Seven years later, back in Cusco!

Somewhat last minute, I decided to head over to Cusco. Well the last minute part was deciding to go the direct route, leaving the day after I had decided to go. I spent part of the day last Thursday in Huaraz trying to figure out a way to get to Cusco from Huaraz without having to go through boring ol´Lima. It´s do-able to go through the mountains instead of heading back to the coast. The route would have been Huaraz - La Union - Huanuco - Huancayo - Ayacucho - Cusco. I calculated that in total the bus travel time would be 53 hours. I would have stopped for a night or two in each place along the way to break it up a bit, but in the end I decided it was a bit too much hassel. A fellow traveller is doing that route right now, so when he arrives in Cusco, I´ll ask how it went and maybe I´ll take that route if I ever head back up north.

The bus ride from Huaraz - Lima - Cusco was about 36 hours in total, with a layover in Lima. It really didn´t feel long at the time. I went with the bus company Flores again. The tourist bus is Cruz del Sur and they are super nice and super expensive (for Peru...). The nicer buses of Flores are basically the same as Cruz del Sur but much cheaper. I got a large comfy seat, was fed along the way and watched a bunch of movies dubbed in Spanish. The scenery along the way was quite nice, so it really wasn´t a boring trip. In total, it took us 21 hours. The distance is about 1000km, but the road goes all the way up the mountainside then all the way back down - it´s a very long and windy road. We´d go all the way up the above the clouds, then descend back through them. Stop in a city, then slowly watch it shrink as we went back up. There were usually large snowy mountains in the distance once we were farther away from the coast.

I arrived a bit earlier than I had thought, so I went straight to the Amauta Spanish school near the Plaza de Armas. I had arranged to do Spanish lessons for the week and stay with a host family. Some of the family members came to get me around 12:30 and off to their place we went. They live about a 50 minute walk from the school. At first I was a bit annoyed considering I have morning classes, but the walk is quite nice. It´s very easy to get the bus when I´m feeling lazy, though the buses here are always a bit of an adventure. I´m not totally sure how many people live at the house I´m staying or what the main lady does, she might be retired. They have been a host family for almost 15 years now. I already feel like my spanish is improving. The last 3 weeks I´ve mainly been hanging around English speakers, so it´s good to really immerse myself for the week. I started lessons this morning and a lot of the grammar is starting to come back too.

Yesterday I went to a cafe/restaurant/hostel for an ´interview´ called Let´s Go Bananas. I´m going to trade labour for food and accomodation. It´s a small place that mainly does vegetarian food, breakfasts and lunches. Starting next Monday I´ll be working there 8-4 most days of the week. The days I work I get free breakfast and lunch and accomodation every night. There is one other Canadian, a guy from France and a couple Peruvians. It should be a fun experience beacuse they are in somewhat of a transition mode, so I get to help them re-organize some stuff and help them get more people in the cafe, plus one of the cute Peruvian guys really intrigues me - he does breakdancing. They typically want people to stay for at least a month when they start, but they are desparate for some help at the moment, so I´m only committing to till the end of the month.

Cusco itself hasn't really changed that much. Well, the main square (Plaza de Armas) has. It used to be more geared to the backpacker with a few more posh places, whereas now it's almost all upscale stores and American chains, like McDonalds and Starbucks. I went into the Starbucks this morning because I wanted a quick coffee to go. Inside the place I thought it seemed really familiar and I realized that it used to be a fun bar that travellers went to. It's probably the nicest Starbucks I've ever been to. I won't be going back there though, time to cut out coffee again. The rest of the city seems to be a bit cleaner and more touristy than before. It's just as busy and slightly more expensive than the rest of the country. A lot of stores and restaurants are still open, so it's easy to navigate around.