Cuzco.. finally in the sunshine

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The flight to Cuzco is only 1.5 hours so we never reached a very high altitude and you could always see the beautiful clouds, mountains, and valleys down below. It was a truly breathtaking flight. We arrived by 8 a.m. and got conned by a taxi driver at the airport to not only pay him way too much to get into town, but also to stay at his hotel for $20/night. Looking back, I would’ve walked outside the airport parking lot and hailed my own taxi and gone to whatever hostel I wanted to. Tips for other travelers. So, we checked into his hotel and immediately got to work trying to schedule things for a trip to Machu Picchu. The lady at our hotel, also the owner’s wife, wanted to book everything for us (city tour of Cuzco, bus to Ollantaytambo, train to Aguas Calientes, hostel in Aguas Calientes, bus to Machu Picchu, tour guide) for $190. But we foolishly thought that if we scheduled everything on our own that we’d save lots of money. Not the case. Another tip for travelers: Book everything through a travel agency. Getting to Machu Picchu on your own is not only expensive but also complicated, and if you do something wrong, you may not make it there. Actually, my biggest tip would be to make the time to hike in to Machu Picchu if you can, which also must be booked with an agency because you have to have a licensed guide. We didn’t have the time because all the hikes take at least 3 days, minimum. The Inca Trail has to be booked well in advance, but there are many other hikes you can do that you can book the day before you start the hike.

So we wore ourselves out walking around Cuzco all morning, going to the train station and not buying any tickets, then to the internet café to research prices, then to breakfast, maybe not even in that order but I was so exhausted I couldn’t keep track. We eventually booked our train tickets online, but there is no longer a train that goes from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes (the town just outside Machu Picchu). So we would have to take a bus to Ollantaytambo first and then a train from there. We waited too long to book our train tickets and the ideal times were no longer available. Neither were the cheapest train fares, so we ended up paying $91 each for our train tickets. We finally made it back to our hotel so we could take a long nap. When we got up in the evening we went to an Indian restaurant for a great buffet, then I went for a cheap hour-long massage that was only worth the $7 it cost me.

The next day we shopped til we dropped. Cuzco is full of indigenous markets selling all kinds of souvenirs for great prices. We spent hours buying gifts and roaming around the city. That afternoon we had to find the bus to Ollantaytambo. Peru doesn’t have bus terminals, though. They have different bus companies that have offices in different locations, so you always have to find out where one is. After asking around, we found a bus that would take us to another town and from there we could go to Ollantaytambo to the train station. On the train we sat across from a really cool couple from Medellin and chatted with them the whole 2 hours to Aguas Calientes.

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Photos

Cusco
Weird papiermachete characters on the street