Journey to Cuzco

Trip Start Mar 02, 2005
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Trip End May 07, 2005


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Monday, April 11, 2005

Ever since waking up at 3am to hike out of Colca Canyon on Wednesday morning, I have gotten onto this schedule where I get tired really early, so I get to bed early and wake up early. On Friday I had to wake up at 6am to get the 7am boat to the islands. Then, while on the island there was nothing to do after dinner, so I went to bed around 9pm. After all the hiking I did while on Taquile, I got back to Puno at 4:30pm and was exhausted. This was also due to the sun, which is much stronger at 13,000ft above sea level, and spending the whole day in the sun, even with sunscreen on, tired me out. So I went to bed last night at 8pm and woke up at 5am, refreshed and ready to catch the 6am bus for Cuzco.

The bus ride took 8 hours. For the first hour we were driving along the south shore of Lake Titicaca while the sun was rising. Then we got to the town of Juliaca where we stayed for over an hour as the bus driver tried to sell every last seat on the bus (Bus schedules mean nothing in Peru. Buses rarely depart until they are full). The guy selling tickets just stood outside our bus for about an hour yelling "Cuzco! Cuzco!" until enough people boarded the bus so that it was full. Then we left.

From Juliaca we drove across a high altitude plain that had no trees, just shrubs and small plants. Eventually, the bus climbed to an altitude of 4330 meters where we could see snow capped peaks just about us. Then we followed a valley for the rest of the way down to Cuzco, which is at an elevation of 3400 meters, and had great views of mountains on either side of the bus.

Tomorrow Im planning to see the churches and museums and inca sites here in Cuzco. Then on Tues and Wed I hope to visit the Sacred Valley outside of Cuzco before doing the four day Inca Trail from Thursday to Sunday.
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