Peru - Cusco, Lima and Trujilo

Keegan Tudehope
Apr 5, 2017
8 min read

Day 34

As we only had one more day in Cusco, we had to attend Rainbow Mountain the morning after completing the Machu Picchu hike. We found a tour that left at 5am to allow for more sleep-in compared to most tours, which had 3am starts. The tour itself was 3 hours in a minivan, again at an altitude to an area where the hike started. First, we stopped for breakfast that was included in the tour, before the 8km trail to see the coloured mountain.

The weather wasn't the best as we began the hike and after 15-20 minutes we were already tired. Ellie took a horse to near the top but had to walk some steeper sections that you couldn't do on a horse. I walked but without a backpack, which made it easier. As it had been raining, the trail was wet and muddy ensuring our boots and legs were covered in mud. We were also on a time restraint to ensure the tour stuck to the schedule, if you didn't make it to the top on time they turned you around to go back to the minivan. That's why Ellie took the horse which cost 70 soles or $28 Aussie. When we arrived at the top, we could make out some of the colours of the Rainbow Mountain making their way down the hill from the top. However, the weather was terrible. Rain and heavy cloud didn’t allow for good visibility of the pattern we had seen in the pictures prior to attending. We waited at the top for 25 minutes hoping the skies would clear, but we had no such luck.

In the end, we decided that we would have to visit 1 of the other 4 Rainbow Mountains in the world and considered our luck at other ventures in our travels to make us feel better. It was disappointing but no one was to blame and we can't change the weather, we just had to imagine how beautiful it was. If we hadn't of gone, we would have regretted not going so we were relatively positive considering the circumstances. This then meant we had to return downhill another 8km to the start of the now heavily wet trail. Certain parts were extremely slippery and I managed to fall heavily on a sloping hill. It was a bit embarrassing but seeing countless others slip and the amount of mud on people back in our transport made me feel less foolish. On the way down we got a nice hail shower to make matters worse in what was a miserable weather day at the mountain.

It could have been like this...

Lunch was probably the best part of the tour and was served after everyone eventually returned to the minivan, not everyone was punctual as they had trouble with the conditions. Then there was the 3 hours back to Cusco and the second-best part of the tour, the end of it. Once again, we arrived into Cusco late and again exhausted. The 16km extra had added onto our weary legs and once more we sought a quick dinner and bed as fast as we could shower. Tonight's menu was KFC, our second night of take away, but only because we needed/desperately wanted to get as much sleep as possible. I hope anyone who attends Rainbow Mountain gets better weather than us and can fully enjoy its beauty.

This was the end of our time in Cusco, a very touristy city with lots of annoying people trying to sell massages, tours and menus for restaurants. It was a little bit like Thailand in this way, but I liked the scenery and the city’s history as the centre of the Incan Empire. Next stop though is Lima, the modern capital of Peru.

Day 35

Following a flight from Cusco, we arrived into Lima the capital of Peru. The airport was an hour away from where we were staying and a further distance to the centre of the Lima district. We discovered in the taxi to our Miraflores guesthouse that Lima is made up of many districts or suburbs that amass to 10 million people. Miraflores is the touristic area, while downtown is the cities center for historical and government buildings. The rest of Lima we didn't really see but I'm certain with 10 million people it must be a busy place to be.

After checking in to our empty guesthouse on the top floor with what would become our own terrace we walked to the Main Street of the tourist area and had lunch. We ate at a deli that made some nice sandwiches and some chunky chips. Then continued walking down the Main Street to the Pacific Ocean, stopping only for an ice cream as the temperature was much, much hotter than Cusco and anywhere we have been of late. Overlooking the Pacific Ocean is a fancy shopping mall that we shopped around at for a little while. Most things were out of our price range but as Ellie’s £2 London sunnies had broken she was due for a new pair and willing to buy a decent set. She found some she liked, which ended months of searching in every airport we passed through in Europe and South America. She even paid on my credit card with a promise to refund me, still waiting though.

After a little leisurely outing, we returned home, walking firstly along the coast for an age before setting off back through the suburban streets to our place. We dropped off some laundry and collected some supplies to have dinner at home on the terrace. We had a fresh baked breadstick and some different cheeses for dinner, accompanied by some Coronas before heading to bed.

Day 36

The next day we woke early out of habit from the last 5 or 6 days and had breakfast and some delicious juice we had collected the night before with dinner. We waited a little while for a walking tour to start. This tour went to the downtown district but started in the Miraflores. The first 45 minutes of the tour was waiting for additional guests and the transport to the city. It wasn't a good start in what would become our worst free walking tour of the trip in both Europe and South America.

