Cusco

Budget Travel, Nomadic Lifestyle, Travel

From Huanchacho to Cusco was 35 hours elapsed time on a bus. Of course, I did break up the trip with a stopover in Arequipa. Bus service in Peru is quite a bit more pleasant than in Ecuador and most of my journey from Huanchaco to Cusco was in the first class cabin with large, fully reclining seats. Meals are provided and there is an attendant, much like what you would expect on a flight. The last nine hours of my journey to Cusco, however, was pretty hellish. First class was sold out for several days in a row – so I went ahead and purchased a ticket in the semi-cama, upstairs class (smaller seats, less legroom and ¾ reclining). This probably would have been fine for any other nine-hour bus ride, however, I had the extreme misfortune to be seated next to an absolute mass of humanity that spilled well into my seat. This made it nearly impossible to sleep or even re-adjust my body position from time to time. In short, I was miserable for the entire trip.

If Arequipa was unimpressive, Cusco, in my opinion is down right revolting. There is some stunning architecture left over from the Spanish colonial days and the city is situated in a fairly gorgeous setting, but the ugly and soullessness far outweighs the beautiful. In the special white man tourist areas of town (Plaza de Armas and San Blas) the touts and hawkers are over-aggressive to the point that I began completely avoiding the area and it would appear that all of the eateries and hotels in these areas are owned by foreigners so the Cusquenos aren’t directly benefitting from the tourist trade.

Side Note – Cusco’s Flag:

Shortly after my arrival in Cusco and immediately after finding a place to store my luggage I set out to arrange transportation to Machu Picchu. I witnessed the beginning of some sort of protest march, but the first thing that I saw were people carrying the flag of Cusco and my immediate thoughts were “wow, a gay pride march here in Cusco. That’s pretty remarkable and surprisingly progressive.”

My mistake, sorry.

Oh….and despite what the last couple of posts may sound like, I really am enjoying my time. I’m just not much of a ‘city person’.

Will @ December 14, 2009