May 23, 2026
It’s been a long ass day.
Checked out of my hotel in Puno at 730am, walked to the bus station in Puno. Got on my bus.
Had the front left seat on the second floor of the bus. Which is to say, I was sitting directly above the driver, and I had a view.
At this point I’ve seen a great deal of the southern end of Peru. And the part that I feel is most scenic is what I went through today. Well, part of what I went through today anyway.
About an hour after leaving Puno you get to a city called Juliaca. Juliaca is a giant city, very poor, with nothing to bring in tourists. Best way to describe it would be picture Aturas, California, with 1.2 million very people living in it.
North of Juliaca it opens up into a very pretty stretch that reminds me a lot of Wyoming.
There’s a bunch of little towns along the way, and I’m not going to name them all, but one of them is called Ayaviri, which is notable for a local dish called kankacho.
Now, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned a peculiarity of long hall busses in Peru before. Periodically they stop, and little old ladies will hop on and sell food they’ve prepared. Normally I pass on it. But when the bus stopped in Ayaviri and the lady hopped on selling kankacho I partook. It’s made from lamb that are specially raised in that area, and the combination of the altitude, local water, and local feed, impart a specific taste. It’s then marinated in a local black beer and spice blend for a day and cooked until tender, served with the local variety of potatoes. And it’s yum. You can get it elsewhere in Peru if you know where to look, but it’s not authentic elsewhere in Peru. Authentic is the best.
From Ayaviri to the Cusco state line (Cusco is a state as well as a city) the scenery started looking like Wyoming had a baby with Switzerland.
That picture doesn’t do it justice. But a problem with taking pictures from a moving bus through a window is not all of them turn out.
I think the Ayaviri region is the prettiest that I’ve seen in this country. It’s definitely going to be a place I aimlessly explore should I ever come back here with my own vehicle.
Once you cross into the state of Cusco things start to look more Cusco ish. Most of the scenery reminded me of the sacred valley.
Which, it’s the same river – the urubamba which runs through the sacred valley and past Machu Picchu, begins its watershed south of Cusco.
Eventually after 7 hours you get to the Cusco city limits. Most tourists never go south of the airport. But south of the airport there’s only a single two lane highway serving as the north-south artery. And traffic is a bitch. It took two hours for me to get from the south end of the city of Cusco to my hotel in the plaza.
But, I arrived!
This place is way more packed with tourists than I remember there being last year.
Also they covered up the beautiful fountain in the plaza with some kind of monstrosity for reasons unknown.
And I had forgotten how pushy the street peddlers here are. Nowhere else on this trip has had street peddlers. Granted, they still aren’t as pushy as the peddlers in Nepal. But goddamn.
¡No, señora, no quiero comprar su calabaza!
