Welcome to Peru, the country I am most excited to visit! I've been wanting to go to Machu Picchu for many years now and I'm finally going to see it!
DAY 20 CARTAGENA TO LIMA (PERU)
When I landed at Lima I was one of the first off so immigration was very quick. I was also lucky in that my suitcase was one of the first few bags on the carousel. Winning tonight!
I went and found the desk for the airport shuttle bus and bought my ticket. I was in time for the final bus of the night. It cost 20 soles, which is about $8 AUD. The bus left at 10pm so I had a bit of time to wait. It was a nice bus, and we ended up leaving at 10.15pm as we waited for late comers. The bus has 4 stops, all in Miraflores, which is a nice suburb of Lima, and where I was staying. My stop was third, and it was a short 2min walk to my hostel. By now it was just after 11pm and I was knackered.
The receptionist took me to my room and I quickly unpacked my night necessities. Some more girls came in and were quite noisy.
I went to bed and struggled to sleep as there was a nightclub next door pumping the tunes.
DAY 21 LIMA
I was rudely awoken before 5am by one of the girls who obviously had an early checkout. The problem was that she turned the lights on, banged around in her locker and dropped her suitcase (solid sided) on the floor! I feel like Spanish speaking people have no concept of respect for others and being quiet when others are sleeping.
I went back to sleep eventually and woke about 8.30am. By now there was only 2 of us left. I got ready and went upstairs to breakfast. They had self serve tea & coffee, and we could have eggs & toast included, along with a fruit juice. It was pretty good!
After breakfast I went in search of a souvenir shop. I had read that things were cheaper in Lima than in Cusco, so I hoped to get most of my souvenir shopping done here.
But before souvenirs, I went to Parque Kennedy, which is a park in the middle of Miraflores. Why did I go there? Cats! This park is home to around a hundred cats! They are literally everywhere! A volunteer group cares for them, and many of them love a pat. There are security guards everywhere, and as I found out, you are not allowed off the paths onto the grass. That is cat domain. Humans are not allowed in the cat domain. So I had to pat the ones on/next to the paths.
Then I continued to the first souvenir shop. Turns out, there is a main street that is filled with markets and each one has 50+ market stalls. They are all selling the same stuff of course, and they all have a person sitting there asking you to go into their shop to look/buy. The primary goal was my shot glass, but I also wanted an alpaca jumper, beanie with the ear flaps and a stuffed llama/alpaca. I walked for ages just looking around. I saw a stall with a lady who just wanted to talk, didn't ask me to come in or buy, and she gave me lots of advice on how to pick authentic alpaca wool products compared to the fake ones. I ended up buying the beanie from her, which is an alpaca blend (adult & baby). It's also reversible too! Cost me 30 soles which is about $12 AUD.
I kept going and eventually found a Lima shot glass. This bargain cost me just 4 soles.
Then I went to a place called Huaca Pucllana. It is an ancient temple pyramid in the middle of Miraflores. It was built 1500 years ago and is still standing. It took 200 yrs to build. They started excavation in 1981 and expect it will take another 20 yrs to finish. It is a solid pyramid made completely from sun dried mud bricks. It isn’t hollow like the Egyptian pyramids, it is completely solid, except for the upper level which has some tombs of a group of indigenous people called Wari. Weird because it was built by Lima people and the Wari are entombed there. It was really interesting.
We went to the flora & fauna section next. They have some plants that would have grown when the pyramid was built. I saw my first coca plant! For those that don't know, cocaine is made from the leaves of coca plants. And mixed with other nasties of course! As whole leaves, it doesn't have the same effects as cocaine, and the leaves are used to make a tea or chewed, which prevents altitude sickness and has a stimulant effect similar to caffeine.
We also saw some llamas and alpacas! They had 4 llamas and 1 alpaca. The difference is size. Alpacas are smaller. They were very cute and I can't wait to see them in the wild!
After
the tour, I went back to the souvenir
road, and made a visit to the supermarket. I got some snacks for my bus
trip
tomorrow, then continued back to the shops. I went back to one I had
been to
earlier, and chose a llama. Technically, it is an alpaca, but I'm
calling it a
llama. It allegedly has baby alpaca wool and it is so soft and fluffy!
