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Published: January 27th 2009
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Cuzco - Machu Pichu
Arrived in Cuzco on an overnight bus and checked into my hostel, converted from a 450 year old building, it is a backpacker central and all the perks such as free internet, bar, hot water……
I spent the afternoon walking around the city center. Cuzco, or Qosq’o in Quechua, was the capital of the Inca Empire and draws thousands every year to visit the numerous Inco remains found in the city, the surrounding Sacred Valley and the mighty Machu Picchu. Despite being a tourist honey pot, with all the related hotels, restaurants, gift shops that go with that, it is an interesting city to walk around. The city centre has several large plazas framed by colonial houses and churches built on Inca foundations. My second day I joined a city tour of some of the sites. The tour started at Qorikancha, meaning golden courtyard, it once was the richest of the Inca temples until the Spanish came, nicked all the gold and tore down all but the foundations to build a church. It is still an interesting visit with some remaining Inca structures and reconstructions. Next the richly decorated Cathedral, includes a painting of the last supper
with guinea pig being served as the main dish and a smoke blackened Jesus, known as Lord of Earthquakes after a miracle stopped an earthquake in 1650. We went out of Cuzco to Saqsaywamán meaning Satisfied Falcon but nicknamed sexy woman. It is the site of an Inca temple complex and Inca resistance it is impressive today but only 20% remains after most of the stones were taken down to build in colonial Cuzco. We toured a few other sites before finishing at a wool crafts center, with great offers such as a scarf for 900$ (any takers!)
After a few days in and around Cuzco I left for a 4 day trek to Machu Picchu. We were a group of six, Hector from Venezuela, Matt and Lee from London, Jansen from the US, and our guide Hugo.
The first day we were driven up to a mountain pass at 4300, the weather and visibility was deteriorating all the time. By the time we got onto the mountain bikes to start our descent it was wet and cold and in minutes we were all soaked. Thankfully before long we started to come out of the clouds and the air became
warmer and we started to dry off, well apart from fording the occasional river across the road. Overall it was a great day, the road was pretty much all down hill and it was a lot of fun bombing down the mountain despite some bone-shaking road conditions. By late afternoon we arrived in a village of Santa Maria. The village was celebrating the feast of the Immaculate conception when we asked our guide Hugo if there would be time to join the celebrations after dinner he told us the celebrations would continue for another three days - we had time. So after eating we headed down to the main celebration, on the stage was a local band and the whole village was out to party. The guys all got dances with the local girls; I got to ignore advances from drunken toothless goons!
Day two we started walking, following the river and climbing up the side of the mountains going through denser bush all the time. We had a mid morning break at a rest stop with a monkey and anteater to entertain us. The next part of the trek was climbing up against the mountain side to reach an
Inca trail that got narrower and higher above the river, fantastic views if a little scary with the backpack. The afternoon was fairly easy as we followed the river though we did have to wait an hour for the bridge to be repaired. The final leg of the day was crossing back across the river by cable car, mostly cable and not a lot of car. It was great fun. The car slides down the cables to the middle and then pulled back up the opposite side. We finished the day wallowing in thermal baths, perfect. Our over night stop was in another small village, with even less happening in than the last. So we spent a wild night sitting outside a shop playing cards and drinking beer, actually was more than it might sound!
Day three began with an easy couple of hours following the river again and to a hydroelectric plant where we stopped for lunch. In the afternoon we walked along the train tracks to Aguas Caliente, or Machu Picchu pueblo. Stopped by a river for a bit while Jansen and Hugo took a wash in the water, it was freezing! And Matt and Hector started playing
baseball with a stick and some rocks (sorry but - guys… honestly!)
Day four started at 4h00 in the morning to climb up to Machu Picchu, practically straight up the mountain stairway for over an hour. We arrived around 6am for the sunrise and completely exhausted but of course it was well worth it.
Machu Picchu is deservedly a wonder of the world, the site is huge and still so well preserved what it must have been like when it was still alive and the temples decorated? Perched high on top of a mountain gives it an even more spectacular setting. That being said Hector got quote of the day when he called Machu Picchu “just a big pile of rocks”! We spent a couple of hours walking around exploring before making our way back down the mountain stairway. By the time we left it was starting to get busier around the site and this is low season, getting up early is worth it.
The journey back to Cuzco was easy, train and then bus, had just about enough energy to check into a hotel and eat dinner before crashing out.
The last morning in Cuzco was spent driving around
Cuzco and into the Sacred Valley on motorbike, a great way to round it all off.
Machu Picchu - Cuzco
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