The Sacred Valley of the Incas - Aug 2018

Aguas Calientes has a strange feel to it.  It exists only for the thousands of tourists that flock to Machu Picchu .... that's 2,500 visitors per session (there is a morning session from 6am and an afternoon session from 12noon), so 5,000 per day!    There are no cars in the village itself which is perched on the side of a mountain.  Of course, with such a captive audience, everything is relatively expensive.  We were to stay two nights, with our visit to Machu Picchu for the afternoon session on the day in between.

Had we not walked in the day before we probably would have decided to walk up the mountain to Machu Picchu, but the previous day made us realise we aren't as young (fit!) as we like to think.  So we headed for the bus queue at about 10am.  Good job we did as it was horribly busy and took around an hour to get on a bus.   At this point we are reminding each other why we don't normally do 'tourist'.

The bus queue

The 20min bus ride was yet another joy to behold and we felt quite smug watching the poor souls who were making the journey by foot.

When we arrived at the top we still weren't convinced that this was going to be worth it.

However, we didn't have to wait long and with just a bit of jostling, we were soon through the gates and on site.

We found a quiet corner right up high and sat for quite some time just taking it all in.

There are not enough words to describe the rest of our afternoon, so we will leave you with these pics to contemplate .....

There really are some tourist spots in the world you simply can't pass by.

Later in the afternoon, the bus line to get back down the mountain was even longer than the morning one.   No matter .... plenty of great people (and doggy) watching opportunities .... and a few conversations to be had with others in the line.

The next morning we were booked on the train out to Ollantaytambo.  It was a great opportunity to do a 'round trip' rather than go back the way we came.  It turned out to be a great choice ...

There were cabin mates to talk to

Coffee and cake!

And entertainment .....

Dancing

A fashion parade of some beautiful Peruvian knitwear

Some envious moments!
How the other half live .... the Hiram Bingham 'posh' train pulled up
next to us.These people pay around US$700 to
take this train from Cusco to Aguas and back.
Hey, but they get wine!

And always great scenery

Ollantaytambo turned out to be the cutest little town ever.

Train station

Artisan market

Pretty lane during the day

A pretty lane at night

We only stayed one night in a really lovely and very basic hostel including the best breakfast we'd had in a long time.

The dogs at the hostel were a real hoot.  They are a breed called Peruvian Inca Orchid

Tiring being a dog

They don't look very cuddly, but are just as smoochy as their furrier cousins.

We came across this beauty whilst walking
the streets

Ollantaytambo has some pretty remarkable Incan ruins of it's own. Before we left in the morning we walked some way up the free ones to look across at the ones you pay for ;-)

 Mid morning, we headed for the train station to catch a colectivo back to Cusco where we had left our luggage at the previous hostel.  Again, we weren't certain that this plan would work, but as soon as the local worker's train came in, a mass of colectivos arrived out of no-where and we were able to secure a couple of seats.  We sat next to a doctor who works in Aguas Calientes while his wife and child live in Cusco.   He spoke some English and we chatted away about his adventures working on cruise ships as well as some discussion on Peruvian politics. 

We stayed in Cusco another couple of nights, just long enough to enjoy some fruit smoothies at the market!

The bus journey to Puno was again highlighted by spectacular scenery, 

reminding us we were still at altitude, high in the Andes.

We were delighted to get our first glimpse of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world!

Tomorrow we will leave for Bolivia, bidding Peru a teary farewell.  

We feel lucky to have thoroughly enjoyed some great adventures here.

Cusco and the journey to Machu Picchu, Aug 2018

Main square Cusco

Flying into Cusco from Iquitos was a real buzz.  The flight path is through a fairly narrow valley with the mountains quite close on both sides of the plane.  

The photo makes the mountains
look a lot further away than they were

Upon arrival we found a giant bowl of coca leaves in the the Cusco airport!  Cusco is at 3,399m and coming from nearly sea level so quickly leaves you with  an on and off feeling of breathlessness which takes a few days to get used to.  Chewing coca or drinking it as a tea is considered to dumb down the effects of altitude.  Fortunately neither of us suffer from altitude sickness which really is debilitating.

