Cusco Day 266 11/06/2015

We'd decided to travel to Cusco non stop, coming back to Puno on the Peruvian shores of Lake Titicaca after we've trekked the Inca Trail and visited Machu Picchu. We had a light breakfast at La Cupula given we'd got a long bus journey ahead of us, packed and walked down to the main square for our 0900 bus. It was all very well organised with immigration forms availalbe for us to complete before we boarded the bus. We set off just after 0900 and within 20 minutes reached the border with Peru. We quickly got stamped out of Bolivia, walked the few hundred meters to Peru, got stamped in, changed some money and were back on the bus in less than 15 minutes. No baggage check here! We continued on to Puno, following the shore of Lake Titicaca. It certainly looked slightly more prosperous on this side of the border with vast areas of agricultural land and farm animals. We arrived in Puno just after 1100 (accounting for the one hour clock change back). We'd bought a direct ticket from the local agent a few days ago, aware that we needed to change bus in Puno (not quite sure how that qualifies for direct). We found the local agent who purchased tickets on our behalf to Cusco with the bus scheduled to leave at 1200. It was clear that we'd paid a premium for our direct ticket but given it only cost B$120 (c£12) for the full journey we didn't mind. The bus to Cusco was quite full, mainly of locals with lots of bags. We set off just before 1230 and after a couple of hours reached the town of Juliaca, described as a brash, unfinished eyesore on an otherwise beautiful landscape. It looked like a riot had taken place, glass, bricks and smouldering debris covering the streets. The bus had to weave it's way through to get to the terminal. As we left the terminal, with the bus now full, we were asked to close the windows and curtains. It was slightly uncomfortable as the bus crawled along attempting to find a way out of the town and we were both relieved to be back in open countryside. Good to know that we'll need to do this journey in reverse in just over a week's time! Not long afterwards we were joined by two ladies selling food, chunks of lamb cut fresh from a huge slab of meat, bread and juice. It's fascinating to watch life onboard the bus. There was also a lady (a fellow passenger) selling toothpaste of all things. Just as dusk fell we were entertained with a film, El Sueno Americano (The American Dream) duped in Spanish, with the volume at full blast. Simon managed to follow what was going on but all Diane could gather was lots of references to Superman and Michael Jackson! We finally arrived in Cusco just after 2000 and jumped in a taxi to take us to our hostel, booked by KE Adventure who we have booked to do the Inca Trail with. On arrival we were told that our booking was at a sister hostel. Not too chuffed we phoned the local agent with no avail and walked the short distance to the other hostel (luckily for Diane one of the hostel staff carried her bag). Ironic that this is the first time that somebody else has booked accommodation on our behalf and the first time since Laos that there has been a problem with the reservation. The sister hostel, Amaru Colonial, is nice enough with good size rooms set around a courtyard. We dropped off our bags and headed out to a local restaurant for something to eat before returning to the hostel, exhausted after a long bus journey.

Our last morning in Copacabana 

Welcome to Peru