Cuzco and Machu Picchu
Trip Start
Nov 18, 2008
1
14
55
Trip End
Nov 17, 2009
Cusco,
Peru
Friday, January 9, 2009
We found ourselves a cool hostal with an amazing breakfast included in the price- we had sugar puffs!! The first bowl of cereal weŽve had in months, followed by rolls with cheese and a good cup of tea!
We headed into town and after much research and deliberation we booked a trip to Machu Picchu! It seems really hard to book trains here coz all the tour companies buy up the tickets and then sell them on so you have to look for an agency which has tickets on the times you want! Anyway we were sorted and looking forward to the trip, so spent the day wandering in the city and browsing the many craft stalls. Popped into the cathedral to see the painting of the Last Supper with a centrepiece of a guinea pig, and another painting of the nativity with llamas instead of camels!
Then on Friday we were off on the trip to the Sacred Valley of the Incas, unfortunately this involved a cringy tourist bus trip with a tour guide who kept shouting at folk to hurry up! It was really frustrating me, especially at lunch time when the bus rolled up at a buffet style place and we all had to queue up for some less than impressive food! I was getting a bit grumpy by this stage, but Pete was keeping his cool as ever!! However, we were both relieved, and felt a bit mischievous but we ditched the tour guide at the last ruins at Ollyantytambo, and went our our way, then had an ice cream on the way for the train!
The train we were booked on was the Vistadome service which is more classy than the backpacker service and we were given a lunch box with a tasty sandwich, cake and juice! Very swish!! Arrived at Aguas Callientes which is only accessible by train or by a 3 hour walk on foot along the railway line. We found the hostal, our room had a balcony of the River Urumbamba! Sounds relaxing?! It wasnŽt really- itŽs a really fast river and was really noisy! IŽm not really complaining tho. In the evening we bumped into the Irish couple who weŽd met in Colca Canyon, so we went out for a drink with them, a Bolivian couple, an Argentinian couple and and English guy in the evening.
Next day we were up early and in the bus queue for 5am! We stood beside an Aussie lady who had a laugh like Dame Edna! WeŽd been well warned that the queue was really long and weŽd need to be there sharp or weŽd miss the first bus! Then at the alloted time 6 first buses turned up so there really wasnŽt a panic at all!
At the entrance to Machu Picchu we met the guide and the hoard of other people he was taking round, lots of them Irish! It was a big group-27 of us, but the guide was good and quite funny. The clouds were down initially, but gradually lifted through the day to give us bright sunshine in the afternoon, so we were really lucky as itŽs the rainy season just now.
Had a good day, starting with the tour, then we climbed Wayna Picchu, the mountain you always see in the background of the postcard shots! It was a fair climb up, to reach the ruins, up ladders, through tunnels and up steps which the Incas had cut into the boulders. We were rewarded with some great views down on the ruins though. We then took the long way back, round the mountain to the little visited Temple of the Moon, where we bumped into the Argentinian couple and the Bolivian couple weŽd been out for a drink with the night before! So that was nice and we spent a few hours with them. Headed back to the ruins and we walked up to the caretakers hut to take the classic photos down over the whole site. We seemed to be feeling energetic which was surprising as weŽd had such and early start and only a cereal bar to keep us going! But we headed round to the Inca Drawbridge on a recently restored footpath to see where another path used to cut across a narrow ledge on a huge exposed rockface. It looked like the path had been glued on! It was a really sheer drop down to the valley floor!
We also headed up to the sungate. which was good to see as when I was here last time with Fiona and Jane it was really dreich weather and we could hardly see 5 meters! So it was nice to be back on such a clear day.
We were eventually ready to leave at about 4.30 pm, having had to ask several people to take a photo of the 2 of us! Some people have terrible photography skills and it took us about 6 attempts with different people to get a good photo!! By this time we were really hungry and thirsty as thereŽs no cafe or shop inside the ruins.Despite this we decided to save some money and refused to spend 15sol on a cup of juice, we also decided to walk rather than pay $7 each for the bus downhill! So when we arrived back in town we were parched, and really enjoyed the Chinese food which was a bargain 10sol each!
It had been a really good day and the train back was funny too when we were served the sandwich and cake and then treated to a fashion show and a crazy dance from the balaclava clad train staff!! At the station we were ready to haggle for a taxi or bus back to Cuzco when we heard "Piter, Shiona" "Piter, Shiona" being called from behind the barriers! It turned out our tour had booked us a bus ticket and the 9 year old boy calling our names was a really welcome sight and sound!
You may have noticed that weŽre now really up to date with the blog! This is because we had an admin day the following day and got our batteries recharged for the next stage!
Off to Puno on the 8am bus tomorrow......