It is a
dream to touch! I decided this will be a girl and I'm going to let my yr
ps
name her, just like my yr 11s named my penguin from Antarctica (he is
named Perky Pete now!). Update: my alpaca is now named Felicia!
Then I went back to my hostel to chill and think about tea. I went back through the cats on the way of course.
I selected a restaurant that had Amazonian food. It was highly rated and only a 3min walk. It was quiet so I got a table right away. I had read a lot of reviews and the menu online, so I knew what I was going to have. I chose the tacos (yellow corn shell, refried beans, sausage and a salsa) and the plantain stuffed with cheese & nuts. I was also given complimentary plantain chips with 2 sauces (1 spicy, 1 not). Boy was I not disappointed! It was all delicious! Probably the best food I've had in South America yet!
When
the bill came, the waiter put this
totem bird thing on my table and motioned that I have to lift. So I
did…..and a
penis popped out! Along with my bill. It was so funny! So, naturally, I
had to
film it. I loved it! Highly recommend this place in Lima if you ever
come here! I was also given a shot of a local alcohol which burned.
Back at the hostel I went to the bar to get my free welcome cocktail. It was alright. No idea what it was. The bar was very busy and too noisy for me so I went back to my room to pack so I was ready for morning.
I met a new girl in my room, a young French girl who had been living in Santiago, Chile, for 3 months. She will probably do a similar trip to me from Lima to Cusco. Another girl was German and living in Bolivia for 1.5yrs. This 2 girls went out together while I went to bed.
DAY 22 LIMA TO HUACACHINA
This morning I was starting my PeruHop bus trip. It is a hop on hop off style bus that I'm going to be taking from Lina to La Paz. I had an early pickup (5.35am,) so I was up very early. The bus was on time and turns out it was a mini van that collected some passengers and took them to the big bus. By the time we arrived, the big bus was nearly full so we had to sit in any vacant seat. I ended up sitting next to a Spanish speaking girl who was doing a day trip with her parents.
The first part of the trip was the drive to Paracas. This took about 3.5hrs and I was able to sleep briefly on the way. Here, we had 3 options: explore the town on your own, do the free national park tour or pay for the boat wildlife tour. I chose the free national park tour. This meant I had 1hr free time to explore. It’s Peruvian Independence Day today and tomorrow, so there was a big ceremony taking place and lots of people. I walked around a bit then got a coffee & a cheese empanada and went back to our meeting point hotel to eat. The empanada was the worst one I have ever had. It was extremely crumbly, and fell apart in my hands, and the cheese filling was not nice. The coffee was also just meh. I'm definitely not in Colombia anymore! Also the coffee cup lid leaked so I got coffee all down the front of my tshirt.
A big group of about 30 boarded the bus and we were taken to the national park. It's a huge desert peninsula, and it's actually a big salt flat, covered in a layer of dirt. It all used to be underwater many years ago.
Our first stop was the Cathedral. This used to be a big rock with a rock bridge connecting it, and the waves crashing under the rock bridge used to sound like church bells. A big earthquake in 2007 caused the bridge to collapse, so now it is a big rock just offshore. Nice views though.
Next we went to the highest lookout point to see the ocean, red beach and the only village in the park, which has about 5 families of an indigenous group who fish here. Again, nice views.
Last, we went down to Red Beach. It is red because the cliff we were just on is made from lava and when the waves cause the sediment to break away, the red sediment comes to the beach.
We went back to Paracas and had to wait until 1.30pm for our bus to depart.
The drive to Huacachina was only 1.25hrs from here, so not too bad. This time I sat next to a Turkish guy who lives in the Netherlands. We talked most of the way.
This place was busy! There were cars & people everywhere. Huacachina is an oasis in the middle of a desert. A literal oasis, just like in the movies. We got off the bus, got given our meeting point location and time, then I set off to find my hostel to check in. It is a very small place, with the lake in the centre and the accommodation places in a ring around the outside. I dropped my stuff, repacked my backpack (removed all the food) and grabbed my GoPro. I was off for a dune buggy & sandboarding experience!
