Van rides from cusco to hideoelectica

We were going to take the public bus from Ollantaytambo to Santa Maria (you can also take it from Cusco) and then a combi to Santa Teresa and a combi to Hidroelectrica. But then we were told that the bus would come from Cusco and would be full by the time it got to Ollantaytambo. So we ended up going with a tourist shuttle that came from Cusco and went to Hidroelectrica. We paid 80 soles per person, return. I had the impression that was the rate from Cusco to Hidroelectrica. We bought the ticket a day in advance. I also think the shuttle is actually not that much more expensive than public transport in this case.

Awesome thank you!! I will book a tourist shuttle!! Super helpful!!

But then we were told that the bus would come from Cusco and would be full by the time it got to Ollantaytambo.

The combi vans in Peru are always full. They won't leave unless they are full, so they wait for passengers. From Ollantaytambo, if a combi van is full, they will either try to squeeze in more passengers, or they will start loading another combi van. These combi services never miss an opportunity to transport passengers, so they don't leave local people standing around with no transit.

Most of the public vans/combis/minibuses we took were packed and people got on and off all the time.

This bus to Santa Maria was an actual bus, not a van. It is the bus that goes from Cusco to Quillabamba but you get off at Santa Maria. We were told that you can take the bus in Urubamba as well and that works because you can buy tickets for it in Urubamba guaranteeing you a seat. But you can't buy tickets for it in Ollantaytambo and so if it had been full by the time it reached Ollantaytambo they would not have left us standing there but we would have had to stand the whole way. That is why we ended up booking a tourist shuttle.

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