From Lima to La Paz by Bus…the best way to discover Peru and Bolivia…

South America is a very large continent, and distances between major cities and must-see spots are often immense. Usually travellers would choose to fly from place to place if road transport would take longer than say 6 hrs…well at least that is our approach. In SE Asia one just hopped on an Air Asia flight for $ 30 or $40 and in under 2 hrs you could be in the next country. Unfortunately this is not the case at all in South America – for some reason there seems to be no low-cost airlines operating between countries, and even internally flights are overpriced. So for the budget traveller the only option is to use the extensive bus network which connects virtually all towns.

BUT there is a catch. One has only to do some basic research on bus transport in Peru and Bolivia to realize that accidents, bad experiences, theft and horrific levels of poor service seem to be the norm. Fortunately there are a few well reviewed bus companies like Cruz del Sur in Peru which offer a premium service, but the downside based on our own experience travelling VIP with them from Guayaquil to Lima is that their staff do not speak a word of English. They take you from point A to point B and that’s it. No assistance getting a taxi at your destination or help with directions to your hotel or hostel.

After doing much research on how best to travel through Peru and then onward to Bolivia, time after time we came up with positive feedback on the bus company Peru Hop and its sister company Bolivia Hop. Founded by two Irish travellers a few years ago, they appeared to have come up with the perfect solution for English-speaking travellers visiting Peru and Bolivia. Not only do they supply transport in pretty comfortable, modern busses, but on board is an English-speaking guide who assists travellers on each leg of their trip. The concept is hop-on, hop-off on a well-established route from Lima to La Paz via Paracas, Huacachina, Nazca, Arequipa, Cusco, Puno, Copacabana and ending in La Paz. There are a few variations and price-points on this route depending on how long or short a time a traveller has available.

A ticket has a year validity, and the itinerary can be adjusted on the fly via the booking website. It’s a very well thought out system. with suggested accommodation, some included free short side-trips and tours, the option to pay for longer day trips on the bus or via the website and the included guide to assist with bookings and planning. It essentially takes away most of the pain independent travellers may experience traveling this popular route. The chances of theft of luggage and valuables is very limited as security is higher than on public busses, and this alone makes the Peru/Bolivia Hop option very attractive.

So we decided that this would be the best option for us, as we speak like 5 words of Spanish 🙂 Before booking the $228/person ticket from Lima to La Paz I decided to reach out to the company and see if we could do a bit of old-fashioned bartering where we could get a discount in exchange for supplying some video and stills images of our trip which the could use for marketing and advertising purposes. Luckily they responded positively, and within few days our tickets were booked and we had our Hop log-ins 🙂 Hooray!

Our epic journey from Lima to La Paz started at 06h45 on 6 May when the Peru Hop guide came an collected us from the beautiful Villa Molina in Miraflores, Lima. We climbed aboard the large semi-luxury bus and off we went. Our first stop after a few hours of traveling was the Inca ruins of Tambo Colorado. These seldom-visited ruins were to provide us with a cool start to our Inca adventure :). We spend maybe 45min at the location, during which time our guide provided a fairly exhaustive commentary on the ruins. We sneaked off to shoot video and stills of the archeological site.

Our first stop for the night was at the seaside town of Paracas, where we stayed at Paracas Backpackers in a private room for $13/night. The town of Paracas was nothing special in our book, with a somewhat dirty beachfront, and little to do in the town itself. We ate lunch at a local restaurant and paid 15 Sol for a 3 course lunch. For supper we bought a selection of fruit at a supermarket, and made ourselves a big fruit bowl with yoghurt.

The next morning we were back on the bus for the free side-tour to Paracas National Park which took about an hour. We visited a few of the popular spots and look-out points along the coastline and got to take some cool photographs. While not exactly a beautiful place, it was a pleasant trip.

From Paracas we travelled to the small oasis of Huacachina where we stayed at the very quaint Wild Olive guesthouse right on the lake. The big attraction here is the dune buggy and sand boarding excursion for $ 15/person, which we took shortly after our arrival. It was a real blast, and we had a particularly daring driver who had us flying over massive sand dunes at breakneck speed. After around 25min of this crazy driving we reached a particularly high dune where the sand boarding took place.

