Exhausted from the hike our eight hr bus ride to Ayacucho felt like nothing. A new town was welcomed after our three weeks in Huancayo. Only having one full day to explore we did our very best, this included a city tour, and eating too much home made ice cream. The "icecream ladies" would labourously spin a large steel pot in a tub of ice where the dizzy contents would freeze on the outside.
"Icecream Lady"
The next morning well rested we prepared for our day bus to Andahuaylas. The company was "Expresso los Chankas" I should have known some irony was approaching. - not so "expresso". We started by crossing a high pass at 4000m and buying some lunch from the side of the road- rice and peas with an egg on top. Then we descended all the way down to 2000m on a dirt one way on the cliff construction road where along the way we saw a bus (same company as ours) flipped on its side off the road. Apparently it happened the night before.
Almost at the bottom we were stopped and told the road was closed until 5:30pm. ( it was only 2) preparing to wait in the heat of the sun the driver called us all in and off we went. A small gap in construction and we were through. Crossing the bridge the bus came to a stop and people from the cliff behind us were yelling and pointing. Out jumped the driver and his spotters from the front and they went running around the bend. Following behind we rounded the corner and what did we see. A rock slide had burried the road and an excavator with a construction worker inside. People were running and yelling cuchillo! Cuchillo! (knife). A front end loader came ripping around the corner and the man was out within 15 minutes. A little banged up but okay. Being ushered back to the bus we were told the road would take 2-3 hours to clear. It was the heat of the day and we took shelter in the shade of the bus, but it turns out that's where the Mosquitos liked to hang out and we were eaten alive. Ditching that idea we walked down to the river and put our feet in. Ahhhhh. From the river we had a great view of the slide and the efforts to clear the road. 5:30 and the road was clear! Off we went ! Wahoo! A few more crazy hairpin turns and we were in andahuaylas.
The next day while waiting for our night bus to Cusco we wanted to have a little afternoon snack before having more pollo for dinner we entered a restaurant and sat down. Dos menus por favor. Si, si, the man replied. Perfect. Waiting for our menus we were brought what they like to have as appys here- 2 slices of potatoe with a creamy(in our case green) sauce on top. Okay that was nice of him we were thinking. Next we were brought a bowl of soup each. Ohhkay. What did we order? Thinking that was all because he brought a bill of 12 soles. 4.25$. Excellent, we were just the right full and it was good :) Uhh Ohhh. The main course shows up!!! Potatoes, rice, fried onions, and fish!! What!!! The food was excellent but we weren't even that hungry !! And half way through we were brought tea!! Wow ! So apparently instead of asking for dos menus. We ordered dos menus. Who knew?
Haha, what an incredible 4.25$ meal. Now we dont need to get pollo for dinner.
Loaded onto the night bus to Cusco with a head full of images of the day before we managed to drift asleep. Waking only to clear my ears we decended from over 4500m into Cusco at 3400m. Three busses and 30 hrs of road time we had arrived in the Capital of the Inkas
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