Cusco (elev. 3326m/10,913ft)
On the fifth night of our Peru honeymoon, rather than continue to Arequipa, we changed course and headed to Cusco to beat out the following week's Festival of the Sun (hotels totally full). This night bus would become fondly referred to by us as "The Bus Ride From Hell." The Flores bus company originally said it would pass through Nasca at 10PM. At 11PM, it finally arrived. We were also told it would be a 12 hour bus ride. Pulling into Cusco at 1:30PM, it took 14-1/2 hours to cover the 656km (408mi)! Worse still, it followed an amazingly rugged path, going through five mountain passes of over 4000m (13,124ft). In fact, from Nazca at 588m, it took only 90km to reach the highest pass, Abra Condorcenca, at 4,390m (14,404ft)! From the third pass of Abra Huashuccasa at 4300m (14,108ft), the bus driver careened down the mountain hillsides for the next 200km to the town of Anancay at 2378m (7,802ft). This made Masami nearly throw up. We had to keep the window opened with a strong breeze flowing through to avoid the smell of the latrine in the back of the bus. (Will wanted to tell the "stewardess" that, "No huele como Flores [bus company name], huele como mierda"/"It doesn't smell like Flowers [bus company name], it smells like shit!") At 7AM, the miniature TV screens throughout the bus awoke to a DVD documentary on sharks (plenty of bloody pieces of meet being devoured), an hour long live concert DVD with blasting Samba music, and finally a Western with plenty of shoot outs. And, of course, the three cockroaches in our seat during the bus ride did not help Masami at all. When we finally arrived into Cusco, we were both drained and went straight to a Cusco hotel to try and recuperate.
The Rio Apurimac.
And finally, Cusco!! Unfortunately, Masami battled elevation
sickness the two nights in Cusco. Will actually experienced a
brief bout the first night. He woke up in the middle of the night
feeling as if he was going to freeze to death. When he went to put
on some socks, he was shaking so bad he could hardly put them on.
An hour later, and he was burning up with fever. And an hour after
that, he felt OK(?!). He never had any headache, nausea, or
diarrhea. Very strange. Masami had a similar reaction a
little later at night but also had nausea and headaches. But, by
the morning, we both felt better and wandered around the nearby Plaza de Armas.
We actually stayed the night in Cusco after returning from Machu
Picchu and stayed here at the Royal Inca I hotel. We found this
hotel much more agreeable than the Hostal Plaza de Armas we stayed at
the first two nights. Unfortunately, Masami felt even worse the
second night there with the worst headache she'd ever had in her life.
Some Sorojchi Pills (for elevation sickness) and a variety of food and
drink from the local supermarket (like potato chips, soda, fruit, etc.)
seemed to bring her out of the woods. What helped even better was
waking up at 4:30AM to take a smooth train ride DOWN to the "lowland"
elevations of Machu Picchu.
This site was last updated 07/16/05