Then we drove for another 10 mins to a lookout point over the desert where we stopped to watch the cool sunset and relax a bit after all of the adrenalin of the hair-raising buggy ride and the sand boarding. I took the opportunity to shoot a few pics of Akhona amidst the dunes and the buggies 🙂

The next morning after breakfast we climbed the sand dunes surrounding the oasis in order to get the iconic shot of Akhona looking out over the town. It was quite an uphill walk which involved lots of huffing and puffing. I took with the drone, wanting to get a cool aerial shot from the top of the dune, but the damned thing wouldn’t connect. Grrrr….Anyway, I did manage to get the other shots 🙂

We set off for Araquipa with our favorite Peru Hop guide Fabio at the helm. If we had known that Arequipa was such a cool place we would have stayed longer than the one night we spent at the really amazing Flying Dog hostel, which is located in an old Spanish mansion. After a few hours rest we joined Fabio for some sightseeing, which included a visit to famous frozen mummy Juanita, which was a very touching if not macabre experience. Then we spent over an hour at the fabulous Santa Catalina Monastry, which was just so striking. The photographer in me went into overdrive, and I shot Akhona in several great locations around the grounds of the monastery. It was definitely well worth the visit and 40 Sol entry fee.

Arequipa is a very picturesque, historical town filled with well-maintained and restored buildings. The central square of the old city is a great place to visit, especially at night when it is lit up and buzzing with people. We had some of the best food we have eaten in Peru in this city…A buffet lunch of gourmet dishes and delicious desserts for a mere 30 Sol/person will live in our memories 🙂

Our main destination on this particular trip was of course Cusco, the launching pad to the most popular archaeological site in South America – Machu Picchu. The bus trip to Cusco was a long trip filled with expectations and pent-up excitement. Visiting Machu Picchu was the number 1 priority of our trip to South America. We were volunteering with a travel company in Cusco for three weeks, so we knew we had ample time to explore not only the original Inca capital, but also the nearby Sacred Valley and of course the citadel of Machu Picchu. In exchange for filming and photographing these historical sites and editing a few short video’s of our footage we were provided with 3 weeks accommodation and two meals a day by our hosts. We stayed in the historical San Blas area of Cusco. It was the perfect deal 🙂

Our first day trip in Cusco was to the region of Pachabamba, where we joined a private tour to a family of traditional weavers. It was a really interesting day, as the family took us through the entire process of producing Alpaca fabric starting with the shearing of the Alpaca, to the spinning of the wool, the process of dying it different colors using natural colourants and then finally the weaving of the wool into fabric. We also danced and sang, and enjoyed a traditional lunch cooked on hot stones in the ground.

Our next day trip was to the famous Sacred Valley, which is the valley which leads to Machu Picchu. It is filled with archeological sites and ancient Inca towns, but most people visit the two major sites – Ollantaytambo and Pisac. About two hours drive from Cusco, our first stop was Pisac. It is a very typical Inca site, with distinctive terracing making for a dramatic vista looking out over the Sacred Valley.

After Pisac we made stop at the famous Pisac market before heading to the impressive ruins of Ollantaytambo. It was a very busy site, and a fellow traveller referred to it as the ‘poor mans Machu Picchu’ as it has a Temple of the Sun and impressive terracing, but costs a fraction of the price to visit. It was packed out with tourists when we visited. Lots of energy was needed to climb to the top, but we had our hiking sticks and took it easy 🙂

It was a great day trip and provided a good background for what was to come. I spent a few hours online shortly after we arrived in Cusco booking our trip of a lifetime to Machu Picchu which involved tickets to the site for $ 47/person, bus tickets to the top and back for $24/each and return train tickets from Cusco to Aquas Client for $320. We decided to stay overnight after our visit which cost and additional $38. The post on this incredible experience can be found here:

There is no doubt that thus far the trip to Machu Picchu has been the highlight of our South American adventure. But there was still more to see around Cusco and in the Sacred Valley and we were not going to miss out. So we did another day trip to see the nearby Saksaywaman which literally overlooks Cusco. We had seen these the impressive ramparts of this Inca fortress when visiting the Sacred Valley and Pachabamba, so it was great to finally get up close and personal to them.

