Strike, Rattle
and Ride ~ Peru 2018.
When
it comes to early morning wake-up calls, an earthquake with a magnitude of
5.7 at 6.07am is certainly an encouragement to get out of bed and thus began
our first morning in Peru.
On the plus side was the opportunity to watch rush-hour buses in Lima as life continued as
normal. As with most modern cities, Lima
suffers from chronic traffic congestion despite a high frequency bus network
and modern BRT line. There are 15,396 buses registered in Lima by numerous independent operators,
typically using smaller van/truck derived chassis and the larger of these have
locally built bodies. The local authority, Municipalidad de Lima, oversees the
Sistema Integrado de Transporte on routes in the 200/300s and the Metropolitano
BRT with its four lines.
Stretching
from Matellini in the south to Naranjal in the north the 'Metropolitano' is the
most convenient for tourists as line C connects the tourist district of Miraflores
and the old city, whilst lines A and B require one change. The full system is
21 miles in length and has 38 stations. Stations have network maps at the
entrance as not all routes go the full distance or call at all stations. One
inconvenience for visitors is the need to acquire a pre-purchase smartcard and
load it with cash. The local advice was to stand at the entrance barrier with
2.50 new soles, the cost of a single fare, and ask a local to 'tap' you through
in exchange for the cash, and it worked. The terminal at Naranjal provides the
best location for observing all varieties of operators and vehicle types. The
district of Miraflores has four Metropolitano stations with Ricardo Palma
providing the least hazardous connection to local buses which congregate around
the Ovalo and Central Park and only requires
crossing one major road. The disadvantage with this location from an
enthusiast’s perspective is the lack of American style school buses which are
still prevalent on local service in the centre of Lima.
Lima
has attempted to integrate the various independent long distance bus operators
in the Grand Terminal, at Plaza Norte close to Metropolitano station Tomds
Valle, but several still insist in managing their own departure points, such as
Cruz del Sur on Avenue Javier Prado which is the departure point
for the seventeen hour 629 mile trip along
the Pacific coast to
Arequipa. Arequipa
is a tourist mecca with the historic centre built in a grid system of narrow
one-way streets on one bank of the Rio Chilli, whilst the modern sprawling
suburbs sit on the other bank and extend for miles along the highway thanks to
the wealth generated by mining. The majority of bus routes from both areas pass
through the Puente Grau bus station, with small van derived vehicles covering
the narrow old streets and the occasional conventional bus crossing the bridge
from the modern side. The bus station consist of two rows of stops on two
levels and is heavily congested with dwell time rigorously enforced by
transport inspectors. The occasional full size tourist coach penetrates the old
city but the only large buses to do so are the unwieldy looking Ashok
Leyland/Marcopolo double-deckers on sightseeing duties.
The
next two days of our tour were aboard a Mercedes Benz with Irizar i6 body on an
excursion from Arequipa (7550ft above sea level) to the Colca Canyon and
Condors' Cross via Mirador De Los Volcanes (16,000ft above sea level)
and a descent of
14 hairpin bends and numerous twists with a journey time of 4 hours to the town
of Chivay (12,000ft above sea level). Whilst the Mercedes handled the altitude
without any problems, older express buses on the route struggled: radiator
grills lifted, engine covers propped open and a thick black trail of exhaust
fumes left in their wake.
Continuing
on to Puno, gateway to Lake Titicaca, the majority
of express buses tended to be three-axel single deckers with Scania chassis and
Marcopolo bodies. The route passes through Juliac, the provincial capital and
transport hub, which is currently without a completed road bypass and its
narrow streets are congested with van derived minibuses and Moto Taxis (tuk tuks).
The road into Puno is steep with the main residential area sitting on the slopes
above the bay whilst the main commercial and university areas sit along the
lake shore. The local bus network is dominated by van derived minibuses plying
their trade around the bay and the extent of the network is defined by two
large tourist hotels on opposite headlands.
From Puno
we cheated and made the journey to Cusco by
overnight train. This was fortuitous as it turned out because a planned day of
national strikes meant that the road system in and out of Cusco
was severely disrupted. Our planned train arrival time was brought forward by
one-and-a-half-hours to circumvent any potential problems which the train
company feared may include level crossings being blocked by protestors. The
view of the express coach station from the train showed a large number of
coaches standing idle as were the local city buses. By mid-morning, tourist
coaches were either trapped in the city or unable to enter because main roads
were blocked by rubble and oil drums, and the police increased their weapons from
side-arms and riot shields to additional rifles and teargas launchers - a
situation which lasted until 4pm. Eventually the all clear was given and we
boarded our small VW badged MAN 'truck with Modasa (Motores Diesel Andinos
S.A.) Apolo body and left the valley in a convoy of vehicles, driving through a
slalom of rubble, oil drums etc. As we crested the hill there was a long convoy
of express coaches waiting to enter the city. It soon became apparent that
small truck derived coaches do not make comfortable express vehicles on steep
winding roads and we arrived in the Sacred
Valley amidst plumes of
smoke coming from the brake pads. No such problems for German tourists staying
in the hotel as their smart German registered Neoplan Cityliner, belonging to
Worldwide Gruppenreisen of Dachau, Munich,
sat proudly in the car park. According to the driver, German clientele demand
luxury so the coach is shipped to South America for a year and makes regular
journeys from Santiago, Chile
through Boliva and across Peru,
under the Andino Tours branding.
If you
want to continue further along the Scared
Valley the only options
available are walking or train. When the train from Sacred Valley arrives at the
town of Aguas Calientes (gateway
to Machu Picchu), Mercedes Benz Lo915's with Marcopolo or Volare W9 bodies transfer
you to the citadel entrance. This is via a dirt road with a climb of 390 metres
and thirteen hairpin bends, passing on route the depot for the operator Consettur
Machupicchu S.A.C.
What a difference three days can make! Returning to
Cusco from Machu Picchu,
the city was alive with a fully functioning bus service and vibrant coach station. The
narrow one way streets are plied by small van and truck derived buses with
individual operators such as Batman, Servicio Andino, Satelite and El Dorado with the route
displayed along the side of the bodywork. Most routes run through the old city to
modern sprawling suburbs on either side with mini interchange points such as
City Park Limacpampa and Calle Concebidayoc doted around. The coach interchange
is located ten blocks from the centre at Terminal Terrestre (Earth Terminal), a
functional single story concrete building containing all the operators' individual
booking kiosks and passenger seating area. Externally
there are fifteen boarding bays and a vast parking area for coaches on layover.
Micaela Bastidas which overlooks the interchange and runs parallel to the
railway line is used by many operators as a parking area and houses a roadside
depot for Transportes Power. For the final leg of the trip back to Lima, there were two
route options. The first, generally considered the safest but longest, was to
return via Arequipa,
but that entailed travelling over many miles of previously travelled roads. So option
two, a direct and spectacular route over the Andes
covering 680 miles in 22 hours, was chosen.
With dramatic scenery and interesting history Peru is well
worth a visit, although with questionable driving and problems breathing at high
altitude, it is literarily not a country for the faint hearted.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/D1LSSBNLoGNqqHQNA