We walked to the dune buggies, which unfortunately was up a sand dune. A very soft & slippery sand dune. The sand is incredibly fine & powdery. When we got to the plateau, we saw dozens of dune buggies waiting. They are noisy & awesome. We had already been given our drivers name, so we went to the driver and got into our buggies. They were a tight fit! We had to squeeze 4 people in each of the middle & back rows, and 2 plus the drive in the front. I wanted to be on the edge so that was ok. I sat with 3 boys. The Turkish guy, another solo guy and a guy (American, maybe late teens?) who was travelling with his mum & what seems to be her partner. It was so much fun! It was also a bit terrifying, especially when we went down some near vertical dunes! We were speeding across the dune at a million miles an hour. It was exhilarating! We stopped a couple of times for pictures which was great.
Then it was sandboarding time. I had brought my headstrap for my GoPro so I could wear it going down. The first dune seemed scary at first, but when we actually went down, it was fun!
Then we went down a second tiny one and walked to the third. This one was bigger than the first. Plus, we had more wax on the boarded to make us go faster. It was still fun! I was ready for the gargantuan one!
We boarded the buggies again and drove up a huge dune. Literally the biggest in the area. Here is where peeps started getting nervous and quite a few decided not to do this one. It had 2 sections to it and it was high. The technique is to have your feet in the sand to keep you straight and slow you down a bit, and keep your head up. Only 5 of our 10 went down, and I was second in the group. It was terrifying, as you will hear in the video! The worst part was at the end, there were some bumps and they hurt! A lot! My forearms and knees were sore and I think I was a bit winded. But it was awesome! Very awesome!
Next, we drove to another place to watch the sunset, which was lovely. We took lots of photos and enjoyed the calm.
Then we kept dune bashing and having loads of fun. It really is exciting! We stopped to get a view of the Huacachina, then headed back to the oasis.
By now, I had half a dune worth of sand in my shoes and in my clothes, so I went back to my hostel and had a shower. I only stopped to take a few photos of the oasis and buy a shot glass on the way.
It was nice to be clean & sand free!
Then I went in search of food. I walked all around. They have a restaurant with a naughty name. I was tempted to go there but they only have a 3.4 reading on Google so I kept walking. I saw a couple from my bus sitting outside the Italian restaurant, and they invited me to sit with them for dinner (I just got turned away as they were full). After 5mins of waiting a table came free so we went in to eat. They are from Canada and travelling from Lima to Cusco.
I decided to have the spaghetti bolognaise, which was actually pretty good. The portion size was huge and I couldn’t eat it all. The pasta and a Coke Zero cost me 37 soles, which is very good. The restaurant is also the top rated in Huacachina, with a 4.8 rating, so we figured it was safe.
Then I went back to my hostel to pack and get ready. I have another early pickup tomorrow (7am) for the drive to Nazca, which is very exciting. Can't wait to see the Peruvian crop circles!
DAY 23 HUACACHINA TO NAZCA
This morning I was up early yet again. Turns out many of us have had a lot of early starts and could do with a sleep in! I certainly could.
I packed and walked to the pickup point for the shuttle to Nazca. The Peru Hop bus doesn't leave until 10am so the people who want to do the scenic flight over the Nazca lines have to take this shuttle. There were 11 of us and the drive was fairly smooth. We were only delayed when we got stuck behind a convoy of 4 trucks each carrying a huge silo.
On the way we stopped at the lookout tower. This has been built to allow people to see 3 of the geoglyphs from an elevated point. Fortunately, there were only a few people when we arrived. The view was good. The glyphs have been made by effectively removing the top layer of dark rocks and leaving behind the pale dust layer. They are very old, 2000+ years old. They receive no rain to wash them away, and they are bordered by small rocks which protects them from the wind, and also helps to sweep them clean.
Then we continued to the airport. The shuttle dropped us off at the airport then went into town with our luggage. We had to show our passports, get weighed, give our ages, then pay 2 sets of taxes (total 77 soles). We also got a souvenir stamp in our passports once we paid the taxes. I hung around with an American couple and an Irish couple. Eventually they came to get us and the 5 of us were on the same flight. They checked our tickets and passports, and we went through the security scanner. Then we were taken to the plane by the copilot. He gave us some information and we took photos, before being allocated seats, based on weight distribution.
