I survived another Ecaudorian bus ride from Cuenca to Guayquil to collect Mike, unfortunately, his plane and pilot were not as considerate as my bus driver and his flight was 3 hours delayed. The floor of the airport is not all that comfortable to sleep on, however, as I learned from the English girls sitting next to me, the police don´t mind if you buy a few beers and drink on the floor. Oh Ecuador.
Guayaquil to Lima: Not wanting to cheap out on a bus and risk god knows what, we took a nice reputable bus company that took care of all the border formalities, food and entertainment for the 20 hour bus ride. However, even reputable companies a) forget people at the Ecuadorian border...and then reverse on the highway to go back and pick them up and b) don´t carry enough food for when the bus is EIGHT hours delayed. Imagine, being stuck in a construction-induced traffic jam in the middle of the desert, just north of Lima and the movie they chose to put on is Legion. If you haven´t seen it, don´t bother, but to summarize it's about the apocalypse, zombies, horror...all taking place in the desert. The stewardess was a genius.
Lima: Mike and I had incredibly low expectations of Lima, and we were actually pleasantly surprised. (But really, it can only go up from "Lima is a hole, leave as quickly as possible". The reason we liked it may have had something to do with no longer being on a bus and also the vegetarian/organic oasis that we stumbled upon (naturally). Plus, our hostel was all eco friendly with plastic bottle chandeliers, couches made from old bathtubs and a delicious breakfast. Sadly (sort of) Lima was a short stop over before our next bus ride.
Lima to Cusco: Again, with another 20 hour bus ride to look forward to, we paid a few more soles and went with the best. The vegetarian options for meals, bathrooms with toilet paper and running water and on board bingo were DEFINITE pluses. However, the movie choice for bedtime: Legion. You have got to be kidding me. Apparently the baby sitting directly in front of us felt the same way only her protest (unlike our card-playing one) was to cry, or more specifically, screech, every 30 minutes ALL NIGHT LONG. Expensive buses should ban kids...or make it mandatory that they are mildly sedated. Oh, and that bus was 4 hours delayed so it was 24 hours in total...
Cusco at last: Mike, like me, is not so good with the little details. These little details would have included knowing that the major festival of the year was the day after we got here. Awesome coincidence right??? It was, EXCEPT that we had only booked one night at our hostel and the prospect of homelessness was not so awesome. Thankfully (I heart good karma) we had booked into a hostel where all the proceeds go to running social projects for street kids...I guess they didn´t want to add any more people to their helping list so they let us stay on.
Cusco is a wicked city. Nestled in the mountains, everywhere you look is picturesque. Plus, there are so many Inca ruins to see all over the place, the city is just soaked in history. The one downside is that the central square is essentially in a bowl...so everywhere you go is uphill. Literally, you can´t go anywhere without climbing some stairs. After 2 days of searching for an eco-conscious/ethical/student budget friendly agency (not an easy task), we´re headed on a 5 day trek to Machu picchu on Sunday. Mike´´s goal is to pet a llama, mine is to not be the weakest link on the 4650m pass (or to fall off it).
My camera and I have not been getting along lately (hence the lack of pictures), but they are coming! Plus, today I bought a battery charger so that it can stop telling me that there is no power. Sidenote: I´m pretty sure that the owner of the store also buys stolen cameras...there is no way the homeless looking Peruvian man standing next to me owned or understood how to use the digital camera with a menu in Chinese. The camera karma continues...
Hope all is well, Happy Canada day (Mike and I will think of you from the top of Machu Picchu!)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment