Our 5 Day / 4 Night Bus Trip from Cusco to Lima

Between stays in Lima and Cusco, we took a bus trip with Peru Hop. It gave us an opportunity to explore some fun cities and sights in Peru that we otherwise wouldn’t have easily accessed. The great thing about a Peru Hop bus tour is that it’s entirely customizable. You can do as many or as few of the stops as you like. 

We opted for doing most of the stops between Cusco and Lima, minus Arequipa, which you can check out here if you’re interested. 

The tour we did was 5 days and 4 main stops, which included: Puno, Nazca, Huacachina, and Paracas. We started in Cusco where our Peru Hop shuttle picked us up, then ended in Lima. The bus took us directly to our lodging. Great way to pack in a lot while having all the transportation taken care of for you!

PUNO

At Puno, we did the Taquile Islands Full Day Speedboat tour. Our first stop was one of the Uros floating islands. There are over 100 floating islands! Tour companies rotate between the islands, which allows each to benefit from tourists, but means each is only visited 2-3 times a month. The islands have simpler, traditional laws different from the mainland, and each has its own president.  We learned how the islands are made and the villagers performed some traditional songs. The islands are made from bundles of Totora roots and reeds, which are roped together and anchored to the lake using large rocks to keep the islands from floating away. 

The reeds are used to make their boats and huts, as well. They use two kinds of boats, a small one designed for 1-2 people and a larger one, made of two smaller boats put together with wooden planks over the top. The larger ones often include a small hut and kitchen. We took a ride in the larger one, which they referred to as their “Mercedes Benz.” It was beautifully crafted, painted yellow and red, with cougar heads on the bow of each. 

We bought a hand stitched pillowcase depicting ducks in the water/reeds typical of Uros and were given a complimentary medallion necklace, as well. 

Next stop was Taquile, where we were served a traditional Peruvian lunch from a family on the island: flat bread with salsa, quinoa soup, a small salad, trout with roasted potatoes, and muña tea. The trout was quite tasty! They also had a vegetable omelet as a vegetarian option. 

We learned about their weaving and the meaning of different hats. One belt can take a month to make and a hat up to 2 months. A hat that is half colored is for single men and a fully colored hat signifies a married man. Chullo hats convey respect and are worn by elders/authority figures. Single women wear bright colors and bigger pom poms. Married women wear black, darker colors, and have smaller pom poms. 

Tony and I also liked that they have men and women live together for 2-3 years before they marry to determine whether they are compatible. Then once they are married, they are with their partner for life.

After lunch, we walked up to the main plaza, where we had a wonderful view of the crystal clear water and neighboring islands, grabbed some homemade strawberry chocolate ice cream, and enjoyed some traditional music and dancing.

NAZCA

The most popular thing to see in Nazca are the Nazca lines. We opted for the airplane tour, which allows you to see more and provides the best view of the geoglyphs.

That said, the heat and twists and turns in the plane can cause motion sickness. If you get motion sick, are claustrophobic, or have a fear of heights, you may prefer to do the viewing towers. Another passenger on the plane with us was sick the whole time. Definitely not fun!

The good news is the Peru Hop shuttle stops at 2 Nazca viewing towers, but it is more limiting in terms of the number of glyphs you’ll see. 

You can also visit Chauchilla Cemetery, which contains open air tombs with the largest display of pre-Incan mummified bodies in Peru. We opted out of this to rest by our hotel pool, but it is quite popular. 

HUACACHINA

Our first night in Huacachina, we walked up the dunes and watched the sunset. The climb isn’t nearly as bad as it might look if you stick to the ridges. And if you’re adventures, trying running and bounding down the dune. You’ll probably see people doing this. Bit of an adrenaline rush, looks silly, and of course that’s what Tony did. Overall, the dunes were definitely worth the hike, but be prepared to be shaking sand out of your shoes for days!

Later we went out for food and drinks. To be honest, Huacachina does not offer the best of either. It’s expensive and sub-par for the most part (maybe there are some good eats and drinks out there, but we didn’t have that experience). The town itself isn’t exactly eye candy (except at night when you’re looking at it far away). But the beauty of Huacachina is the sand dunes and surroundings itself. And things got even more fun our second day.

The next morning we did a chocolate making and wine/pisco tasting tour. I couldn’t eat the chocolate unfortunately because it was all made with nuts, but I enjoyed the wine/pisco tasting, and we went home with a small bottle of their sweet fig dessert wine. We also enjoyed a good lunch at the winery. I had slow cooked beef with rice and beans, and Tony had pork carapulcra, a regional specialty in Ica.

Later that afternoon, we did a dune buggy, sandboarding, and sunset tour, which was really fun! Whipping around in the dune buggies was kind of like being on a small roller coaster. So, if you enjoy stuff like that you’ll have a lot of fun! Sandboarding may look scary if you’ve never done it, but after you go down your first slope you’ll realize it’s not that bad. Kind of like sledding on your belly!

PARACAS

In Paracas, we took a boat tour to Islas Ballestas, “the poor man’s Galapagos.” We saw several birds, penguins, sea lions, shellfish, and crabs. The islands look white and smell terrible because of all the bird poop, but the sea lions were cute. And apparently the bird poop is a huge source of national income because it’s worth something like $2000/kg for fertilizer. The stink is certainly memorable. But its worth braving the odor for all the awesome animal sightings.

In the afternoon, we road dune buggies through Paracas National Reserve, which was just $2.50/person. We stopped at a beach and a scenic overlook. And it was an interesting juxtaposition seeing desert sand cliffs next to the ocean.

FINAL TIPS

• Overall, it was a good trip, but Peru Hop seemed a bit disorganized at times. Their itinerary didn’t quite match ours, which was a little confusing and we had to clarify. Sometimes they were a little late on pick-up. And we had trouble getting a hold of Peru Hop, but luckily we were able to get a hold of a woman who helped us at the office in Cusco because she gave us her personal Whatsapp number.
• The buses were quite hot when we were there. So, make sure to wear light, comfortable clothing. 
• If you’re sensitive to motion sickness, make sure to bring some Dramamine. 
• Make sure to bring your own toilet paper for the buses, because they may not have any in the stall. 
• Be mindful of time when planning and doing excursions. Our Nazca flight started 1.5 hours later than we scheduled. So, we only had about 10 minutes when we got back to our hotel before they picked us up to head to Huacachina. If this happens to you, be sure to talk to the operators at your excursion to see if they can get you on sooner. For this reason, it’s also good to make sure you have some snacks on you, in case you don’t have time to eat again before boarding the bus or shuttle.