I had the back 2 seats to myself which was awesome. This flight is notorious for being bumpy. I was hoping it wasn't going to be. We put on our headsets and got ready for take off. There were maybe 10 planes in rotation from the 2 companies. It is very popular and quite cheap. I paid $80 USD + 77 soles taxes for the 30min flight. To be perfectly honest, it is the only way to see the Nazca lines. You really can't appreciate them, nor see them properly from the ground.
I was really surprised that we are literally in the middle is a desert and the town of Nazca is surrounded by lush, green fertile crops.
We got to the lines and the first one was the whale. It is smaller than some of them, and took a minute to find in the ground.
Then we kept going and we saw the astronaut, dog, hummingbird, condor, spider, spiral, triangles, astronaut, tree, hand and a few others they didn't mention. It was incredible to see! The biggest one is 300m long! I took videos and photos of them all.
On the way back, we passed the cat, which is one that you see from the road, but still very cool.
By now, I was getting a headache. Possibly from lack of sleep, lack of coffee, lack of water or, as we all thought, from the pressure from the headsets. The flight wasn't overly bumpy. I’ve had much worse turbulence on normal flights.
The copilot took a selfie of us on the way back which was great.
Back on land, we went and boarded the shuttle to town, which was provided by the airline. It dropped us at the Peru Hop meeting point, which is a little café. Here, we met the shuttle from earlier and got our bags. The café stored them in their locked alley for us.
We then made a big table for the 5 of us plus a German guy and had lunch. I had an iced caramel frappe, water and a chicken sandwich made with a ciabatta style roll & chips. It was really good. Exactly what we needed!
The Singaporean couple and the American couple took a taxi to a museum, as they only had an hour before the shuttle back to Huacachina. The German guy stayed in the café as it was too hot for him. Myself and the Irish couple took a slow, leisurely walk around the streets. It certainly was hot in the sun! We stayed in the shade where possible and just wandered. It definitely is not a touristy place. There was only 1 small souvenir store, and nothing at all that indicated tourists came here. Obviously, most just pass through on their way to Cusco.
We sat in the main square for a while, people watching. Turns out these guys are also teachers.
Eventually, we lost our shade so we went back to the café to chill and use the WiFi. I bought my souvenir shot glass, then got a strawberry juice. They make them by literally blending fruit with just a splash of water.
Just before 5pm, we decided to get our luggage and sort ourselves. We had an overnight bus trip, with no access to luggage so needed to make sure we had everything in our day packs. I even took my contacts out so I was ready for sleep.
The bus arrived and I ordered some empanadas to take on the bus for later. We took all our gear to the bus and boarded. This bus was different to the one yesterday. It is specially made for overnight trips. We have large leather seats, lots of legroom and the seats recline a long way! Plus, there were many empty seats at the back so I got 2 seats to myself. We also have a toilet for number 1s only and we were given a blanket. Hopefully I should be able to sleep tonight!
After departing, our guide Christian gave us lots of information about Arequipa and Cusco. This was wonderful as my guide yesterday, Diego, told us nothing. Turns out there was a meeting last night for the people going to Nazca today, but I was never told, nor did I get information about Huacachina or Nazca.
After the mandatory info, I asked Christian some questions about the places and he gave me the details. That's where I find out the ages of the Nazca lines and why they are still there. He also told me that Huacachina is a natural oasis. A family came across it about 80yrs ago and built a house. In Peru, if you find an area of vacant land, for example in the middle of the desert, and you build a house, after 5-10yrs the government gives it to you and you own it. So this family owned the oasis but eventually needed money so asked people to build hotels, restaurants etc. Today it is the most well known and most popular. Apparently there are 8 around Ica.
By now, it was dark so we started to settle in for the night. Here's hoping to a really good sleep!
DAY 24 AREQUIPA
Yeah nah, that didn't happen! Even though I had plenty of space, I just couldn't get comfy enough and have a good sleep. I managed to get a couple of broken hours.
