Day 368 – Lima to Huaraz

Today we woke up early to have breakfast at our accommodation, Orchid Hostel. After finalising our backpacks we called an Uber.

The Uber took us from our hostel to the Linea Bus Station in the suburb of La Victoria. As we approached, the driver got us to lock the doors. He said it’s dangerous around here. These are the streets we walked a few days ago, to and from Circuito Magico Del Agua (Day 366). The ride took around 15 minutes.

Lima to Huaraz

At the station we showed our tickets to the counter labelled ‘venta de pasajes’. They told us to drop off our backpacks ‘mochillas’ at the bag counter ‘equipajes’ where we got receipts back for our two large bags. We had purchased the bus tickets yesterday for 30 PEN ($12.95 AUD) per person through the mobile app RedBus.

Toilets are free and there is a small cafeteria. Signs for Wi-Fi around but it may only be for the VIP service. There were plenty of seats to wait on, until the scheduled time of 10.30am.

We boarded the bus around 10.25am. There was a small security check, and then we had to show our passports. No tickets were checked.

Bus left at 10.32am with only 6 passengers on the top level including us. At 11.20am we arrived at Terminal Plaza Norte. Lots of people got on here. We also discovered the bus has a toilet, which was nice and clean on the bottom level. We were the first to use it though.

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The bus stopped for lunch around 3.30pm at a nice local restaurant. The restaurant is between the towns of Naranjal and Hoya Chica.

I forgot to mention, after leaving Lima the weather improved drastically. It’s sunny and hot outside.

The road which was really good started to deteriorate on the 2nd half of the journey. Houses look basic from outside and we saw lots of people herding animals. The scenery was beautiful with snow capped mountains in the distance. 

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Huaraz

We arrived at the Huaraz Linea Bus Station at 7.20pm. After picking up our bags we walked the short distance to our hostel, Akilpo. We had booked private rooms for 2 nights. The owner was super friendly and a wealth of information. After seeing the room we booked another night straight away.

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The short walk had us breathless. The lack of oxygen in Huaraz hit us straight away. Huaraz is 3,000 metres above sea level (Mount Kosciuszko is 2,228m), so proper acclimatisation is required. 

Feeling hungry, we walk down into town. Along one of the busier roads we found a very nice pizza shop, Antuco Pizza Artesanal. When we arrived the waiter smiled at us and left the shop. We sat around for a while wondering how to order…

After 10 minutes, when we were planning to leave, he came back with a roll of serviettes. We figured he must have run out of them at the store. After eating our pepperoni pizza, we were glad we stayed. Delicious!

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We then went back to hostel to hit the hay.

Keypharse: Backpacking adventure as we catch a bus north from Lima to the high altitude town of Huaraz