Alighting from the airport itself, still with our friends Franco and Leo (everyone heading for Cusco is on the same mission - Machu Picchu!), we were offered a very inflated price to share a taxi to our respective hostels.  Turning this down we decided to walk a bit toward town and happened upon a local eatery where we ordered the Almuerzo - a typical two course lunch of soup and rice/pasta, meat/chicken and salad & a refresco (cold drink - we had Chicha Morada).   The food was really good food and come time to pay we couldn't believe how cheap it was!  Having found a well priced taxi to our hostel and saying goodbye to the boys it was time to discover Cusco and plan our trip to Machu Picchu.

Our escort into town

Narrow cobbled streets

First stop was the booking office to buy our tickets for Machu Picchu.  We decided on the afternoon session from 12noon to 6pm as the morning sessions were all sold out ten days ahead.  We weren't sorry as the primary reason for people to go in the morning is to get up there for the sunrise.   We've already had that discussion about not being morning people!  We are also not really typical tourists and will usually pass up the 'tourist thing to do' in most places we go to as overcrowded and overpriced but this was one tourist destination it would be churlish to bypass.  There are many ways to see Machu Picchu and for finances sake we did plan our route to save a bit of cash .... which, in turn, would take a bit more effort.  

Having taken care of business, it didn't take us long to find the local market.

We shared a table with this cutie and her Mama

Vege sellers around the outside of the market

The potatoes in South America a SO good!

We bought some bread, cheese and tomatoes
to eat in the square on the way home

Plaza de Armas and the statue of Pachacuti

One night we walked down the hill and into a random bbq place for dinner.  We discovered the local delicacy of Rocoto relleno ... stuffed peppers.  So delicious!  

Incan Architecture is evident around the city, whetting the appetite for what was to come ...

We got 'conned' by this girl's Mum into this picture.  She tried to charge us an exhorbitant fee for this pic, in the middle of the city no less.

Clare found a wool shop!  Selling actual wool.  Most of the yarn shops in South America sell mostly acrylic.  They seem to believe that wool is too warm unless you live at altitude. Hmmmm .....

After a couple of days relaxing and acclimatising to the altitude we were ready to leave for our adventure to Machu Picchu.  We first needed to find a colectivo to Santa Maria first.  A colectivo is a shared vehicle (car or van) which will leave for the advertised destination when all the seats are sold.  There is no schedule and you can't ever tell how long you will wait to fill the vehicle, but it is a very cost effective way to travel in South America.  Also a little more comfortable and usually a lot faster than a standard bus (although no buses actually take this route).

We didn't have to wait long for our colectivo to fill up and we were off.   The road we travelled reached heights of 4,400m with (allegedly) 61 hare-pin turns on the way back down from the summit.  The scenery was as expected ... very beautiful.  This leg of the journey took around 5 hours.

Grazing llama

In these cooler climes one needs a cab on ones moto taxi

The vastness of the landscape is mind-boggling .......

There was even snow up at the summit

Arriving at the tiny town of Santa Maria the colectivo dropped us off, the driving pointing to the side road where we should catch another colectivo to Santa Teresa.   Again we were the only foreign travellers, all other passengers being locals.  NOTE: most tourists take the tourist van option from Cusco to Hidroelectrica, more expensive and more direct, but not nearly as much fun :-) 

This 45min of road is nearly as spectacular as The Death Road of Bolivia.  Watch this video .... need we say more!

From Santa Teresa we took a taxi to Hidroelectrica where we would begin our walk along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes.  There are only two ways you can get to Aguas Calientes, which is the town at the foot of Machu Picchu .... by train or by foot.

The walk took us around three hours and was mostly flat.  It had already been a fairly long, exciting and marginally stressful day so the walk seemed like it took longer.  We say 'marginally stressful' as it was a bit of a leap of faith to take this route.  Colectivos are certainly not the tourist option, no-one speaks English AT ALL and there is usually a moment or two of doubt that we are in/going to the right place.  However, they are a much cheaper option and it was good to be able to pat ourselves on the back when we got there!  We always prefer the local option for more than financial reasons.  It just feels more authentic and there is always a surprise or two along the way.

Stopping for snacks with this backdrop ...

Finally, the sign we have been waiting for ...

But it will have to wait till tomorrow, as first we will spend the night in Aguas Calientes ...

Aguas Calientes is just around the corner