Blogs from Peru, South America - page 25

The day was off to an early start. After picking up our ‘breakfast doggy bags’ we left to catch the bus to Ollantaytambo. It was a brisk 5 minute walk, the sun had not risen yet and there were a bunch of travelers waiting to catch the same bus. After routine checks of our passports and scanning of the tickets we boarded our bus – the first leg of our journey to Machu Picchu. It was very cold and the warm ear-flap knit wear that I purchased the previous day came handy. The bus was comfortable and if not for its foggy windows we could have had a better view. Nevertheless, the drive was scenic and the view, straight out of a National Geographic award winning entry! The bus stopped at Urubamba for a short break ... read more

How shall I begin? Was it a fascination of the unknown, the intangible or a ‘fortunate series of events’ that culminated in a journey of a lifetime? As a wide-eyed 7th grader in India, I was fascinated with South America, the faraway continent from the other hemisphere! - the Andes, the Amazon rainforest, the Incas, Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world, not to mention the intrigue behind the Andean peaks Mt Aconcagua and Mt Ojas del Solado - everything enthralled me as I remember lapping up new names to add to my memory bank. Fast forward to 2018 and here I was on a milestone birthday headed to Machu Picchu, the citadel of the Incas. Our flight to Cusco was routed through Bogota and the passengers aboard were from different corners of the world ... read more

Today began with an excellent buffet breakfast. There was french toast, actually a toasted it tasted and looked like a peanut butter sandwich cut into 4 pieces.There were eggs and cheese scrambled, various fruits, cold cuts and cheeses. There was even sausages and other fine delicacies. Coffee was interesting. When I poured it out of the pot it looked very black and very thick. I assumed it would be bitter so I pulled our 5 sugar packets. I added a little hot milk to the coffee and it lightened up immediately. I added one sugar and tasted, hummmm, pretty good. Not bitter at all in fact it was perfect. Three cups later I was really buzzed! Our tour today was in two parts. Part one was a city tour of Lima followed by lunch then a ... read more

My name is El Macho and I ride from Huancayo to Huancavelica. I am the only real passenger service left in Peru, as my brethren are now mainly tourist lines or freight lines. Not so long ago people used to make fun of me and there was a saying about me which went like this: ‘sale cuando quire y llege cuando puede’, which translates as, ‘it leaves when it wants, and arrives when it can’. This was because the tracks were not very good so my service was quite unreliable. But nowadays I mostly leave on time and arrive when I should. Since I am not a tourist train my prices are very cheap. I have two classes, which are quite confusing to foreigners. The upper class is called buffet class, but despite the name it ... read more

After not getting to bed until midnight and waking up yesterday at 3.50am I wasn't too happy when the alarm when off at 7am this morning. Although I was glad we had done all of our packing the night before, it was still a struggle to get out of bed. Our taxi pickup for the airport was at 8.15am so we had some time to get ready and go for a quick breakfast before checking out. We'd put our backpacks into the flight bags early and added our hiking boots too as we no longer needed to carry them in our hand luggage in case our main bags got lost. We manhandled them to reception just in time for the taxi driver to appear and call me Katty Button again :) Our bags were carried into ... read more