It is all about the bus trips...
Ah, what can one say about the bustling little town of Huncayo, high up in the central Andes. It is in a huge valley, very fertile, and full of little towns dotted all over the place. We stayed at a delightful little hostel, very close to the centre of town. Old, rickerty, creaking wooden floor boards, and a resident cat, dog and parrot (who said ´hola´ to us when we were having breakfast). Even the cat would come up and sit outside our room each moring to make sure we were up so we could commence with the day´s quota of snuggles. I am such a sook - can you tell???
We originally were to spend only a night in Huancayo (Friday), but ended up spending two (and Saturday), which gave us time to catch the local bus out to two small villages, where we purchased three gorgeous rugs from some little old ladies (we were able to sleep well that night knowing that they could eat - are we typical tourists or what???). That was in the sleepy little town of Hualhaus. We then walked the dirt track through lots of little farms (chickens, cows, pigs and dogs abound) to the town of St Jeronimo, where we were in time to see a festival in full swing. We did get acosted by an old man (we think because he wanted money for the photos we took - we just ignored him - sometimes having no clue what someone is saying is actually a good thing), but that is about the only troubles we had.
Sunday we took the local bus to the town of Ayachuco (probably only about 200kms away), which took 8 hours. Skinny dirt track, bus full of people (there were some who stood for almost the entire way), chickens, children, old people, and us - what a mix. The views were absolutely amazing, although at times it was a little hairy on some of the bends. You sure don´t want that bus to go over the side. I think it was only twice that the locals got the look of ´thank heavens´after we crossed a particular creek on the side of a mountain.
As you can well imagine, by the time we got to Ayachuco, we´d both had the life rattled right out of our bones, and were both quite exhausted. However then were were to find out that the bus trip to Cusco was another 22 hours of more of the same. Talk about shooting someone down!!! However, we both braved the price and the time frame and decided that it was now or never (either that or to go all the way back to the coast, and then up through to Cusco - about another 10 hours on top of that - AS IF!!!)
We are now in Cusco, having survived the 22 hours, which I must way, was not nearly as bad as expected. Thankfully we decided to take the 6.30am departure, rather than the 6.00 or 7.00pm departures) so that we had most of the day to see the amazing and ever changing views of the magnificent Andes, and then had about 5 hours of paved roads from Abacanay, so we actually got some sleep. The roads were a little rougher than the previous day (I left my seat more than once on the bumps), but that was mostly on the tracks over the top of the highest mountains (nothing but grass grows, so that indicates how high it is) which I don´t think sees much in the way of traffic, so is therefore not well maintained. If we had left on the evening bus, although arriving in Cusco at a decent hour, we would have had to try and sleep over the bumpy track. Not something that would have been that pleasant in hindsight. Once again, dirt track, single lane, and always makes for an interesting stand off when you meet a truck coming the other way. The most nervous I got was when we had to back up about 50m to let a truck pass - the cliff below was pretty steep, and very very high - eek!!! My hat goes off to the driver, for sure.
We arrived into Cusco at 5am this morning, so we are both still a little shell shocked. However, a shower and breakfast have done us the world of good. Now we are off to explore the ancient world of the Inca´s by visiting Machu Pichu...
Till next time...
We originally were to spend only a night in Huancayo (Friday), but ended up spending two (and Saturday), which gave us time to catch the local bus out to two small villages, where we purchased three gorgeous rugs from some little old ladies (we were able to sleep well that night knowing that they could eat - are we typical tourists or what???). That was in the sleepy little town of Hualhaus. We then walked the dirt track through lots of little farms (chickens, cows, pigs and dogs abound) to the town of St Jeronimo, where we were in time to see a festival in full swing. We did get acosted by an old man (we think because he wanted money for the photos we took - we just ignored him - sometimes having no clue what someone is saying is actually a good thing), but that is about the only troubles we had.
Sunday we took the local bus to the town of Ayachuco (probably only about 200kms away), which took 8 hours. Skinny dirt track, bus full of people (there were some who stood for almost the entire way), chickens, children, old people, and us - what a mix. The views were absolutely amazing, although at times it was a little hairy on some of the bends. You sure don´t want that bus to go over the side. I think it was only twice that the locals got the look of ´thank heavens´after we crossed a particular creek on the side of a mountain.
As you can well imagine, by the time we got to Ayachuco, we´d both had the life rattled right out of our bones, and were both quite exhausted. However then were were to find out that the bus trip to Cusco was another 22 hours of more of the same. Talk about shooting someone down!!! However, we both braved the price and the time frame and decided that it was now or never (either that or to go all the way back to the coast, and then up through to Cusco - about another 10 hours on top of that - AS IF!!!)
We are now in Cusco, having survived the 22 hours, which I must way, was not nearly as bad as expected. Thankfully we decided to take the 6.30am departure, rather than the 6.00 or 7.00pm departures) so that we had most of the day to see the amazing and ever changing views of the magnificent Andes, and then had about 5 hours of paved roads from Abacanay, so we actually got some sleep. The roads were a little rougher than the previous day (I left my seat more than once on the bumps), but that was mostly on the tracks over the top of the highest mountains (nothing but grass grows, so that indicates how high it is) which I don´t think sees much in the way of traffic, so is therefore not well maintained. If we had left on the evening bus, although arriving in Cusco at a decent hour, we would have had to try and sleep over the bumpy track. Not something that would have been that pleasant in hindsight. Once again, dirt track, single lane, and always makes for an interesting stand off when you meet a truck coming the other way. The most nervous I got was when we had to back up about 50m to let a truck pass - the cliff below was pretty steep, and very very high - eek!!! My hat goes off to the driver, for sure.
We arrived into Cusco at 5am this morning, so we are both still a little shell shocked. However, a shower and breakfast have done us the world of good. Now we are off to explore the ancient world of the Inca´s by visiting Machu Pichu...
Till next time...
posted by Flossie | 1:17 AM
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