We’d bought tickets from the Power bus company
the previous evening and were a little worried that it may not go since we were
the only ones to have done so. Anyway by
the time we got to the station for the 8am departure there were more customers
handing over there S20 for a seat. In
the end we set off at 8.15am but the bus was far from full. In fact this made it turn into more of a local
bus and every small town involved a longer than necessary stop. I think we’ll try and find a more gringo
friendly service next time even though we hate to follow the crowds!
We continued along the shores of Lake Titicaca
but soon left it behind to travel through flat, altiplano farmland very similar
to that near La Paz. The first sizeable
town we passed through, Juliaca, was very much a working / industrial town i.e.
no reason to stay there. We lurked here
for a tedious length of time but once we cleared town the scenery noticeably
changed for the better. After an hour or
so we got our first glimpse of the Peruvian snow-capped Andean peaks. The high point of the journey took us to a
pass at 4338m. The tourist buses and the
tourist train all stop here for photos and so you can get mithered into buying
alpaca wool handicrafts. Obviously we
didn’t stop here even though we spent inordinate amounts of time in one-horse
towns along the way!
As we descended from the high point of the
pass the scenery improved even more – this was where we left the Puno district
behind and entered the Cuzco region. We
proceeded to drop 1000m to Cuzco via a steep sided valley with the fullest
river we’ve seen so far on our trip running through it. The villages we passed looked generally
neater, cleaner and more finished off than the previous towns. The sun was beating down through the window
so we were very warm but there was an ominous cloud hanging over the
mountains. It’s got two days to rain
before we start the Machu Pichu trek.
Our first impressions of Cuzco were; drat it’s
just a big, noisier, dirtier version of Puno.
However, as our taxi sped us through the narrow, cobbled streets we
started to see what all the fuss is about.
Round the main square is lovely with churches, cathedrals, narrow
cobbled lanes, old colonial buildings and more, smaller squares galore. It’s full of tourists – like there are
considerably more in the centre of town than the whole of Bolivia. We knew it was a tourist mecca and expected
everything to be more expensive but we weren’t prepared for such a big leap
from Bolivia. Plus we’ve got to get used
to saying ‘no gracias’ all the time as there are people trying to flog you
stuff everywhere. On finding Starbucks,
KFC and McDonalds on the main square I was ready to skip the wonder and go back
to Bolivia!
That said we’re checked into a beautiful old
building and Amaru Hostel 1 is a gem of a find by the boy Steven. Amazingly it’s part of the Youth Hostelling
International group so we qualify for a 10% discount but in all honesty it’s
more like a 3* hotel. The rooms are set
around beautifully gardened courtyards and are all extremely well appointed;
intricately carved wooden furniture, wrought iron fixtures and fittings and a
huge flat screen TV showing more football than you could ever digest. We’ve ended up spending quite a lot of time
enjoying it all and taking in the views over town and towards the hills. To be fair to us we had intended to explore
the area more but that big, grey cloud has been hanging around since we got
here and it keeps threatening rain.
We did go for a wander around town yesterday
but as you know that sort of thing only holds our attention for a couple of
hours maximum. We had planned to go to
one of the small Inca sites on the outskirts of town but all the attractions
here are only accessible via one multi-use ticket. It would have meant spending US$50 a head
just to look at a pile of rubble and the wonder isn’t included of course! Once we’ve watched Liverpool vs Man City in
the morning we’ll go and look at town a bit more and try to have a look at one
of the more interesting places in town that is mercifully not part of the
multi-ticket.
Travel Info: Hostel Amaru http://www.amaruhostal.com/ is a beautiful palce to stay but you will have to fight to get your 10% HI discount. Still it is worth the cash, lovely rooms.
