Colonial Cusco and Machu Picchu

Liora and I departed Pisco around 4:00pm on the 25th, and traveled south to Ica. We bought our tickets ¨direct¨to Cusco via Arequipa, but it seems when a bus isn´t full enough with gringos or if they just want to redirect you they will. So our journey turned from an expected 18 hours travel to 30. We arrived in Cusco at 2:00am on the 27th after backtracking to Puno, changing busses and bus companies twice and going from luxury express to local and cramped.

Cusco is a tourist town no doubt, but with its colonial style, old cobble stone streets and local touch of indigenous Peruvians, as well as being the longest inhabited city in the entire continent, it is a great place to spend some time. Our hostel, Pariwana, was brand new, only opening a week before we arrived so the cleanliness and hot showers felt marvelous after roughing it through Pisco for a week. We explored the town, the Plaza de Armas (seems every south American city has one), the local markets of raw meats (and by this I mean whole pigs on display) and artisian goods (including masks for Halloween). On a hill directly above the city sits the Christo Blanco (a large white statue of Christ with his arms spread, seems every city in south America has one of these too), so we decided to hike our way to the top.

In route we ran across a man offering us to explore some of the ruins outside the city by horeseback. A little skeptical at first, this turned out to be quite entertaining and we got to skip paying any fees to see the ruins. Liora´s horse PukaPunch was sweet, mine, I forget the name, knew I was a gringo, was stubborn as all get up and only wanted to return to the ranch. But overall I would say if you find yourself in Cusco ask about a man with some horses, it will surely be worth your money and your time.

Riding our horses through the Andes. I think that was the only time mine ever stopped walking.

The next day, we met up with a fellow PSF volunteer and started our adventurous trek to Machu Picchu. Every person wishing to see these ruins must pass through the terrible little tourist town of Aguas Calientes. Most people hop on the train ($131 round trip) from Cusco and arrive in Aguas 3 hours later. It is possible to see Machu Picchu and return to Cusco in the same day via this route, but seeing as we are a little strapped for cash we decided to take the road less traveled by.

The higher, narrower, more nerve racking way to get there.

We caught a local minivan at 8:00am from Cusco toward Santa Maria, a jungle town 5 hours away. We drove through mountainous passes above cloud level constantly winding up and down trecherously steep, curvy roads that abruptly went from two-lane paved to one-lane dirt. Once we arrived, we hopped in a shared cab and scaled the side of yet anouther mountain to Santa Teresa (the one-lane road getting even more frightening with thousand-foot drop offs and cars driving in both directions). We arrived unharmed, a little shaken up from the bumpy ride and found a local boy and his father to drive us to the hidro-electric plant. Here is where the railroad tracks end for the train that travels from Cusco to Machu Picchu (see above). We then walked to Aguas Calientes 15 km from the end of the tracks (nearly 9.4 miles). The enourmous Andes mountains surrounded us with the thickest jungle I have ever seen. Even though there are pumas, serpents and monkeys, we didn´t see much wildlife, but the walk was great for our crammped legs. If you do this route, I don´t recommend taking your large packs, as it gets long and hot.

Walking the tracks. Can't beat the view of the Peruvian jungle on all sides.

We spent the night in Aguas and awoke at 3:30am to catch the first bus to Machu at 5:30. People that get up there first thing can sign up to climb Wayna Picchu (the mountain directly behind Machu). They only let 400 people up a day and we were lucky enough to get up there before the crowds arrived. The entrance ticket to the ruins costs $45 and a one-way bus ride up another $7 (additional $7 if you want to take it back down). There is always the option to hike up to Machu Picchu which takes about two hours, but we couldn´t muster up the energy to do so.

Machu Picchu cannot be explained in words. Every way you turn to look at the monuments is picture-perfect and you can walk among them going nearly anywhere you please. Sitting on top of the mountain amongst the majestic Peruvian jungle, it might be the grandest, most peaceful place these eyes have ever seen, that is until the hordes of people start showing up around 10:00am, then it just gets overwhelming. But when the doors open at 6:00am, you can catch the sunrise and have some space to enjoy them at your leisure. After we spent nearly 4 hours there, we climbed down where the bus had taken us up and reversed our route from the day before back to the hidro-electric plant (although this time we took the train for $8 to save some time), Santa Teresa, Santa Maria and finally Cusco. It was a very long two days, but worth every moment.

Standing above Machu Picchu. WaynaPicchu in the background.

After the long days with little sleep, we made it to Lake Titicaca in Copacabana, Bolivia and will be heading to the Isla de Sol this afternoon. We caught an overnight bus to Copacabana, passing through Puno and crossing the border at 7:00am and arriving yesterday morning on Halloween. Americans must pay $135 to enter Bolivia as our government has done the same to them to enter the states. It has been a nice, relaxing time and Liora and I have decided to splurge a little and stay in a hotel, eat nice food like Trucha de la Diabla (Trout of the Devil) and catch up on some much needed rest.

Trucha de la Diabla at its finest.

Ciao for now. Isla de Sol and La Paz up next.