Another of the 7 Wonders (Machu Picchu)
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2008
1
20
21
Trip End
Sep 20, 2008
Aguas Calientes,
Peru
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
We left Cuzco very early yesterday morning (6 am train) to head to Aguas Calientes, the nearest town to Machu Picchu. You can only reach it by train (or on foot). The train ride is beautiful, along a river and through breathtaking mountains. We were sitting with a young man from Wales named Nathan who proved to be an interesting conversationalist. He has done a lot of traveling, and was planning to head to Bolivia next.
Aguas Calientes is a strange town, it really only exists because of itīs proximity to Machu Picchu and itīs a town of hotels, hostels, and pizza places. (Ok, they also have other food, but virtually every eatery serves and advertizes pizza).
John wasnīt feeling very well, so we found a place to stay and had a lazy afternoon. We had been planning to get the first bus up to Machu Picchu in the morning to see the sunrise (leaves at 5:30), but when we woke up at 4:30 it was pouring rain, so we went back to sleep. The rain stopped eventually and we caught a later bus. Unfortunately, John was still feeling pretty lousy, so we didnīt spend as much time there as we might have normally. But it really is awe inspiring to walk around, both for the technology involved in building it and for the natural beauty of the location. The only downside is the people there. When you buy your ticket for Machu Picchu, they lay out a set of rules, including no disposable bottles, no food, no making loud noises, stay on the paths, etc. But they donīt have any kind of enforcement, and people flagrantly ignore them. There was trash scattered everywhere, people having picnic lunches, people climbing around all over, etc. Itīs not unique to Machu Picchu, we saw similar behavior on Easter Island and at Iguassu Falls, but it never fails to dissapoint me. Given the increasing pressure on the Peruvian government to limit access to Machu Picchu because it is rapidly deteriorating, I was surprised at how little effort there was to actually preserve anything.
Anyway, Iīll climb off my soapbox for now. We got a bus back to Aguas Calientes and found a cheap hostel where John could sleep for a few hours before our train leaves tonight. We have another day and a half in Cuzco which will be much less strenuous, so hopefully heīll be rested up and feeling better before we head back to Lima to get our flight home on Saturday.
It seems somewhat unbelievable that our 6 weeks are almost up. In some ways, it has flown by and seems like it was very short. On the other hand, Ecuador seems like it was a long time ago!
On a different note, it appears our timing with regard to visiting Bolivia was impeccable. The day after we left, the US started organizing evacuation flights for Americans in Bolivia, most commercial airlines suspended flights to and from there, and the Peace Corps moved all its volunteers to Peru. Things in the part of Peru we were in are still pretty quiet, and thereīs supposed to be new talks starting agian today so it may all be settling down.
