Cusco to Trujillio the fast way

13 Dec 2006

Another bloody early start. Trundling off to the airport as the sun comes up. We have ¨rushed¨the last few days to make this flight which we got cheap, so it had better be worth it..

Its all good. The flight is actualy on time. It only takes an hour (vs 30 on a direct bus). Views are OK too.

We still havent decided whether to spend a day or several in Lima. Its a an enormous city, and sounds pretty grim. By the time we land we decide against it. There is a cloud overhead which manages to keep the temp down.. it almost felt warmer where we just came from.. a sunny 3300m ASL. We actualy look into the possibility of flying North to Trijilio, seeing as we are at the airport already. The flight is not till late arvo, and would cost $82US. Bad idea.

Wading past a multitude of taxi men screaming at us we escape the clutches of the airport and expensive official cabs, to bargain hard with those less official outside. There are loads of bus companies to get out of Lima, and they inconveniently all have their own terminals.. all miles apart.. We chooose ¨Cruz de Sur¨which had supposedly the best rep.

And so it bloody well should when we hear the price! 70 Soles, ie $21US !!! Further more we have to catch another cab to their other terminal on the other side of town. More harsh negotiations with taxis outside. One crusty character finaly agrees to our price, and has to clear all the other drivers out of his boot.. they have been intently playing cards there all morning by the looks.

The bus is admittedly very flash. It has double front axels, wi fi on board, movies, and serves us lunch. We get video taped as we board, supposedly for security reasons. It even has a 20 min video display about how wonderful it is, in case we hadnt noticed.

The drive takes 8 hours. The first part is beautiful. We drive along a perfect road somehow carved into massive sand dunes, looking down to the ocean 200m below us. The coast is eerily deserted, and there are only trucks on the road, no cars at all.

The secnd half is boring really. But to entertain us the steward sets us up with a game of bingo. It puts my Spanish to the test, but neither of us ends up winning the free onward ticket..

Then some movies. The first two are in Spanish.. with Spanish subtitles. The last is in English, and the young steward plays it so quietly I struggle to understand. Sigh.

Into Trujilio around 8.30pm we walk to maybe 5 crappy hostels before finaly deciding to go to the furthest one away, which has a very favourable write up in the guide book about the owners who also do guiding to the nearby archealogical sights. Pretty knackered by now, we eat Chinese across the road then crash.