto Santa Marta. We bumped into people we had met on the Salkantay trail on our way to Bogotá, ate some reasonable food at layovers and on our second flight even enjoyed a film via LATAM entertainment services despite it being a 3 hour flight.

In keeping with trying to create a picture of honesty and not romanticizing travel, I will admit that on this day, for the first time, I felt fatigued from travelling and missed our flat in St Albans (not that it’s actually ours anymore!). Dan had felt this way when we were unwell. This was a very temporary feeling and had likely come about due to physical exhaustion from the Salkantay trek, continuous early starts and under-resting since we touched down in South America.

We landed in Santa Marta for 08:30pm and for simplicity had a glamorous dinner of subway at the airport before catching an Uber to the hostel. I had barely any memory of the journey or of checking in. I was so tired that I laid down on the bed on top of the covers and fell into oblivion. I could hear Dan talking to me, but I was unable to process what he was saying or respond. A good night sleep was long overdue.