So my blogging hasn’t been going too well for the past month and a bit. Despite being located in La Paz for 4 weeks, I managed to achieve very little – La Paz can have that affect on you. So forgive me while I try to catch up and fill in the spaces between Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.
Our next destination after Mancora was Cusco. But to get there meant two very long bus journeys – 18 hours from Mancora to Lima, and 23 hours from Lima to Cusco. We chose to travel with Oltursa, which is a fantastic bus company! Wi-fi, gigantic seats, meals, phone chargers – it’s pretty much first class on an aeroplane (or what I imagine first class to be like – I’m yet to be upgraded to luxury). We split up the journey with a night in Lima and with the high quality bus service, we arrived in Cusco feeling pretty good.
Cusco is beautiful and one of the most impressive cities we have visited in South America. It’s very touristy because of the huge numbers of people flying in to visit Machu Picchu, but it still maintains it’s charm despite the hoards of foreigners decked out in North Face gear.
We spent our first night at Piriwana Hostel, which has some of the best facilities out of any hostel we’ve stayed at. Unfortunately we forgot to book ourselves in for a second night and when I spoke to reception the next day the place was fully booked. So we packed up our gear and moved two doors down the road to The Point, a crazy party hostel with a great bar and huge sunny backyard. If you stay at The Point spend the couple of extra pesos and get a room out the back as the dorms close to the bar are ridiculously noisy.
Cusco was all about eating and cuddling animals. We had an amazing brunch at Jack’s Cafe, which is owned by an Australian and serves dishes from home such as poached eggs with tomato and avocado on wholegrain toast. This was a godsend after too many meals consisting of overcooked carne, rice and papas fritas. The local market is fantastic with stalls selling inexpensive ceviche. I picked up some local cheese while I was at the market but this “gouda” tasted like balls.
Everywhere you go there are cholitas with baby lambs and llamas, and for a peso or two you can photos with them. I spent about $10 getting photos with different animals around the city because I love baby lambs! I’m one of those creepy tourists who doesn’t wear North Face, but really enjoys posing for photos on the streets of Cusco.
Chasing the Cheese 