Advertisement
Published: September 19th 2010
Edit Blog Post
The 15 hour overnight bus from Nazca went smoothly and we slept for most of it despite the windy route which went up and around the mountains (at one point we were literally on the cliff edge) climbing to the city of Cusco which is 3600m above sea level, our highest town yet. Just prior to getting on the bus in Nazca, Scott got out of the taxi, (Well i will call it a taxi but it was more like a 1990's, 17 year olds first Renault which had been lowered to show off the illuminous lights underneath-think xmas tree decorations, complete with a rear spoiler, which was really just a random chunk of metal and ridiculous pieces of aluminum stuck all over acting as mud guards.) at the bus station and ripped his trousers on the taxi's supped up hub cap!! V funny, especially when he started stapling them back together with the bus drivers stapler.
As soon as we stepped off the bus we could tell we were at altitude as it was harder to breathe as the air was much thinner. We met up with our friends Mindy & Joel from Huacachina and caught a taxi to
our hostel, the Loki, which was at the very top of the town on a steep hill- walking down was fine but walking up was tough! The hostel is in a converted house which has been restored and turned into this well known party hostel with a full bar and restaurant (serving amazing cheap food) and cute rooms containing original stone features and small windows.
After checking in and scoring a private double room for s.80 per night the 4 of us walked down to the town for a bit to eat and a look around. Cusco town is based around a main sqaure, Plaza De Armas, with several small squares surrounding it, all housing local shops and markets selling really nice knitted alpaca goods (gloves, hats, jumpers etc) restaurants and colonial looking buildings including a cathedral and a church. The town feels very European (similar to Prague in a way) and has cute coffee shops and bars, as well as locals trying to sell you something on every corner (tours, massages, drugs etc!).
Easily our favourite town in Peru so far (although the whole country has been amazing), as well as the beautiful views of mountains and
perfect sunny weather the people are so friendly and the food is really good too. For lunch we went to a small restaurant and had a traditonal meal of soup (mushroom for Vic, Onion for Scott), and Lomo Saltado (beef, rice and chips!) and a fresh juice for £3.50 each! That night we spent playing cards, having wii competitons and drinking in the hostel bar which was fun before going to bed around midnight.
Our second day in Cusco was spent walking around the town again (Scott got his trousers sewn together by a local woman for 80p and an alpaca hat and Vic got some alpaca gloves) and finding a place to rent our sleeping bags and walking poles for the Inca Trail which was looming ever closer the next day. We had lunch in a great Australian/Peruvian restaurant called 2 nations famous for its huge burgers which didn't dissapoint, we graffitied the wall again (becoming quite a habit) and then chilled out in the sunny garden at the hostel. In the evening we had our Inca Trail briefing at the offices of Llama Path who we had booked the trek through, which is where we got our
first incllination that it was going to be even harder than we thought, especially when the guide talked us through the intense itinerary and showed us pictures of what we would be doing for the next 4 days...!
We then went back to our hostel to join the end of the quiz they were doing and had an early night to be ready for our 3.30am wake up to meet our Inca Trail group at 4am and start what was to be the hardest physically and mentally 4 day challenge we had ever done...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.042s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0227s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Amanda Moore
non-member comment
Cusco
Loving all the blogs and photos. Glad you made the Inca Trail safely, although fitter and thinner! Much love xx