I ended up speaking to one of the other people on board on board who had moved behind me.
We arrived in Arequipa about 4.30am and stopped to transfer some people to minivans. The streets are too narrow for the big bus. I ended up staying on the bus and we drove around the outside of the city and stopped a few times so Christian could walk people to their accommodation. I was the third stop.
When we got to my hostel, he came in with me and introduced me to the resident dog Misty. A 14yr old, overweight, partially blind, very grumpy daschund. Then he left me with the night receptionist.
At check in, the guy offered for me to check in early for an extra 30 soles ($12 AUD). I jumped at the opportunity and was taken to my room. I had booked a private room (probably due to the 2 super early mornings) and it was located on the roof terrace. It’s like a cave and very cute. I literally went to the toilet, put devices on to charge, stripped, set an alarm for 9am and went to sleep. I managed to get a few hours sleep which was much needed.
I got up and decided to go for breakfast before showering, as it finished at 10am. Turns out, breakfast is hard bread rolls, jam, cheese, scrambled eggs, OJ and coffee. I ended up taking to a South African lady, who was the with her dog, and a Peruvian guy from Lima who was visiting for the holidays.
Then I showered, washed some clothes & made a mental plan for the day.
My first stop was Mundo Alpaca. This is a clothing boutique and alpaca wool exhibition, with a few alpacas on site. I walked through the streets, taking pictures as I went. It is a very ornate city. At the place, I was greeted by a young guy and immediately taken to meet the alpacas and llamas. The 2 llamas were not at all interested that we were there and stayed far away but the alpacas came running when the guy gave me some grass to give them. They had 3 different types of alpacas, and I got a few selfies.
Then we went to the wool shed where he showed me the different types and quality of wool and then he showed me vicuna wool. This is the most expensive fibre in the world, even more than cashmere. It is also heavily regulated, as the vicuna are a protected species.
Then he showed me 2 Peruvian women who were hand weaving traditional styles of table runners.
Last stop was the shop. He showed me a few jumpers that I tried on. I found a few of them to be a bit scratchy on the arms, and not perfect enough to spend $200 AUD on. They have a second shop near the plaza so I decided to go have a look there. I didn't find anything I particularly wanted there either so I decided to keep looking. I walked around for a while and went into another alpaca clothing shop. This shop had a poncho on the mannequin which had a hood and purple blue colours. It was very pretty. I had a look around the prices were 400-700 soles, which is what real alpaca wool clothing costs as a minimum. I tried on the poncho and loved it! She gave me a cash price and I bought it. It is 100% baby alpaca, which means it is the softest fur from the back of an alpaca, not from an actual baby alpaca.
Next I checked out Plaza des Alma’s, which is the main square. It was quite busy, and they were setting up for some concert later on, for the big independence day celebrations.
Then I headed to the San Camilo market. Christian had told us this was the best place for fresh fruit and fruit juices. I walked around and found the fresh produce. The fruit stalls were artistically arranged and very bright and colourful. I also saw the vegies and a big range of potatoes. They have over a hundred different types of potatoes in Peru! I also saw purple corn, and some giant white corn (normal cob size, huge kernels).
I bought 500g strawberries and 1 banana for 5 soles, then got a fresh pineapple & strawberry juice.
Next I went to a supermarket to get some supplies for the next few days. Tomorrow I have a full day trip to Colca Canyon, the next day is a full day bus drive to Cusco, then a full day hike to Rainbow Mountain, so my ability to access the supermarket will be limited. Unfortunately though, the supermarket kicked me out before I could make some decisions as they were closing early for the holiday. I went back to my hostel and reassessed.
I went out in search of a couple more supermarkets but they were all closed too. I found a hypermarket on the maps so decided to give that a go. It was open!
I got a mixed of sweet & savoury snacks, including chocolate as this was recommended to always have when going to altitude, and some drinks. They drink purple corn juice (chicha morada) here so I got a little bottle to try, as well as Inka Cola and an alcoholic strawberry lemonade.
I chilled on the roof terrace at my hostel, drinking my strawberry lemonade and eating my knock off brand Pringles.
