Nazca to Cusco

Peru has some really scenic routes - particularly in the Andes. The road between Nazca (on the coast) to Cusco (in the Andes) is no exception. The road is also one of the oldest routes in the Americas: Cusco was the capital city of the Inca civilisation and Nazca was one of the major trading towns for the Incas.

I will be taking a lot of busses on my trip around Peru - and there are a number of different buses in Peru. On the bottom end, are the mini buses, which rarely travel intercity. They are usually overcrowded and I have yet to take one of these buses. For intercity buses there are basically two types: there is one that is more like a commuter bus that will stop anywhere along the route, less comfortable (more like economy seats in airlines) but off course cheaper. The second type is the straight intercity buses that only stop at designated terminals. These have two types of seats: on the upper deck, the seats are like premium economy on airlines: wider and quite decent legroom, while on the lower deck, the seats are close to business class on airlines: really comfortable leather seats which recline to almost a bed. Surprisingly the price difference between the two is only about 5 US Dollars.

For my trip between Nazca and Cusco, I had no choice but to take the best seat ... as it was the only seat available. I was glad I did - 16 hours on a bus feels so much better when it is comfortable! There was only one piece of drama on the road: due to overnight rain, there was some rockfall on the road, which closed up one lane of the road. On top of that, a bus managed to get stuck on the lane that was "open". This off course backed up traffic and caused a full 2 hour stop. But it gave me time to take a few pics ...