Cusco Part III and onwards to Arequipa

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Monday night, after a long long day getting back from Machu Pichu, it was another quick dinner of the day and off to sleep. Tuesday became a relaxing day as we planned to take the 8:00 PM overnight bus to Arequipa. It is a 10 hour ride and almost all the bus companies go overnight.

We are both very much ready to leave Cusco. While the adventures outside of Cusco have been amazing, neither of us have really loved the city itself. Again, for me, I think it is just too big.

Good luck Jessica and Francois in the next 7 months of your travels!

The bus ride to Arequipa was yet another adventure. We arrived at the bus terminal at about 7:00 PM and the negotiating began. Prices ranged from $25-60 soles (which was awesome because everybody we talked to paid $60 soles or more for the bus from Arequipa to Cusco). After much negotiation we settled on the Tauro bus company with cama seats for $30 soles.

Let the hilarity ensue. Apparently cama bus (bed bus) is a very loose term in Peru. All the Tauro company did was take a semi-cama bus and remove the limited recline feature from the seats. So, there was not any additional space to recline. The seats just reclined until you were resting on the lap of the person behind you. Quite a problem for two women who had a big argument in the middle of the night.

Though we will never take a Tauro bus again, it was not all that bad. We both got a good 6 or more hours of sleep.

We arrived in Arequipa and because the bus terminal is a little ways outside of the city, we figured out where to go next. Initially we were hoping to make a few quick stops in Nazca and Pisco on our way to Lima, but the price of the tickets was the same. So, Lima it was.

We had an awesome old man as our cab driver to the hostel. He was interesting to talk to and his driving was comical. He had absolutely no regard for what was going on around him, which is saying a lot since he stood out amongst all the other drivers that don´t seem to care about their surroundings.

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