It got cool so I went back to my room and watched a TV episode.
At 5.30pm I decided to go for dinner. The place I was heading to was just around the corner from my hostel and had excellent reviews, although some say the food takes a long time to come out.
When I got there, the place was almost empty, with just 2 people watching a football game & eating. I ordered the grilled cheese for entrée, alpaca steak with Andean potatoes for main and a Pisco Sour.
The grilled cheese came out quite quickly. It was very good! Similar to halloumi, without the squeaking.
Then came the alpaca. The reviews say it is the tastiest meat they have ever eaten, and after the first bite, I completely agree! It was melt in the mouth tender, well seasoned, full of flavour and absolutely delicious. The potatoes were pretty good, quite sturdy & definitely not a mashing type.
The Pisco Sour was not too bad. Not my favourite cocktail but drinkable.
The waiter had limited English but attempted a conversation with me when I paid. He was very kind.
Then I decided to go to the Plaza and see how busy it might be for the celebration. There were quite a lot of people huddled around the stage area waiting for it the start, and many more just hanging around.
I needed to get ready for tomorrow as I had to be up at 2.30am for my pickup, so I went back to my hostel. In the end, I didn't go back out to check out the night-life. I watched a couple of TV episodes whilst I packed & sorted, then attempted to go to bed at 10pm.
DAY 25 AREQUIPA
It was NOISY! All night there was loud music, car horns blaring, car alarms going off, fireworks at 1am and people yelling & celebrating. According to my watch, I got 3hrs sleep.
I got ready and went down to reception. All I could hear were car horns. It was driving me insane. I do not understand the mentality. The cars (mainly taxis) are stuck in a long line of cars so they sit there blasting their horn. It's not going to make the 30+ cars in front of you suddenly move mate!
I was collected at 3.20am and boarded a quite full mini bus. It was very small inside. My knees were touching the seat in front of me.
We picked up some more people and a girl sat next to me. We then began the drive, which was about 3.5hrs. The girl fell asleep as soon as the bus started driving. I couldn't sleep so I stared out the window. I could see some constellations including the Southern Cross which was cool.
Our first stop was at 7.15am at a police checkpoint. The police officer checked everyone's ID.
Then we continued to the ticket office for the Colca Canyon. The guide took our money & sorted the tickets.
The next stop was a restaurant (tin shed in a backyard) for breakfast. There were long tables setup with coffee, tea and those rock hard bread rolls from yesterday. Peruvian bread is really awful. The bread feels like 2-day old stale rolls. They also gave us a quinoa drink. It was hot, thick and mixed with apple and cloves. It was actually the best part of the breakfast.
Next was a stop in a small town called Maca. There was a little market, lots of tourists (domestic & foreign) and lots of locals dressed in traditional dress. Many of them had alpacas that were dressed up and were charging tourists for photos. Another few had these big birds tied in a string that they put on your should for a photo and charge you for it. Plenty of questionable ethics, especially when I saw one of the birds trying to get away and the woman was pulling the string, thereby pulling the birds leg, hard to stop him.
Then we went to the condor lookout point. It was a long drive through the Colca Valley. Here, we had 45mins. The entire point of this trip is to see the condors, so if we didn't see any, I was going to be annoyed (although understanding that we cannot control wild animals & sightings are not guaranteed). There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people there. Lucky it is a big area. After a while, one finally flew over us. I honestly haven't Googled them, so I'm not sure what is so special about them, but they are a large bird of prey. That was the only one we saw.
Then we went back the way we came to a lookout point that overlooks the terraced hills. It was a nice view.
Again, back on the bus, to the hot springs. This was optional, so myself and the girl who sat next to me, walked around and sat at a food outlet for the hour. I got a choclo, which is the corn cobs with the huge kernels. It is not sweet, much more savoury, and more dense and firm then the corn we have at home. It was good. We also made friends with the resident kitten. She was gorgeous! Very playful, friendly and a happy kitty.
Lunch was the next stop. We went to a restaurant for a buffet. It cost 40 soles, and had lots of choice. There were lots of vegies, and I haven't had vegies in a long time, so I had a good serve of those. I also had some alpaca, chicken, stir-fry noodles, and some dessert. It was ok. There were no other options nearby as it was a small town, so it had to do.
