Arequipa to Cuzco

  Cusco, Peru
Saturday, January 10, 2009

We left by private bus for Cuzco at 6.30am. Luckily the road was a lot less pot-holed than yesterday. The scenery gradually changed as we moved further inland - it became more lush and fertile the closer we got.

The first toilet stop

At one point where we stopped for a toilet break, the scenery looked similar to the Southern lakes region of NZ, with tussock covering the hills down to the edge of a large lake. We started to see more and more villages as well.

At the toilet stop

Most tourist buses drive straight from Arequipa to Cuzco and have lunch onboard. For this reason we had to have lunch at a local restaurant, rather than a tourist one, in a town called Juliaca. Lunch was a filling soup, and the main a large egg/potato with rice dish. A drink was also included but I decided not to take the risk with it because I didn't know where the water had come from. The total for the lunch was 4 soles (about USD1.30); the tourist places we have been taken to so far have been 20 soles. I didn't finish my meal, but the old local people at the next table were very thankful to receive my leftovers.

The view after lunch

Through a Peruvian village

Out the bus window

We arrived in Cuzco before dark and checked into our new hotel. Honor and I went out for dinner at an Italian (they're everywhere) place, but I just had soup as recommended by our guide. At high altitude its difficult to digest food, so it is best to have something easy to digest before going to bed. The downtown area of Cuzco is very pretty with narrow cobblestone streets, but is absolutely packed with tourists. I keep expecting to run into someone from home. We ran into Anna and Chris (the English couple from our group) at the main square and they'd found the good Irish bar (Paddy's, upstairs on the corner near the cathedral on the Plaza de Armas), so we headed over there for a drink. The bar felt very homely, but also like you could be at any city in the world.

It started to rain as we walked back to the hotel. Hopefully it won't be too rainy next week!