I think calling this blog a bus tour is pretty accurate considering that a 20 hour standard bus journey from Lima to Cusco turned into a battle between the politically outraged Peruvians and the innocent tourists.

Flashback to Lima on the 8th when we realised that we had a tour booked in Cusco, no details and no way of getting there. I think its safe to say that we weren´t the most organised of backpackers! Kella sorted us a fancy bus down to Cusco and I was in charge of finding out where we were supposed to go when we arrived.

After a few emails between me and the people at STA Sheffield we realised a huge error had been made on their part! They forgot to confirm our booking. So, the sole plan for Peru had been ruined! As you can probably imagine we were pretty devastated. We only had a few days in our schedule to do the trek and we didn´t think we´d have enough time to book another one. Not ones to be defeated we decided to get the bus to Cusco and see what we could do.

Having travelled quite a lot before I didn´t have high expectations for a South American bus company but when we boarded the Cruz del Sur bus it was like walking into a dream! The seats fully reclined we had little pillows and blanket, a tv upfront and two meals provided. We thought it was going to be the perfect ride down but little did we know that in Peru a political storm was brewing as all the workers were about to strike!

The first half of the bus journey was fine, we watched some Spanish movies and I picked up some good vocabulary to use (We´re spending this whole trip trying to improve our Spanish). Then in the morning we noticed that the bus was stopping quite a lot. This was because the striking workers had blocked the road with rocks and stones to stop us from getting through. Eventually they would move the rocks and let us past so the severity of the situation didn´t really hit us until we stopped in a little town and we asked to get off the bus. Ahead of us was an army of strikers marching and chanting so there was no way we were getting through. We stocked up on the essentials like water and biscuits and spend a few hours sitting in the sun playing card games until the strikers had passed.

We came to realise how dangerous it was when we noticed the second floor window had been cracked by strikers throwing stones and someone had spray painted the front of the bus. We eventually boarded the bus and watched as the strikers marched past with banners and chants!

We arrived safely in Cusco 6 hours later than planned and managed to organise a trek similar to the Lares trek thanks to the help of a fantastic woman in Hostel Recoleta. We left at 4 o´clock the follwoing morning.

I know usually a bus journey wouldn´t be main topic for a blog but it was pretty eventful and did take up a full 26 hours of our life!

Emma, Kella and Lottie!