And there was more…We had heard that no visit to Cusco was complete without a day trip out to the agricultural terraces of Moray, followed by a hour or two at the salt mines of Moras. Both are very dramatic locations visually, and at 25 Soles/person for a local tour bus it was a real bargain, even if we had to endure attempts to sell us liquor on board the bus by traveling salesmen 🙂

Of course, Cusco itself is a great city to spend some time in, and we had three weeks to wander around and soak up the atmosphere. In San Blas one can never get tired of looking at the the old buildings, most of which are now re-purposed as hotels, restaurants and curio shops. Further down each day visitors to the old town marvel at the stonework which forms the foundation to most of the Catholic Churches in the area. The Spanish destroyed the Inca temples and built their churches atop them. The poor quality of the Spanish stonework when compared to the Inca craftsmanship is painfully obvious.

In an attempt to not disturb the character of the Central Square, even famous US fast-food franchises have to comply with regulations regarding the look of their outlets – Starbucks must be the only branch in the word built on Inca foundations 🙂 The KFC branch is almost unrecognizable…

As we were collaborating with a local tour company during our stay in Cusco, we had a slightly different experience to most visitors, as we stayed in an apartment overlooking the historic neighborhood of San Blas. Our hosts provided us with breakfast and lunch each day, and we had access to a kitchen to cook ourselves hearty curries and stews for supper. For two of the three weeks our hosts were away in Argentina, so we had the apartment to ourselves, which made for a nice romantic interlude in our travels 🙂

Finally we had to leave Cusco, so we hopped back onto Peru Hop and set off for the lakeside city of Puno, on Lake Titicaca. The altitude on the lake is even higher than in Cusco, but fortunately we did not suffer from altitude sickness, as other travellers we met had. Other than the odd slight headache we were fine, as we had taken Ibuprofen in the days leading up to our trip to Cusco. This is a good alternative to the regular altitude sickness tablets most people take, but has no side effects. Of course, drinking coca tea and chewing coca sweets and leaves also must have helped.

Puno is not a pretty town, so we stayed for two days only as it is a good jumping-off point to do trips to the floating islands of Uros and lake islands like Taquile. We booked a trip through our accommodation for $20/person, and the following day we set off on a day trip to Uros and Taquile. After a 40min boat ride we arrived in Uros, a group of floating islands made from reeds. Now more of a tourist attraction, in the past entire communities lived on these ‘islands’ to escape persecution on the mainland. It was an interesting visit to a very unique place…

During the visit we learned how the islands are constructed and how the community is structured. It has a mayor, and people could have their passports stamped with a Uros stamp 🙂 Quite clearly few people still actually live on the islands now…Most stay in Puno and just take a boat to the islands each morning before the tour boats arrive. It’s always sad to see a unique lifestyle disappear…

After about an hour or so of exploring the little island we had landed on, and taking a trip in one of the traditional reed boats across to a nearby island, we got back on our tour boat and set off on a two hour trip to the more distant island of Taquile, which is famous for its fine weaving and knitting done mainly by the men of the island. Upon arrival we had to climb what felt like hundreds of stairs and steep pathways to get up the the square of the main village on the island…

In the main village we met with some locals and took a look at the famous weaving that the island produces. As with all of these tourist trips, people were trying to sell us their products, but luckily it was not done aggressively. We were not buying, so we focussed on taking some cool photographs around the village before our group settled down to a lunch of soup and trout.

After lunch we took a leisurely walk down to another small harbour where our boat had moored. It was very interesting seeing the islanders at work doing their farming and going about their daily lives. Although I wouldn’t describe the rocky island as beautiful, it is definitely a charming place to visit.

