Transport in South America can be an adventure all on its own. In the space of a couple of days, Andrew and I experienced two rather unique bus trips which has given us the inclination to ensure that we revert to travelling first class.
Travelling from La Paz, Bolivia to Puno, Peru, was always going to be interesting due to the border crossing. We boarded a standard double-decker kind of bus to get to the border town of Copacabana. On the way we had to cross Lake Titicaca, the world’s highest major navigable lake. Or something like that. At about 3,800m it’s definitely South America’s highest lake anyway. We all piled out of the bus and crammed into a tiny motorboat which trundled us across the lake to the other side. The bus also got to go on a small boat, which would have to rate as one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen. A huge bus towed along on what by comparison appeared to be a makeshift raft, slowly chugging across to meet us at the other side. It gave us a bit of time to explore the small town we were in and sample some of the local wares, including a great empanada not unlike a vegetarian pastie and their version of sugared popcorn, which is actually nicer than ours. It is larger and you don’t get that annoying crap stuck in your teeth. Plus, cost about 16c. Awesome.
Onto Copacabana where we had an hour or so. Sadly, no Lolas here, but lots of art and crafts and many, many hippies. It was like bohemian central. We almost missed the bus out because of a lady who promised ‘ultra-quick take-away’ sandwiches which took about 15 minutes. Ultra-quick my ass.
They piled us into the tiniest little mini-van with many other people and our bags on the top to get to the border. We all piled out and passed out through Bolivia, then into Peru. It was a very haphazard crossing, but the border officials didn’t seem to give two hoots. My form wasn’t entirely filled out but the woman just stamped and waved me on.
We jumped onto another bus to take us to Puno, a large town on Lake Titicaca. A guy on the bus convinced us to stay at his hotel, especially as he promised hot water and free transport there. It was quite nice, it did indeed have hot water but absolutely zero pressure. The view from our room was amazing though – it looked out over the entirety of Puno and Lake Titicaca in the distance.
The thing that I will remember Puno for however is the ridiculously steep hills, You go up and down these hills, puffing and panting all the way up in the high altitude. Thankfully we’ve been at high altitude for well over a week now, so it’s not too bad, but wow it makes you feel VERY unfit. Great cardio though, just walking back to the hotel. We didn’t do much in Puno, we decided against taking a tour of Lake Titicaca’s famous islands, we just wanted to relax. We walked around, visited an old ship that is in the middle of being restored, scared the crap out of a few llamas and tried the ubiquitously advertised Inca Kola, which tastes pleasantly like creamy soda, despite its Berocca-pee appearance.
The next day we travelled to Cusco by a bus that the lovely people at our hotel had booked for us. They went out of their way to help us and even organised accommodation for us in Cusco with their son. We rocked up at the bus station having NO idea where to go. We eventually found our way (after finding we had to pay a departure tax from the town!) to a bus which we climbed onto after catching that we would be changing at a town at some point. When I climbed on I was seriously needing to go to the toilet but the bus was leaving right then, so I though I’d use the icky bus toilets. However, there wasn’t even a downright icky one. The next hour was spent breathing heavily and in intense pain, not knowing when we were going to stop so that I could find un baño. Finally we got off the bus and I staggered out, nearly crying, looking for a bathroom. After being pointed in several different directions, I found the toilet….with a line. This was possibly the most excruciating part. So close, yet so far. When I finally went…..let’s just say that Craig suffered his most massive humiliation yet. In fact, I think we could lump in others. I was able to regain some sense of composure and then realised I had NO idea where Andrew or my bus was. Thankfully there was only about 15 seconds of panic before a guy found me and pointed me towards Andrew and our new bus.
Turned out it wasn’t leaving for an hour so we went to have breakfast somewhere because we were STARVING. We ended up having a gut-busting-full breakfast for 2.50 neuvo soles, or less than a dollar each. Crazy. That’s officially the cheapest meal I’ve had.
Back on the bus for what has proved to be the most interesting bus ride yet. At some point along the ride a woman behind us got extremely frantic. People started stomping above the driver’s head (where we were sitting essentially) and hollering to stop the bus and crying. We weren’t sure what was going on but people seemed quite distraught. As we pulled into town to stop, one woman placed one of her bags under our seat. Wait a minute….what’s going on…?
Customs and police got on and essentially did a raid. Thankfully they knew what was going on and that the poor little gringos were quite confused. Some people were escorted with their goods off the bus and we were left thinking about the advantages of first class buses.
We finally arrived in Cusco a few hours later and got a lovely cabbie who spoke a bit of English to take us to our hotel, well most of the way anyway. The last few hundred metres were up stairs where no taxi could go. This was a little puff-worthy with our mega back packs on, I tell ya!
Cusco is a beautiful city, and before you tell me off Jords, Cusco is how they spell it here. I knew I pulled the ‘s’ from somewhere. It is full of tourists, but doesn’t have a tacky feel to it. The winding cobbled streets sprawl up and down the steep hills, giving way to a plethora of restaurants, handicraft stores, camping stores, tourist stores….the list goes on. To even include small stores serving up roasted guinea pig. Mmmm.....guinea pig. The central plaza, Plaza de Armas shows you the valley you are in, surrounded by hills splashed with buildings. Again there was a lot of stuff that we wanted to buy, but unfortunately couldn’t. Stupid lack of money and space.
The first night we spent in the accommodation organised for us by the muy amable hombre de Puno, and then had to pack up and meet our Inca Trail group at a different hotel. On our way we had the most AWESOME breakfast ever (which kinda compensated for the shite dinner we’d had the night before) – for only quince soles (roughly $6) we had croissants, 3 bread rolls with butter, honey and cheese, juice, coffee (well, we coulda had it), a crepe and a bowl of fruit, muesli and yoghurt.Each. Talk about heaven.
We met our group at the hotel (which has hot water AND pressure) and met our awesome tour guide, Tito. Tito has been a godsend – in a day he has helped organise a special permit for Andrew (you can’t access the Inca Trail if you are travelling on a different passport to the one you booked the tour with), helped organise a VISA cash advance (thank GOD!!) and is going to help us figure out how to get from Lima to Quito. We love you Tito.
We have just gotten back from an awesome dinner (alpaca is yum!) and tortured ourselves in the handicrafts market. We were going to do a tour today, but didn’t have the time nor the money, which worked out okay because I got work done and I’ve been able to find the time to do this mega huge update.
Not too many photos of Cusco yet, Facebook is having issues. Hopefully will be able to update more after we get back from the Inca Trail – which we start tomorrow!! Hurrah! So I’m off to have a toasty hot shower, wash my hair and pack up my crap ready to depart at 6am tomorrow. Shudder.
Hope you are all well, enjoy work and please think of me trekking the Inca Trail and looking at the glorious Machu Picchu in a few days. Peace out!
Into Peru photos
Cusco photos
