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Published: November 14th 2007
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Peruvian Border
They knew I was coming!! In Cusco I continued my trend of finding a hostel by simply going with the recomendation of the locals who wait at the bus station for travelers. The thing this time is the girl who brought me to the hostel did not work for the hostel, she worked on commission and of course wanted to sell me a tour afterwards. This didn´t work for her though as I found a company more my speed the next day, and was on my way to Machu Picchu.
There are many ways to get to Machu Picchu, the easiest being the train. This would be far to boring for me, so I opted for the mountain biking and hiking option which goes through Santa Teresa and jungle. This started as any South American adventure does, late, as I waited at the office and then at the bus station. This was especially interesting as they loaded our bikes on what was suppose to be our bus, but then they had our seats double booked and we had to get off the bus. So our bikes took off on one bus and us on another, and thus started the trend of unassured randomness that made
Cusco
Plaza de Armas this trip just a little more exciting. This may seem obvious with the bikes, because when we got to the rendevouz point, the bikes were not there. This was especially interesting because the rendevouz point was on the mountain where there had been a big rock slide and the road was being reconstructed. This meant that in order to reach your destination you had to get off of your bus, walk the contruction area to the other side, and find the coresponding bus sent by your bus company from the other side, in this manner you continued on. Of course here you cannot count on a exact time schedule and so there was lots of people waiting, confusion, and Raton Sexo. To make things more interesting, supposedly when we arrived our bikes had been sent down the mountain already, even though we wanted to ride from this point. So we waited got on our corresponding bus, witnessed a large argument over whos bus was whos for the front seats, and right as the bus was going to leave we got off of the bus, our bikes had arrived.
The rest of the day consisted of Jose (our guide), Tyler
Cusco
Plaza de Armas (Canadian friend and other gringo on the journey), and yours truley riding like champions to Santa Teresa. This started with a nice paved road and quickly turned into a smaller two track dirt road. We rode for about three hours with one good break for cold drinks, one break to help another group that had a flat, and a break to fix the shifter on my bike. By the end we were all fairly tired, and I found that the gloves I was given where useless from the 5 blisters I earned from the hard ride. Overall not to extreme, but a nice start to the journey. And to make the day even better there was a nice cold Cusquena dark lager waiting for me in Santa Teresa.
The second day started bright and early as we had a full days hike ahead. We started the trail behind what appeared to be a hard hiking group of a Scottish couple and their guide, we soon took the lead. The trail was great, we saw all sorts of crazy plantlife, had a nice stop at little road side store for Chincha (my new favorite Peruvian refreshment), and had a glorious
Road to Machu Pichu
The crew looking super macho. stroll on an Inca trail that followed a steep canon and gave Tyler a bit of vertigo. For lunch we stopped at a quaint little restuarant that was a relative of Jose´s, given this fact we got to go into the kitchen and watch our food prepared over the wood fire in the earth contructed oven. Also it was interesting to check out the Cuy (Gunea Pig), which is native to Peru and a tasty treat in these parts. Did I mention that lunch was also very tasty, and of course atmosphere not easily found, like eating on the farm in the days before electricty (which was out by the way due to a power line going out in rock slide). Perhaps the coolest part was the river crossing, since the large flood in this area about ten years ago there are few bridges, and in many places you cross the river in small boxes suppended on a wire over the river. This is done by manualing pulling the box over to the side you are on, a nice quick flying fox type ride to the middle, and then pulling the box to the other side manually. Gotta love untradicional
Road to Machu Pichu
Another bike adventour. trasport. We arrived at our next village well ahead of the other groups on the same journey and in time to watch the hillside controlled fire. The fire is used to make an area to grow rice, this is an illegal practice to do though as we are in the park now. We also started the saying that Jose and I made for our group as we always made it everywhere first and in super macho time. The saying goes (in Spanish) we are super macho, we eat cat, drink frogs, smoke butterflys, dance with snakes and fight with anaconadas "Somos super macho, comimos gato, tomamos rana, fumamos mariposas, bailamos con serpentes y pealamos con anacodas."
During the night Tyler became very sick and decided to deposit his lunch in the hostel toilet, so the morning consisted primarily of planning. We eventually decided Tyler was not well enough to do the last days hike, so we left him at the "bus station", with instructions on what mini van transport would take him to where we were hiking. Then onward, with one more of the specialized river crossings and a very nice waterfall shooting out from underneath the road we
were walking. After meeting up with Tyler and another group for lunch at a small rail "town", Jose and I started the last leg of the hike with Tyler this time catching a train to our final destination at Aguas Calientes. The last stretch was cool as we walked pretty much the train rail through the jungle, rain, over a rickity rail bridge, past dazzling cliffs and mountains, and finally reaching the town of Aguas Calientes or Machu Pichu town. Aguas Calientes is pretty much just tourists and those making money off of the tourists going to Machu Pichu, but we had our nicest room yet, with believe it or not real hot water and decent pressure. The evening me and Jose had beers while watching a futbol match and Tyler slept.
Our last day started bright and early as we wanted to catch the first bus to Machu Picchu, (6am), which we did not manage due to huge lines, but we did enter the park when the gates opened and the ruins were fairly empty as we started our guided tour part of Machu Picchu. This I did not appreciate to much as the guide seemed to have
trouble explaining things in english (and of course they didn´t think to put me with the spanish speaking guide), also he seemed to have a ruitine with two "eagles" as he fed them bread while they followed the group. Thing is they were not eagles as he said, and it´s not good to have a guide encouraging the wildlife in a park area such as this to beg for food. However I did get some good pictures of the birds and as the the tour arrived at the trailhead to Hayna Picchu I gladly excited the tour early. At this point there was no turing back, as I had decided to do something pretty much nobody does when they visit the ruins in a half day. I decided to summit both Hayna Picchu and the mountain Machu Picchu in order to get both views of the ruins, as well as walk the ruins and the path to the Inca bridge. This proved to be a good challenge, but I can now say that I saw it all, as I hiked rediculous amounts to accomplish this task. Nevertheless I succeded, and having succeded I decided to walk back to Aguas Calientes
Road to Machu Pichu
Me and the Valley, super macho! in order to save some bucks. As far as the ruins go they are undescribable, you can look at my pictures and get a glimpse, but it´s something that must truly be done in person. To end the trip I had a nice pizza in Aguas Calientes and caught the train back to Cusco, and that is how Machu Pichu is done, the super macho way.
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