The visit to Uros and Taquile was interesting in that we were given a glimpse into how people of different cultures have lived for hundreds of years. They had no technology to speak of, so they realized mainly on good old-fashioned hard labour to build their reed islands or agricultural terraces.

The next day we were back on the bus…this time it was Bolivia Hop, which handles the border crossing between Peru and Bolivia, and then the onward bound travel to Copacabana and finally La Paz. We had applied for our Bolivian visa’s in Cusco, which had taken 45min to obtain by producing our travel itinerary, confirmation of accommodation for Copacabana and a copy of our credit cards. So we had an uneventful crossing, and headed off for Copacabana, which is the main lakeside town on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. We stayed at the lavish La Cupula in a suite for $ 50/night…We needed a bit of luxury and a kitchenette to cook ourselves some familiar food for the two days we stayed.

Copacabana is a nice little town nestled around a bay, and our hotel overlooked the town and bay. La Cupula is a destination in its own right, with its distinctive architecture and resident alpaca’s. The German owner Martin Stratker settled in Copacabana 25yrs ago, and has built not on La Cupula but the equally amazing La Isla next door in his time in the town. Both hotels are so unique and unusual that a visit is a must during a stay in Copacabana.

Unfortunately I was quite sick with what we think was food poisoning or gastric flu during our time in Copacabana, so I didn’t get to do much there, and stayed in bed for one day to recover. Martin sent a big pot of teamed honey to help in my recovery 🙂 Nevertheless we did feed the beautiful alpaca’s and do a little photoshoot with Akhona despite me feeling really weak and sick….

On our second day in the town we went on a Bolivia Hop side trip to the famous Isla da Sol, rumored to be the birthplace of the Inca. It was a fitting ending to our Inca adventure, and even though I was still sick we just had to do it. We decided not to hike across the island, but rather just go ashore at the Temple of the Sun for a few minutes, and then get back on the boat and travel to the next harbour where the main village is, where we spent an hour ashore. I just didn’t have the strength for a strenuous hike… When we arrived at the island after a lengthy boat ride I ran up the steep stairs to the toilet 🙂 Damn…

After a few minutes ashore we got back on the boat and sailed around to the main village to wait for the rest of the passengers who had hiked across the island. The quaint little village was teeming with donkey’s, which are the only form of transport on the island. We bought ice lolly’s and cool drinks and settled down to watch the passing parade of villagers and tourists in the bustling little port…

The following day we embarked on the final leg of our trip from Lima to La Paz with Bolivia Hop. The trip involved crossing a small bay in Lake Titicaca in a tiny boat while our bus went on a large pontoon…this we did at around 8pm at night in the freezing cold. We finally arrived in La Paz at around 10.30pm, and were dropped at our hotel in the famous Witches Market in the old town. The little Residential Alta Vista proved to be very good value for money at $25/night and we really enjoyed staying in the midst of all the action, especially as there was a big parade on the first day of our four day stay in La Paz. We grabbed our cameras and set off to capture the chaos that is La Paz.

After the frenetic activity of the parade we set about doing what we always do in a new city…Exploring and finding food :). We bought tickets for the very unique aerial cablecar system which is La Paz’s rapid transit system, and spent a few hours flying over the sprawling city, enjoying the views of distant snow-covered peaks. We also ate a very good fried chicken meal overlooking the city…

In La Paz I finally killed whatever stomach bug I had with a local antibiotic which the lady at the hotel recommended, and we had an enjoyable time taking it easy and soaking up the atmosphere of this somewhat crazy, chaotic city. We visited the Peru/Bolivia Hop office to drop off all of the footage we had shot of our trip to conclude the deal we had made with them, and collected our T-shirts :). Next stop – Uyuni Salt Flats and its amazing scenery…..

Thanks to Peru Hop for collaborating with us – in exchange for complimentary bus tickets from Lima to La Paz we supplied them with raw footage shot during our journey.

La Cupula also gave us a complimentary night – but we would have included them in our post anyway 🙂

In Cusco we collaborated with Pie Experiences – in exchange for accommodation and meals we shot and edited three short promotional video’s for them on South America, Patambamba and Peru.