Lima was the starting and the ending point of our trip. Our guide book provided rather grim description of the city concluding that one should try to avoid it all together. Unfortunately, it claimed, there was no way to do that. All international flights and all major bus routes pass through Lima. So there we were. It truly was not very spectacular, but we managed to spent the one day there rather pleasantly.
As the official beginning of our trip we marked the moment, when in Miraflores - a fancier part of Lima - we got the pacific ocean. From here we were going to cross Andean mountains, make it to its eastern slopes and beginning of jungle in Machu Picchu, then high up to 4000 meters above see level at Lake Titicaca and then back over the mountains to Lima.
On Monday morning we took a long distance bus to Ayacucho. The bus left three hours late, had to be fixed twice before even getting out of Lima and was about half as slow as the one which was scheduled to go originally. Nevertheless, we made it. Ayacucho is a nice highland town (about 2200 m). Since it is on a not so traveled route to Cuzco, there are very few tourists here. It has a great charm to it. There is a large market. Near Ayacucho are several important historical places. Two major Inca routes were crossing in the surrounding mountains and a capitol of a great Wari civilization was nearby. We have visited its ruins, which are now surrounded by an amazing cactus forest.
We spent just one day in Ayacucho and on Wednesday morning left for Cuzco. The about 600km long drive was scheduled for 24 hours. It is a main highway through the Andes in this latitude, but is a single lane unpaved road. We decided to break the trip in two, but unfavorable bus schedules forced us after arrival in our expected destination to board the same bus again and continue overnight.