Puno to Cuzco

---

Sarah and I woke up this morning, ate the free breakfast from the hotel (bread and jelly!) then got a moto-taxi to the bus terminal. We thought there was a Cruz del Sur bus since Sarah had a schedule showing a buz leaving Puno for Cuzco at 8:30 but when we got there we were told there was no such bus anymore and it was an old schedule. So we caught an 8am bus instead with a company called Tour Peru. It was S25 to sit up top or S35 to sit below. The only seats they had up top were in the back and since Sarah gets motion sickness, we chose instead to pay the 10 extra sols and get first class. Even paying S35 (about $12) was still cheaper than we would have paid with the more expensive company, and boy did we have deluxe seats!

The seats were leather and HUGE. They reclined back MUCH further than the others had, and the air was circulating well (which is more than we can say for our last bus). It was a wonderful ride. It was supposed to be about 6 hours but it took over 7 with weird stops (fake looking police officers "inspecting" baggage??) and traffic.

We got late to the bus station and so our free pickup from our hostel was not there. We decided to take a taxi but none of the taxis had heard of "Samay Wasi I" hostel. We chose to check out a different hostel instead that we DID have directions for but it was kind of dirty and expensive for what it was. We went to an internet cafe and looked up the directions to our hostel where we had reservations and followed the map in my travel book to find it. It was about a 15 min walk and when we finally made it up the 100 steps we had to climb to get there (many of the old colonial streets here can't be driven to) we were surprised to find a double room with a matrimonial double bed instead of twins beds. For the price they were asking $20, we decided to look elsewhere.

We did find one place with private room, private bath, cable TV for S40 but there was a spider in the room and Sarah is apparently terrified of spiders, so we kept moving.

The one we finally decided on is called Pirwa (one of 4 apparently) in the San Blas area. It has private rooms but we have a shared bathroom, shared tv, etc. We aren't terribly impressed by any places yet so we're going to keep looking once we get back.

We were able to book a tour through the hotel though and will be heading tomorrow to Pisac and the Sunday market there, as well as the ruins in Ollantaytambo and Chinchero. Then we're spending tomorrow night in Ollanta before heading to Machu Picchu on Monday. (YAY!)

Tonight we walked around to find dinner. We ended up eating street meat from a vendor in the San Blas plaza. I paid about a dollar for a "hamburger" with an egg on it. It wasn't a real hamburger... instead some fried thin patty of something, but it was fine.

I do love the San Blas area here in Cuzco. There are tons of narrow cobblestone streets with lively shops and cafes. Very cute area with lots of charm. I think we'll look for a hostel in this area when we get back.

Will write more soon...

---

Photos

En Route
view on the way from Puno to Cuzco. SO BEAUTIFUL. Notice the little house in the field with all the many surrounding alpaca???

Cuzco Central Square
Rainbow flags are for the city... not gay pride, as we originally thought.