Bus over Lake Titicaca to Cusco, Peru
Trip Start
May 27, 2008
1
16
26
Trip End
Sep 06, 2008
Cusco,
Peru
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Waking up after battering yourself to bits on a mountain bike is never pleasant but we woke bright and early and took a taxi to the bus station where we were to catch our bus to Cusco, we decided to bypass lake Titicaca for now as we just wanted to get to the Cusco area, and it would be easy enough to get back to later if we wanted. It was a daytime bus which was cool as it meant we got to check out the lake on the way past, its pretty big, I believe its the world highest navigable lake at an altitude of 3827 meters. Quite impressive!
At Desaguadero we had to get off and go to the border control so we could pass into Peru, this takes a while and expect to be barged out of the way by bolivian and peruvian women in a hurry with big bags on there backs! Once you have your exit stamp from Bolivia you have to walk accross the bridge to Peru to recieve your entrance stamp, the bus followed us after it had been thoroughly searched, its not really very obvious what your expected to do but just follow the other tourists and it'll work out, thats what we did! lol!
The rest of the bus ride was pretty uneventful until we got close to Cusco and the driver decided he'd had enough of driving sensibly he was mad! it was pitch black and the roads were similar to those in the lake district on the way to Millom! I thought the bus was gonna roll more than once, but we finally made it to Cusco, and to our hotel, Hotel El Triunfo which was to be our base whilst in the area.
The first thing we did the next day was go book our train tickets to Aguas Calientes, which is where you stay to visit Machu Picchu. We were really lucky and managed to get the last 2 tickets on the Vistadome train for the following day! Usually you have to get your tickets at least 2 days in advance but our luck was in :-) thats pretty much all we did on our first visit to Cusco except sort through what we were taking and what we were leaving at the hotel in storage. He he Machu Picchu tomorrow!!!!
