Machu Picchu and Cusco

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We had an unexpected adventure just getting to Cusco from Puno. We arrived at the bus station at about 7.30am and waited for our bus. There must have been about 20 buses in the bus station, all of which looked completely respectable and comfortable. Apart from one..... which appeared to be held together by the power of sellotape alone. 

Ten minutes later we were predictably sat on this bus, which was probably officially decommissioned in about 1975. We made it about an hour down the road and were pulled over at a routine police checkpoint. We were stuck there for about an hour whilst some debate was raging about the validity of the bus' insurance. Amazingly the police didn't seem to bothered by the bald tyres, the knackered suspension or the fact that the windscreen was held in by the aforementioned sellotape. Anyway, after an hour some money allegedly changed hands and we were on our way again. We eventually got into Cusco at about 4pm, two hours late, although to be honest we were just happy to make it in one piece.

Central Cusco is really nice, with some great buildings concentrated around the Place d"Armes, although the level of attention that tourists receive from the local street vendors selling finger puppets, paintings, postcards, chocolates and massages becomes very tiresome very quickly.

We spent a couple of days looking around and did a city tour to check out the surrounding inca ruins at Saqsaywaman (easy to pronounce that one), Q'enqo, Pukapukara and Tambomachay where a natural spring apparently provides eternal youth to those that drink from it. This received a mixed response from our group (mainly older American women) which resembled a plastic surgery convention. It could have saved them a fortune! In the rush, one of them actually dropped her friend's expensive-looking camera into the stream. Oops.

We stayed at a place called Casa de la Gringa, a really chilled place run by a South African lady who runs trips up to the mountains to experience San Pedro (cactus juice). We decided to give the San Pedro a miss. Evenings at the hostel were really entertaining as it attracted some really interesting "alternative" people who had been on a camp with a Shamen in the jungle and who were basking in the glory of their spiritual life-changing experience. 

We also did a Sacred Valley tour which was fantastic. We went for a good hike around more ruins at Pisac (quite tiring in the altitude) and up the steep terraces at Ollantaytambo. We also stopped at a couple of markets, although they were mainly just selling touristy trinkets and the number of tourist buses per stall was frankly embarrassing. It would have been much nicer to stop at the various village festivals which were going on, but it's probably good that they can get on with something without tourist interference which dominates the area more than any other area of Peru we have been to.

We got the train from Ollantaytambo up to Aguas Calientes (the nearest town to Machu Picchu) at 8pm, arriving at about 9.30pm. We were met by someone from the hostel that we had booked through an agency in Cusco and were taken to an awful place (Inka 1) and then told that the agency had only paid them for one night and said that we would need to pay the difference for 2 nights. Our ticket actually said that we had paid for a different more expensive place (Inka 2) so we demanded to be taken there instead. It was marginally nicer. As Naomi put it, for the extra money we got no slug on the wall and a bit less paint dangling from the ceiling.

We got up at 5.30 am and took the bus up to Machu Picchu in the rain. We walked up the steps to the top of the site and watched the clouds gradually clear to reveal the ruins below. Everyone has seen photos of Machu Picchu so we knew what to expect, although the photos never really do justice to the whole picture and the incredible surrounding steep-sided mountains and deep valleys. We spent a few hours walking around in the sunshine with a guide and then had some free time to investigate ourselves.  The whole things was just amazing and exceeded expectations.

We were just commenting on how quiet it was when about 10 buses arrived containing the daytrippers from Cusco. We were just about done by midday and heavy showers had started to fall on the daytrippers so we headed back to Aguas Calientes and checked into the nicer Hostal Continental before getting the 5.45am train back to Ollantaytambo which for some recent broke down for 3 and a half hours en route. Luckily we weren't flying back to Lima until the next day.

We're now back in Lima before we head back down to Santiago and then on down to Pucon in the Lake District for some healthy living for a week or so.