The tour visited the main square, the presidential palace, cathedral, another church and its catacombs, markets, a churro shop, stock exchange, post office, train station and finally a restaurant serving Peruvian food. The guide wasn't very good, he was difficult to understand and instead of making two groups, the tour was spoken first in Spanish then in English. He seemed to always speak longer in Spanish meaning he probably left out information when describing things to us. I had to ask a lot of questions to get information or to understand it which became annoying after a few hours. The tour also didn't mention the Quechuan people and Incan Empire in any detail other than a passing comment which was disappointing. We stuck it out and got as much out of it as we could but we're a little disappointed at the end of it. The guide tried hard but just didn't have the gift of the gab according to Ellie.

After the tour, we ate Peruvian at the restaurant. Ellie had pasta with yellow capsicum sauce which was average and I asked for calamari and got a mix of calamari and fish so I traded some with my travel companion. After lunch, we took the metro bus back to our suburb and then decided to try getting my phone fixed at an Apple Service Centre we spotted on the Main Street. I went for a run home and back while wellie remained in the park. After dropping off my phone we went for ice cream again then returned to the shop. He needed the phone overnight to repair it and it would cost 100 Peruvian soles ($40AUD). I was happy with that and the trade-off being the fingerprint tab on the phone would no longer work, so we left the phone and headed home.

Again, opting for a fresh breadstick, the remaining cheese and some additional Doritos to again go with our Coronas on the terrace. This time we were joined by an English couple on the terrace for dinner under the stars. We had a nice chat with them and relaxed for the evening before heading to bed on our last night in Lima.

Day 37

The next morning, we repeated our breakfast of yesterday at the guest house before packing our bags and heading off to collect my phone then moving on to the bus terminal. My phone was once again working, so I was happy with Lima as we headed to Trujillo in the north of Peru. First, we took a taxi to the bus and then travelled 9 hours to our next stop, arriving late in the evening. The bus was one of the best we have had and included personal entertainment devices, although everything was in Spanish. It made it easier to have something to look at.

When we arrived in Trujillo it was a matter of walking to our hostel as we had eaten on bus. However, with small meals it was necessary to stop in a service station to get a packet of Doritos to get me through the night. A new trend has been forming, I'm falling for Doritos every day, like a blossoming romance, I just can't get enough of them.

Day 38

We had a full day in Trujillo with our next bus not due to leave until midnight. As only a small town on the coast of Peru there wasn't a whole lot to do unless you did a tour. We instead opted to have breakfast near the main square after looking at the main square and church, which had some beautiful colourful paintings on the ceiling. We had some fresh made sandwiches and a nice juice. Then we made our way to the longest mural in Latin America. A mosaic that stretches the entire length of wall of a university campus. The tiles were quite dull, where as we thought it would be colourful. We weren't very impressed. In fact, we were so unimpressed we didn't even take a single photo.

We caught a bus from here to a beach nearby called Huancarute Beach, it cost us less than a dollar each, but did a full loop of the city before making its way to the beach. After good reports of this seaside town we were again unimpressed by a dark sandy beach that seemed untidy. The coast is so long as we had noted from the previous day’s bus journey along it, but this beach had a few shops and a surf school and other activities so we knew it was a good spot. At least a better spot than others. We hired 2 chairs and an umbrella as it was a scorching hot day. Ellie put her feet in after first relaxing on the beach and I had a swim after doing the same. There were heaps of people on the beach along with many merchants and mobile food vendors to sell anything you needed.

After a few hours on the beach, we went for lunch at a nearby restaurant with both of us having some crumbed chicken and chips. We both noted an Aussie pub lunch would have been perfect in this instance and began discussing all the food we are looking forward to when we get home. A blog will come of their desires soon I'm sure.

We took the bus home after lunch and having the idea to book the hostel for another night (at a cheaper rate) to allow us to shower and relax before the bus was one of Ellie's best ever ideas. We showered and then went downstairs to a massage parlour in the same building as our hostel. They were open late on a Sunday evening which was strange, but very lucky for us. The parlour was in fact run by blind people. We were happy to be customers of people with such initiative and both enjoyed massages from 2 capable vision impaired massage therapists. It was a better massage than the one In Cusco and we left relaxed, returning to our room where we continued to rest until our bus.

The overnight bus would be an 18-hour overnight bus to Guayaquil, a city across the border in Ecuador. It marked the end of our time in Peru, our longest stay in a country so far: with fond memories of Machu Picchu, we said see ya later to another country. Not many more to go with Ecuador, Columbia, into the United States and finishing up in The Bahamas, all of which we are looking forward to.