19/3 Luxury bus to Cuzco

Up early eating another of Basil Fawlty´s stingy breakfasts. We had bought a few of our own rolls to spread with jam for lunch on the bus but he never lost sight of us so we didnt get any. We had entertained just the slightest anxiety about Oscar turning up to take us to the luxury bus. The yanks just laughed and made the sign of the cross when we told them we had left this dude $5 deposit. The minutes ticked by . . 8am . . a couple of taxis came to collect other guests . . nothing. We were beginning to get alarmed that if he didnt show we would have to wait a full day to get another bus. At 8.10 we got Basil to phone. Oscar was out but they would call him and tell him to fetch us.

Oh dear. We launched plan B and went out to flag a taxi. Basil then jumped up and down excitedly and said "it´s Oscar", who finally arrived at 8.15. The bus leaves at 8.30! The driver got us to the bus terminal and Oscar charged off to get a ticket issued. Turned out we got the last 2 on the bus. We finally boarded at 8.29 and were led to our seats upstairs.

Ooooh nice! We had single seats behind each other. All the doubles on the other side of the aisle were taken. The seats were huge, reclined almost flat, most of all they FACED FORWARD!! Ooooh there IS life after Oasis. There was airconditioning and an onboard potty, which a sign proclaimed to be reserved for #1's (how do they police that?) The suspension was smooooth and 6 hours just drifted past in a state of complete relaxation. And all that for 40 soles each - $14.

Umm except for the young Frenchman with the feet that would have been size 14 and would have rated a similar score out of 10 on the Malodorous Footrot scale. Eeeew toxic.

We seemed to drive between two ridges/ranges until we spotted snowy mountains ahead, at which stage we started to follow a river upstream. We were close to a big peak then started downhill along another valley. Everything was green and there was a lot of farming of crops and animals. Pretty. We passed through a number of small towns, which seem to be perpetually on the brink of elections. Or maybe they just leave the slogans up there - they are painted straight onto the walls rather than being papered.

On arrival is Cuzco, we noticed that it, too, was draped up the walls on either side of a valley, although nowhere as dramatically as La Paz or Puno. It was also quite big, with a lot of light industry. Heavy traffic was banned from the city centre, which turned out to be very charming and attractive.

We took a taxi to the hotel and were welcomed in by Priscilla! They all seem to have Western names in Peru - and American more than Spanish, which is surprising. She gave us the complete introduction to the hotel and the city, interrupted by our dashing off for a banos interlude. She suggested we get their travel agent in to book the trip up to Machu Picchu tomorrow but we opted to walk briskly into town to do it ourselves.

We found Rail Peru and a lovely young woman very efficiently went through the options and printed us tickets, which we purchased with Mastercard because we hadnt managed to get any Soles and the next town apparently has no ATMs at all. We had a typical Peruvian set meal for close to nothing, followed up at Starbucks and went back to the hotel to repack for a very early start.

Today was the dreaded Day 2 of the Inca Trek when the Oasis mob should have climbed Dead Womans Pass at 4400m. They will be sleeping well tonight.