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Cuzco

chapter one - crossing the andes

the hell of a ride. cruz del sur is the bus-company with good reputation, don't ask me why. the guy behind the counter in nazca told me, it's 13 hours to cuzco. maybe it's possible in 13 hours, i will never know, i took us (i met esmee and anna again on the bus!) almost 19.

leaving nazca, the road soon got rid of concrete and decided to turn dirt. the bus went slower and slower, the aircondition gave up and the toilet started to smell. sweating, i tried to catch some sleep but there was this sick child next to me, she was ten and needed all attention. as we slowly ascended up to more then 4.000 meters, the altitude sickness of the girl got worse and worse,  her pulse going up to 140, you could see her heart beat. some ladies on the bus helped with medicine and finally she relaxed and the situation got better, less worrying.

at half past five in the morning the first sunbeams made their way through the clouds and what i glanced, looking out of the window, was breathtaking: the peaks of the andes, covered with snow, illuminated by the most beautiful morninglight.

half an hour later we had to stop. a truck had slipped from the street, blocking the main east-west connection for almost two hours. as we got out of the bus, we started throwing snowballs at each other, a funny scene, two days after sandboarding at the oasis of huacachina. as we started moving again, i saw alpacas for the first time in my life (by the way, i forgot to tell you that i saw my first  hummingbird in montañita!).

about six hours, 640 serpentines and four climate-changes later, a big BANG! tore us out of watching another stupid crime movie (jean-claude van damme and dolph lundgren are big stars around here).

one of the rear tires exploded. that's the right word, it just exploded! maybe one of the many rocks on the street was one too much, i don't know but it was frightning. it happened right after we came down from the mountains and not on our steep way through the serpentines. good luck. it took the guys from the bus about two hours to change the tire.

we arrived cuzco at half past five p.m. exactly 19 hours after boarding in nazca.

chapter two: cuzco

by the time we arrived, cuzco presented itself from a cold and rainy side but that could not keep it from making a beautiful impression. it's a beautiful old city surounded by mountains, much more beautiful than quito and even higher, about 3.300 meters above sea level.

we took a taxi and checked in at "loki", a hostel which was recomended to us by various people. it's beautiful and reminded me a bit to the "burg hohenwerfen" in my homecountry. a boyscout feeling came up, don't ask me why. the people there are welcoming and friendly.

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