Cusco, Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail

Trip Start Jan 26, 2000
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Trip End Jun 14, 2000


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Tuesday, May 30, 2000

Cusco must be the most touristy town I've been to on my trip and we arrived there at 6am after an overnight trip from Puno. To be honest I didn't like Cusco too much even though it had some excellent architecture on offer. I think was put me off was all the people trying to sell/hassle you, the fact that there was a Paddy O'Neil's pub or Big Mama's pizza joint on every corner and I figured I could get all that back at home. That day I took a bus ride about 5 miles out of town and had a peaceful and relaxing walk back to town stopping at some important Inca ruins on the way.
During the afternoon I bumped into Claire and Katrina and they persuaded me to do the 4 day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with a tourist agency they were going to book with. I had very negative feelings about doing this walk, I've been told up to 200 people a day do it, I also wasn't very enthused about doing an organized hike and walking on a trek that I had often heard referred to as the "toilet paper trail" due to unsanitary toilet practices by people. In the end I had a fantastic time on the trail. There were 11 of us in our group, all from differing backgrounds, the weather was great and we had great views of the snow capped mountains. We had porters and cooks, our tents would be set up by the time we arrived at camp and our lunch would be on the table (yes we had table and chairs!) when we arrived at our place of lunch, but the best perk must have been cups of tea in bed in the morning!
We passed lots of other Inca ruins on the first 3 days and out guide had great, if not a bit long and exaggerated stories, on every one of them.
On our final day we rose at 4am to make it to the Sun Gate and superb views of Machu Picchu for sunrise, I knew it was going to be a great day when I opened my tent and the first thing I saw was a shooting star. It was a fantastic sight that greeted us after our tough 3 days of hiking. After watching Machu Picchu light up with the rising sun we walked for an hour further to arrive at our destination - Machu Picchu. Our guide gave us a tour round before the bulk of the tourists arrived, up to 2000 people a day can visit Machu Picchu!
In the afternoon we climbed Huayna Picchu, the very steep pinnacle just behind Machu Picchu, after a very steep climb we got to see the Machu Picchu complex from above which is actually shaped like a condor and we were also treated to the fantastic sight of a condor flying below us which couldn't have been more than 5 metres away, it almost felt like I could reach out and touch it.
We arrived in Aguas Calientes (translates to hot water) later in the afternoon and headed straight for the hot springs where we spent a few hours relaxing before taking the train back to Cusco, incidentally my first train journey in South America.
I booked a flight out of Cusco for the next morning, so that evening we went to one of the many Irish bars I complained about earlier where they even served Guinness.
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