We began the long journey back to Arequipa, with 2 stops on the way. First was a lookout whet you are surrounded by 8 volcanoes. It was freezing now so I took a photo then got back on the bus.
The last stop was next to some alpacas on the side of the road for photos.
The drive took 4hrs to get back. I was exhausted. The bus ended up dropping us all off at the side of the road near the hypermarket and we had to make our own way back to our accommodation. This was not what I booked but oh well.
Back at my hostel, I had a shower, packed and settled into bed to rest. I have yet another early start, but all these nights of 2-3hrs sleep is really killing me. I hope that I will be able to go to sleep early since I have to be up at 4.30am for my bus to Cusco.
DAY 26 AREQUIPA TO CUSCO
It was so much quieter last night and I managed to get 6hrs sleep. I was still up at 4.30am though, but as I pack almost everything before going to bed, it only took me 15mins to get ready.
I headed down to reception at 5am and waited for my pickup. They turned at 5.15am, and I was the first one. We picked up a few more people, some who were late and got chastised by the driver. At the final stop, the young French girl from my dorm in Lima got on.
We were taken to the meeting point with the big bus, transferred our luggage and boarded. The bus is similar to the overnight bus from the other day. Less leg space, same recliner chairs. We set off just before 6am for the long journey. It's 10hrs + stops.
I actually fell asleep during the first few hours. I did manage to stay awake for parts, and saw quite a lot of snow. Oh and we saw tons of llamas and alpacas, and some vicuna.
We stopped at a lookout point for ‘breakfast’ at 9.15am. We were starving, and I had already eaten my cereal bar, Ritz biscuits & mandarin. There was a shelter selling coffee, coca tea, soft drinks & packets of chips, biscuits etc. Not exactly what I call breakfast. There were also some locals with stalls selling products. I ended up getting a coca tea. They just get the coca leaves and put them in the hot water. Apparently this is as effective as chewing the leaves. At this stop I also discovered I knew 4 other people on the bus. The Polish couple I've been travelling with since Lima and a British couple from the night bus.
We continued driving for another hour then stopped for the people who were going to Puno to change to their shuttle. Off went the Polish couple.
And we kept driving. I was sleepy, had a headache and my ears were blocked. I ended up deciding to take my first altitude pill as well as some paracetamol to try and fix it.
We finally arrived at the lunch spot about 1.45pm. It was the only restaurant in this small town, and it was a buffet for 30 soles. Starving with no other options, I had lunch. It was actually a lot better than yesterday’s buffet. As we were eating, it started hailing. I spoke to the British couple who also had headaches, and thought maybe it was the alternating pressure from going up and down in altitude as their ears were popping too.
Back on board, we had 3-3.5hrs to go. I had another little nap (boy am I sleepy today!), did some sudoku, listened to my Harry Potter audio book and watched the scenery.
We arrived at the Cusco bus terminal just after 6pm. Then we were sent in taxis to our accommodation. The streets of Cusco are narrow so big buses can't fit. I was dropped off at the main square, Plaza Mayor de Cuzco. I had to get my Google maps out & find my way to my hostel. It turned out to be a short walk across the square and down a narrow laneway.
The reception desk was empty and I had to wait 10mins for someone to come. She checked me in, called someone to carry my suitcase up all the stairs, and took me to my room. I'm in a 4 bed female dorm, and it is a list style. Downstairs is a couch, 2 showers & 1 toilet. Upstairs is the 4 bunk beds & lockers. It's quite nice, and the location is extremely central.
I decided to organise myself for tomorrow first. I have yet another early pickup (3am), so I need to be organised.
Then I went for a walk and maybe some food. I walked around the Plaza, which was fairly busy. There were tourism police at each corner of the square. The receptionist had suggested I have something light, like soup, due to the high altitude hiking tomorrow. I ended up getting some chicken soup at the hostel restaurant. It was ok, nothing special.
I headed back to my room to shower & get ready for bed. It was only 9pm but I had to get some sleep.
Continue reading about my time in Peru in part 2!