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Published: June 26th 2009
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Ollantaytambo
One of the side streets in Ollantaytambo This is my third attemp at updating due to losing everything twice..Grr
This morning we decided to catch a bus to Cusco from Ollantaytambo because the Café and Pizza lady said it was easy to do, who were we to argue with them. We packed up our gear and headed around the back of this shed to find many 10 seater buses ready to go in all different directions, we were looking for a bus that would take us to “Urambamba” from there we need to catch another bus to “Cusco” via “Chinchero” straight away this fellow was calling out “Urambamba” so we took the opportunity paid our AU$0.12 and got shuffled towards this bus that holds ten was now going to increase by two more people to 23!.
I managed to squeeze in next this old lady who had´nt washed her clothes in over a month and Jeff was forced to sit on the well of the sliding door with his face nearly pushed up against the glass and his knees under his chin. The smell was reminiscent
of a hard days work the corn fields only because this little kid behind Jeff was munching on a raw
Ollantaytambo
Another street in this small but picturesque town corn on the cob, one of their many staple diets over here. The bus started and we were off and long into the trip I felt this old ladies hand brush up and down against my thigh, my first instinct was she was checking to see if I had a wallet on me or she was just trying to feel up, either way I was keeping a watchful eye on her. A little further down the road the bus pulled over for this other passenger, there was no way in the world could he have squeezed on unless we body surfed him towards the back of bus up against the rear window, well it didn’t happen because the locals let out a tyrant of Spanish abuse to the driver, who sped up again and left this other man on the side of the side…you go locals!
After we arrived some 40 minutes later Jeff told me that the old lady was only brushing away a snotty tissue that had fallen from my pocket and landed on her…haha
We then found our next bus pretty quickly, there was another fellow yelling out “Cusco, Cusco, Cusco, Chinchero, Cusco” well we
Cusco - Int Raymi
The Inti Ramyi 2009 festival which takes place on June 24th ever year headed towards this bus which was at least 20 seats and paid our AU$1.40 and away we went again, this time we picked single seats along the window to avioid any other people trying to squeeze in or sit on our laps. This other old lady opposite me in tattered dirty old clothes was peeling corn kernels with these fingers nails as black as night and dropping the husks into her lap which then fell onto the floor, I was only hoping she was not going to offer me one as I would had to politely refuse. The bus trip to Chinero and through to Cusco was good and still the scenery was great.
We arrived in Cusco and decided to walk to Plaza De Armos as it couldn’t be to far away so after Jeff asked for directions we headed off and followed the crowds because it was “Inta Raymi” which is festival of the sun and the recreation of an important Inca ceremony in Cusco. The crowds on reaching the Plaza were huge and all we need to do was get to the other side around 100mtrs away and we were home and hosed to our Hostel.
Cusco - Nortons rats
Nortons Rats, public bar in Cusco with the smallest balconies we have seen. Nice place for a cool drink We moved in with the crowd and went with the flow, I mean if you lifted your feet from the ground you could actually be carried with the force of the crowd, there was no turning back, people squashed right up against you and you could not move your hands from your sides, it is a wonder people aren’t crushed as you could feel the pressure against your chest and all it would take is one person to fall and that would be the end of you, there were kids in there and they thought it was great, big smiling faces at you, an American woman being pushed past in the opposite direction with a couple of children who was in a panic (as we were close to the end now) we told her “don,t worry your not even half way”..well that set her off with a few choice swear words…the kids all I could see was the top of their heads..no face until one looked up and smiling away, only the mother in a panic and you could still here her 15 metres away as she was swallowed by the crowd..haha
We made our way to the hostel
Cusco Street
A typical street in Cusco, when there is no traffic and jeff had a sleep and i updated the blog then we met in an Irish pub a couple of hours and had a few quiet ales or to, after awhile we got border of just the two of us in this Irish Pub that played 1980's ballads, it was an Irish Pub called Paddys and they were playing this, no wonder there was no one there, We adjurned to another Pub called Nortons Rats, we disappeared upstairs and it was full of caucasions like us...strange all smokers inside and non smokers out. We grabbed a couple of beers and headed out to the smallest balcoies I had seen, they were only 1 metre deep by 2 metres wide, you could only get two people on there, so we sat there like the old two muppets on the balcony and watched the world unfold.
A few more beers later we went and had some Italian, home made pasta was excellent sause needed some work though. One our way back to the Hostel, we called back into Padfys and had a few cleansing ales, still only about 4 peop
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