Cusco

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Our Arrival

We arrived at the terminal terreste at 11:55am. We walked into town. From the terminal walk up the ramp and head towards the big statue of a man on the roundabout and follow the way he is facing and signs to the historic centre. It is about 15 mins to a big sun fountain, from there follow signs to Avenue Sol. In total it is about 1/2 hour walk to the centre of town.



Where We Stayed

Euro Hostal - S/40 for a double room with private bathroom, TV and wifi. On Cuychipunco near Av Grau between Mantara and San Andres. They let us keep our backpacks there for a couple of nights whilst we went to Machu Picchu.



What We Did

Walked around the historic centre and up to the San Cristobal church for nice views over the City.

Visited Machu Picchu. We did this on our own by catching local buses. I will write how to do this in the next blog entry.



Where We Ate

The market by San Pedro church. On the far end of the market on the left hand side are places where you can get soup, meal and a juice for S/4. The food was really good.

5 doors left of Euro Hostel was a restaurant with no name. We got a full set meal again for S/4.50 with the best soup to start that I've had around South America.

Bar Mi Viejo Amigo opposite Euro Hostel had 1.1l bottles for S/8.



About Cusco

We didn't get a good first impression of Cusco as arriving in by bus you pass mounds of rubbish on the side of the road with stray dogs hunting through it. Also when we left the bus station heading into town we were greated by a man with his pants down pooing on the pavement. However once you get into the centre the town is quite nice.

It is really cold in Cusco when not in the sun, we even had some sleet whilst we were there and there was snow on the ground on the hills on the edge of town.

There was a tourist police van set up near the main square who gave us a map and information about how to get to Machu Picchu on local buses. There is also a tourist information next door to La Merced church.

There are plenty of places to buy souvenirs and you can buy coca candy in supermarkets and most street stalls.



Where We Went Next

We went to Puno. There are several companies leaving from the terminal terreste with different classes of buses. We bought tickets on the day of departure from Turismo San Luis. It left at 8:30am and cost S/20. There is a booth in the terminal where you have to pay a S/1.30 terminal tax before exiting. We left from platform 1 at 8:45am and got to the terminal in Puno at 3:50pm.

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