Huaraz to Lima to Cusco


Advertisement
Peru's flag
South America » Peru » Lima » Lima » Lima
April 19th 2012
Published: April 19th 2012
Edit Blog Post

Sunday 1st April - Huaraz to Lima

We paid a little extra for an executive bus to Lima and it was well worth it with a comfortable seat and 2 meals served during the 7 hour journey. The scenery driving through the Andes for the coast was dramatic but we hadn't appreciated that the coastal regions from Lima north were simply desolate dirty desert, interspersed with the occasional paddy and maize fields. The poverty in Peru is both widespread and probably the worst we'd seen in Latin America and to be worse than Nicaragua takes some beating. Patrick Symes didn't have many nice things to say about either Peru or Lima and he was spot on. Most of it is disgusting and many people we met were far from endearing and simply interested in what they could fleece you for. We arrived in Lima late and had fun getting a taxi before getting to our slightly grotty hotel.

Monday 2nd April - Lima to Cusco (land of the gringo)

Hip hip hooray no sooner had we arrived in Lima, we were leaving by plane. Lima airport is packed full of gringos, who most likely arrive from abroad and then get straight on another plane to Cusco and then go home and say how wonderful Peru is. If ever you bump into anyone who's been to Peru ask them if they managed to get out of Lima airport for any length of time and then ask them what they really think. If they happen to be a faceless businessman like Jason Kelly, take what they say with a pinch of salt. Peruvian Airlines was actually pretty good and Stacie was understandably pleased when we landed in 1 piece. Cusco gives you a tiny flavour of what Peru is really like but it's so well disguised with it's cobbled streets and historical buildings that I doubt many people appreciate the difference between fact and fiction. I really like Cusco and it's quite hard not to but the fact remains that it's completely overun with gringos, most of whom are on holiday, some of whom are mental enough to think it's warm enough to wear shorts and unfortunately it's this that lets the place down and makes us want to get out of here as soon as. We did however indulge in some of the spoils brought about through it being gringo heaven which was a meal at The Real McCoy, the 1st out and out British restaurant and bar we'd come across so far on our travels and it was well worth it.

Advertisement



19th April 2012

cheese
had any nice cheddar recently?
20th April 2012

Peruvian Airlines
Great blog again, glad I didn't know about Peruvian airlines reputation. Also had no idea how bad Peru really is.

Tot: 0.186s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0581s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb