That hostel owner in Cusco who yelled at me for 5 minutes about my backpack taught me more than any guidebook

The 65L thing is the part that gets me. I've done Cusco to Machu Picchu twice and a pack that big is a liability on those buses anyway, they make you strap it to the roof and hope. That hostel guy might've been harsh but he wasn't wrong about the fear part. I spent a week in Laos watching a 50-year-old lady carry a sewing machine on her head while I stressed over which pair of socks to bring, and that clicked something for me. Since then I've cut down to 30L and I ask the woman at the guesthouse counter about the local bus, not my phone.