Bus Ride to Ayacucho
On Saturday we took the Expresso Wari bus from Huancayo to Ayacucho. The tour books say that this route should take 12 hours, but since it’s not the rainy season, and it was during the day, it only took us 8 hours. With two 10-hour bus rides ahead of us to Cusco, I was happy for the break.
The route was beautiful and somewhat scary at times. We were warned by quite a few people to, at the very least, take the day buses through this route. I don’t know if sleeping through the twists and turns on gravel roads with no guard rail would be at all possible anyway.
Here’s what the road generally looks like…
And here’s what the road looks like when you’re looking outside of your window and down…
Uncomfortable Ayacucho
Ayacucho feels very off the gringo-trail, and our first half a day here was somewhat uncomfortable. First thing we discovered our hotel (Tres Mascaras) did not have hot water. That, and the fact that there was no internet available and two screeching parrots in the courtyard, was a let down and we resolved to switch hotels the next day.
After Heather took a very cold shower, we set out in search of an internet cafe and laundry mat, both of which are on almost every corner of more touristy towns. Here they are in very rare supply and we ended up walking quite a ways with hungry stomachs and heavy bags of laundry in tow.
The night ended with a dinner at an Italian place that was literally in a courtyard of restaurants called the “tourist center”. The food was good though, as were the beers.
