We’ve spent a lot of time on buses in South America. And I love it. I love traveling by bus. Usually we get on a modern, long distance bus with cushy, reclining seats. We pack a bunch of snacks, healthy ones like fruit and nuts and sit back to enjoy the ride.
I love starring out the window, and to me, there is no tire of the passing scenery. So much of the southern part of South America is desert landscape and the space to me felt like an endless expanse ready to swallow me up and I was ready for it. Some travelers I talked to tired of the same passing landscape, yet I see an ever changing landscape, if even going from tiny scrub brush to bigger scrub brush. Similar to areas in Western Australia, we have always loved these big open spaces.
This was the drive to Chivay on our way to hike in the second biggest canyon in the world. Chivay may have been one of the cleanest, cutest little towns we went to and the drive there was indicative of the town vibe. If you ever get a chance to go, it’s worth the effort. Here is what we saw…
The open road.
With the vast landscapes, we could watch the snow capped mountains for hours.
Mountains and mountains.
Our bus would stop at a few select places so we could take photos.
But it was cold! That is how we look when it’s really cold outside.
Yet, many people bear the cold to add a little rock to each of these cairns.
But then we all run like these llamas back to the bus.
Then within the same drive, we would end up in the hot desert again.
Here’s Chris being entranced by the giant mountain of rock in front of him after hours of flat land.
We stopped at a little cafe for a tea as the throat can get very dry traveling in these arid regions.
Talk about fresh mint tea!
Then back on the bus to continue winding down to the town of Chivay.
What a nice welcome archway.
Chivay seemed to love cute archways and we had lunch under this one.
Look at that street! Not one piece of trash anywhere.
This just seemed like the happiest town ever.
Nice statues.
A well constructed bridge we walked over…
…so we could get a view of this tidy little town…until…
…we found a llama leg in the path.
We all laughed a little and didn’t think too much about it.
We climbed this old lookout tower.
Then we started to wonder if this town could be like town from the comedy Hot Fuzz, where in this fictional movie every year the town of Sandford tries to uphold the perfect image of itself while competing for ‘Village of the Year’ but underneath there was a lot of shady business.
We got to check out these old huts.
We all kept walking around thinking of what a nice little town this was and then…
– we found another llama leg!
Could this be a coincidence or was there something else going on behind the scenes here?
We did find a body-less Jesus.
However crime did not seem to be too high as this was all a shop owner had to do to keep people from entering when they went on break.
As we observed town more, those folks seemed to simply look for logical solutions to problems. For instance instead of taking the time and energy to redo this entire light post that had shifted, they braced the bottom and put a rock under the pole. Presto viola!
Our conclusion finally amounted to this was nothing more than a town full of hard working people, growing crops like all these different varieties of potatoes.
We lined up for the bus.
Loaded up and headed off to Cabanaconde.
I had my head glued to the window to not miss a second of the passing scenery in Peru en route to
Colca Canyon. The amount of land in Peru dotted with little herders shacks followed by small towns and every so often a bigger town is a sight to behold. If you find yourself in Peru going on some bus rides, lucky you. Sit back and enjoy the ride.
* * *
If you go:
We only traveled a small bit of the map in Southern Peru and many time we asked around to find the ‘tourist bus.’ Often times we’d find a bus that was only a couple of soles more, would usually have a guide and the bus would make a few stops at some key places along the way. This was awesome because we had nice seats with windows (to enjoy all the sights!) and would have a chance to stop in a small little village, that otherwise we would never have a chance to visit without our own car.
Some notable routes that we really enjoyed:
Cusco to Puno – We booked with
www.turismomer.com and had one of our most favorite guides ever from the entire trip: Koko. He was a short, feisty and passionate Peruvian who spoke good English. We learned so much on that seven hour bus trip.
Around Cusco, in general, there are a lot of tours you can book, which is just about the same price as taking the time to negotiate taxi fares to many of the surrounding ruins. Cusco is a place you can easily spend some time exploring the area.
Puno to Chivay (photos in this post) we booked a 4M bus ($65 sole) directly through our
Marlon’s House Hostal and got picked up at the door.
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Nice post with a bit of a different twist. A bus ride would be a great time to regroup and reflect without having any actual down time and Chivay looks like it was the perfect destination.
On this trip, traveling by bus has been (mostly) great. There are usually nice, comfy seats and we get to look out the window, drift off to sleep, read books and not have all the stress of driving. We would still like very much to travel here with our own car, yet there are always two sides of every coin and South America is a great place to travel by bus.
Nice clean little town that does make one wonder! I don’t think I’d agree with the light pole repair. Presto viola? And WHAT was with the llama legs?
Hey, that light pole wasn’t going anywhere. It was sturdy – I pushed on it. I don’t what the deal was with those llama legs, that’s why it was so random and funny to find two. I guess in that town, you only need to worry if you are a llama. 😉
….so that’s where I left all my llama legs… I wondered where I left them. Would it be too much to go back and pick them up for me?….jk. 🙂 Cool clean village!
Haha. Thanks. We were curious if we had more time to walk around, would we have kept finding more llama legs? And they were so clean, not all bloody or anything. I guess the clean cut legs goes well with the theme of the town.
In the one picture, you look like you’re freezing; Chris looks completely normal. What do you think was with the random llama legs?
I was freezing in that picture. Chris handles the cold so much better. Maybe there was a herder was walking back from checking on his llamas, some of them got eaten, all that were left were these legs and he put them back in a bag to bring home for his dogs. But along the way, some of the legs fell out. We have no idea.
WHAT?!!?! A herder bringing some uneaten fresh legs back for his dogs but they fell out?!?!? I would think an alien invasion experiment gone wrong with the transporter beam or the Peruvian Inca Mafia leaving warnings to other llamas not to kick anyone. The legs fell out bringing them home for herd dogs, this is where I throw my head back and laugh: HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!
This was such a humorous post! Its no wonder this lovely town has a happy face etched into rock, Cant stop laughing as I scroll through the pictures, Tiff you would never know you are a resident of VT with how cold you look, LOL! Thanks for another amazing look into the life of a vagabond!
Oh it was cold. It’s amazing how tiring getting on and off a bus can be with those extreme temperature changes. And I wear double pants so much of the year in Vermont…I just never tell anyone. 😉
We in Vermont are now ANXIOUSLY awaiting the return of Ranger ‘Double Pants’ Tiffany!
Haha…thanks! I am so pleased to report the weather today upon our return is just beautiful! So, so thankful for that. If I would have made a bet, I definitely would have lost: at this moment I am only wearing one pair of pants. 🙂