After about 3 months more or less of living in Cochabamba, Bolivia…
As you can read more about my time here…
I figured it was time to leave Bolivia and go to Peru for roughly a month…
Before I would ultimately go back to Bolivia to catch a flight to Argentina…
But right before I left Cochabamba, Bolivia, I spent a night with this nice Bolivian chick named Lizeth.
One of the nicer Latinas I have spent the night with until this day to be honest…
But that’s an article for another day…
At any rate, it was time to leave Cochabamba, Bolivia and take a bus to La Paz…
The morning after my arrival to La Paz, Bolivia…
I took a bus from La Paz to Cusco, Peru.
Since I was only going to have roughly a month in Peru, I figured I might as well spend most of it around Cusco area instead of traveling around too much in the country with the limited time I had.
So I got on a bus and it was quite a long bus ride relatively speaking…
We ended up crossing Lake Titicaca as you can see here…
And then here was where we crossed the border into Peru where we had to walk into an immigration office to have our passports stamped.
There, I met another American who was basically backpacking South America….
As we were waiting in line, he was telling me “oh my god bro, I was just in Medellin, Colombia. Hot women, so much sex. So much liquor. It was fucking great bro.”
Months later, I would find out what he meant as I would travel to Colombia myself…
Either way, we got back on the bus…
And being tired as I was…
I ended up falling asleep…
Now, the bus kept going on….
Or so I thought….
Waking Up on the Mountain
I ended waking up some hours later…
And being very tired…
I didn’t notice it right away…
But the bus had stopped!
On some random mountain in the middle of southern Peru…
“what the hell?” I thought..
Well, the person sitting next to me was no longer there…
And other people were not on the bus either…
There were tons of passengers on the outside of the bus…
So I stretched…
And got up to check was going on..
To a cloudy day with some small bit of rain outside…
I asked the bus driver what was happening…
And he told me that the bus basically broke down and that we have to wait for the next bus to stop by and pick us up from the same company.
Now keep in mind I had been asleep during this for a few hours or so..
And finally, the next bus came by some hours later…
So we all get our luggage from the first bus and give it to the bus driver of the second bus that came by..
Got on and away we went!
I was a bit worried that I would be stranded there for much longer since it took us a while to get to this part of Peru anyway.
Anyway, the trip must go on..
And I must go back to sleep…
Waking Up Around Midnight
Later that night at around midnight or 1 AM ish…
I was waking up again and still pretty tired…
Either way, I quickly noticed that our bus was basically speeding down the mountains that we were going through.
At a pretty dangerous pace I soon figured.
As there was this machine or whatever near the front of the bus that was showing everyone how quickly the bus was going..
And it was clear that it was going at a much faster rate than what should be allowed..
I guess you could say that the bus driver was under pressure to get us to Cusco, Peru as quickly as possible…
Even if it meant driving at dangerous speeds that could kill us if an accident were to happen..
As you can see here with videos on bus crashes in Peru…
Thankfully though, the bus driver didn’t crash or anything.
But it was a little bit intimidating for myself and for the person sitting next to me on the bus…
And from others as well from what I saw.
Either way, we made it!
At around 1 or 2 AM ish to Cusco, Peru.
Upon exiting the bus, there was another American I spotted.
This American chick who was also backpacking basically through South America.
We were both in the same spot as neither of us had any local money and didn’t have a hotel or hostel either.
Either way, we walk into this bus terminal and…
Thankfully, given the time…
There was a taxi driver available to take us somewhere.
Anyway, he follows us to some ATM machine where we pull some money out..
And thankfully, the ATM machine worked and I managed to get money out.
Sometimes it doesn’t always..
Though because I failed to notify my bank that I would be going to Peru, they blocked my card after..
But that’s a story for another day.
Either way, I got some money out or else I would have been fucked.
We both go to his taxi and I had some brochure or something that recommended different hostels.
We pointed at one for him to take us too as she was in the same boat as me – needing a hostel.
Eventually, we got to where we were going and thankfully this hostel was actually open…
Funny enough with someone still awake by this hour and still taking guests.
Which is not common since you would need a reservation obviously…
And showing up randomly to some hostel at this hour would not usually work I think..
I mean, this isn’t a motel..
But we got lucky, I suppose.
Either way, I soon learned why hostels are known as good spots for hooking up..
As I got my own room to myself with nobody else in this hostel except her who was down to sleep in the same room…
Either way, it was a fun trip to Peru despite the fact that there were some issues in the beginning with the bus…
The trip to Peru anyway is worthy of its own article and will be something I will probably write about at a later point…
But as the trip only lasted a month….
I ended up leaving soon enough to take a bus back to La Paz, Bolivia…
Where I had Lizeth waiting for me to enjoy my time for the night with before my flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I ended up paying her bus ticket (about 10 bucks round trip) to La Paz back then…
Which is also something I will probably write about since that was a fun day in La Paz…
Before ultimately I headed to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Thankfully, no travel interruptions either with that one on my way to Argentina…
And was definitely an interesting place to be in contrast to Bolivia and Peru.
At any rate, if you have any experience in Bolivia or Peru…
Let me know in the comments below.
And follow my Twitter here.
Thanks!
Best regards,
Matt