After leaving Cuenca, it was time to commence the second phase of the trip. Peru. It's a long way if you want to take a bus from Ecuador to the Peruvian Andes. And we were thinking about it. Until they said it's a 50 hour bus ride one way. Instead, we opted for a nice, happy 2 hour plane ride to Lima, which from there is only a 45 minute ride to Cusco, the old capital city of the Incan Empire.
The one shot I took of Cusco, from my viewpoint at the bus terminal. It's not exactly putting the city in a good light... but we had to move on, and this was all there was at the time.
Modern Cusco is a pretty big city and commercial zone. Immediately upon arriving, we headed straight for the Terminal Terrestre (bus station) to begin the ride to Aguas Calientes (also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo), the staging/tourist town for Machu Picchu.
The Back Way, or economical way, to Machu Picchu, involves a very long bus ride through twisting, narrow roads along the mountain sides. There are other ways (much easier) to get there. You can take one of three types of trains along Peru Rail, or you can hike the traditional Inca Trail, which was closed for the rainy season. So, we took the cheap, "sketchy" bus route. And we encountered a few interesting situations along the way..
An example of the roads we took via bus.. every sharp turn you would hear the bus sound its blaring horn warning other potential vehicles on the other side.
Shortly after leaving Cusco... Andes landscape view from the bus
River valley and bus routes.. Taking the bus to Aguas Calientes rather than train may be more time consuming (it's something like 7 hours, while the train is 2) .. but the views are much more rewarding.
The "Back Way," or bus route, to Aguas Calientes, involves passing through a few towns and villages, some that you normally wouldn't see going any other way. First, you pass through Urubamba, then Ollantaytambo, then Santa Maria, and finally Santa Teresa, which is the last town before Aguas going the Back Way.
Somewhere in between Ollantaytambo and Santa Maria is where our most sketchy moment of the trip occurred. Matt did a bunch of research about taking the bus route and found out that during the rainy season (february is one of the most rainy months) there are risks of landslides. Landslides are no fun... if the route is impassable, the bus has to turn around and go back home...
Sure enough, we encountered one.
It was a pretty epic landslide. It wasn't gonna be cleared for a while. Masses of people on each side were lined up to see what was to happen. The entire road was blocked. Which meant continuing the trek to the Incan ruins was to be put on standby... Last thing I wanted to do was to take the bus hours back to Cusco.
After about a half-hour of waiting and asking around, we decided to go around the landslide.
Maybe not the safest thing to do, but there wasn't another option... We descended down into the river valley, along with many others who didn't want to wait for the slide to be cleared. Walking along the river for a bit, and then climbing up the side of the mountain to the other side of the landslide.
Everyone climbing up to get to the other side. And it was a bit daunting at times.
After surviving that little ordeal, we rushed to jump on a bus to get to the town of Santa Maria and then Santa Teresa. We beat the crowd fortunately. Everyone wanted to get on the bus. I gotta say after all the insanity subsided, we had a new-found respect for the mountain. Landslides are not fun.
Santa Teresa - That same night after making it through the landslide, we made it to the last town before Aguas Calientes. It was especially rewarding because this town has hot springs, allowing us to soak the stresses of the day away.
