The buses weren't all that bad.... hold on, what are we saying? They were TERRIBLE!!!! The first bus left Huaraz promptly and also promptly began leaking! Sarah had the window and I had the aisle, unfortunately right underneath a roof-vent, which haemoraged water for the entire journey (despite it strangely, not raining!) at some points quite forcefully. Add to this our driver was going for a new personal best time along some quite uneven road surfaces, imagine any vehicle bouncing around in the middle of the night - bad enough - but being at the back of a huge double decker bus - not sleep enducing!
So we arrived in Lima slightly bleary eyed at 5:30 in the morning, wondering around Miraflores trying to find somewhere for breakfast and ending up playing two hours of ´s***-head´in a street cafe. After our breakfast we made a flying visit to Villa Maria, a shanty-town project that Quest run on the outskirts of Lima. The project provides a day-centre for underprivelidged children, where they can play and interract with other chilren in a safe and supportive environment. As soon as the kids saw us, we were immedately treated as a new novelty toy and we were swamped by dozens of kids. In Matts case boisterous boys who wanted to use him as a climbing frame, and in my case the more reserved girls who coyly wanted to hold my hand and play with my hair. As if I wasn´t broody enough before we arrived!!!
Villa Maria Shanty Town
After our fleeting visit we embarked on our mammoth bus journey of almost 20 hours! We had sweet seats, 'panoramico' at the front of the bus with lots of leg room and fortunately no water falling from above our heads! The bus was really good, we were served a hot meal of a staple favourite of chicken and rice! And got to see 6 films! We didn't get much sleep, but we were comfortable, which was just as well as the bus was 3 hours late arriving in Cusco.
Back in Cusco we are enjoying chilling out a little, reunions with old friends and some of our favourite Cusquenian restaurants. The benefits of having friends here include upgraded, free accomodation and not being able to pay for dinner no matter how much we insist! It's proving hard to spend our money here, so we are 'splashing out' and going on a 3 day rafting trip on Weds. We are rafting the Apurimac, the biggest most exciting river in the area. It will be my first time, but Sarah is an experienced pro, either way we're both really looking forward to it.
A small taste of our suite at the Fallen Angel.
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