Escape from Cusco!

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So we had to try and get out of Cusco because of our ridiculously tight time schedule we have no time to waste. The problem was that the locals in the province of Puno were cheesed at the governor as he had plans to build a big hydroelectric complex and take all their water supplies away. To hit him in the money pocket they decided to block all transport from Cusco to Puno, that includes all tourist vehicles.

We went down to catch our bus as we were assured that the blocks were over ... they weren´t. We managed to then get transfered onto some little minibus to take an alternative route through the mountains arounnd the roadblocks...this is where our little adventure begins.

We head off aready a little dubious of the driver who had the thickest lenses on his glasses that if they caught the sunlight they would probably burn a hole in his face - I wondered if he could actually see 2 foot in front of himself. It was just the locals and another Swiss couple on the bus. We travel along fine until we get to the area of the roadblock. Apparently they had blocked the alternative route too.

We stand around for an hour with the drivers of a fwe buses talking about various routes that they could possibly take and in the in they decided they would have to go back to Cusco.

Our little guy reports in with a phone call to his boss who has an insider at the roadblock who says we can sneak through.... we turn around again.

We get to the roadblock and there are huge rocks across the raod, a few logs and a bit of the bridge had been burnt. We were assured that we could pass over the bridge. The driver wasn´t really acknowledging our presence so I drew my curtain and kept a low profile..... I think if they think it´s a local bus we had a better chance of going through. Hence no photo of the roadblock as I think that would be as subtle as me running around naked yelling 'whitey on board, bring in the hydroelectric dam´. We got through fine and were on our way to Puno with a few extra locals on board. And thank god we did pick the loacals up as I driver got lost about 5 times and had to be directed where to go.

12 hours later the supposedly 6 hour journey was complete.

We were lucky as we have heard of people that had sat at the roadblocks for a day or 2 and paid $70 US for the privelage of sitting at a roadblock, walking miles through them to have to pay huge cab fares on the other side.

Throughout the drama Sarita was as cool as a cucumber. She caught up on her reading for most of the trip, at one stage offering to take over the driving and bust our way through the roadblocks. But once underway again went back to her reading only to look up momentarily to see the roadblock.... it´s a very good book... Something About Schmidt. They made it into a movie with Jack Nicholoson, that´s how I know about it. Maybe it can be on the Book Club List!

Bye for now.

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Photos

Cool in a Crisis
Sarita is not disturbed by the change in plans and catches up on some reading

Strategic Planning
SArita thinks of taking things into her own hands

Some scenery
The alternative route was actually really nice region with some amazing lakes and little villages along the way

Back on the Road
Back to reading

Comments

[Harn]

whitey on board
next time you're in such a situation please could you do the naked run round shouting whitey on board thing, just for amusement value. i suspect that could merit a whole blog entry to itself... why does it not surprise me that seeth just relished the opportunity to sit still relax and stick her head in a book. ps sarita - nice fleece you're wearing when sat at the wheel! x