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Published: January 3rd 2007
Just a little note to start... we had millions of photos and we liked them all. also we had very little time to upload them. so they're all a bit higgldy piggldy ordered and most have no captions as we couldnt be arsed. we might add these later. enjoy!
Ross:
Cusco (another wonderful colonial city) is very aptly named; known to the Incas as the ”belly button of the world” not because its a defunct anatomical throwback that’s only good for collecting fluff and crumbs but because it sits in a massive natural depression surrounded on all sides by hills and literally is the navel of the earth. We arrived early and got a taxi to our hostel Loki Cusco. We had decided to stay here after the good experience of Loki Lima and because we thought it would be an excellent party atmosphere for Christmas. Again somehow we managed to find the only hostel at the top of a massive hill and at this altitude (3399m) the only climbing you want to be doing is into bed which is strenuous enough. Comfy bed and warm duvet secured and a quick snooze we headed out to get train tickets
to Machu Picchu Pueblo. By this point I was feeling seriously ill after an attempt at lunch in Cusco’s plaza de armas. We headed back to the hostel struggling up the steep steps and me straight to bed. Claire played nurse maid and by the evening I felt a bit better and decided to try and eat some noodles leading to the first of the disturbing green liquid that would leave my body over the next couple of days.
Feeling a bit better again the train journey to Machu Picchu Pueblo was great if a little slow, fantastic scenery, comfy seat and breakfast served on the train. The journey along the Sacred Valley is spectacular as you descend from the hills surrounding Cusco the scenery changes from alpine forest and farmland to lush cloud forest clinging to giant rock outcrops that thrust up into the cloud layer as you approach Machu Picchu Pueblo. I had been feeling quite chipper after coming off the train and once we had made it to the very nice Hospedaje Rupa Wasi, the hotel, (again, at the top of a very steep set of steps. They should mention this kind of thing) and a
Llamas 4
Mmmm grass..quick stoat around town to pick up tickets for the ruins. I started to go down hill again. Still the wonderful surroundings of Machu Picchu Pueblo seemed to be buoying me up slightly but not enough and we retired to bed so we could head to the ruins early the next morning.
The plan had been to get the first bus (5:30 am don’t think so) but I was feeling gash so we decided on the next at 7ish. Feeling the worse so far and after some more green vomit we headed up to the ruins of Machu Picchu. As you’ll see from the photos it started off quite miserable but soon brightened up unfortunately it was the exact opposite for me as can probably be seen in the photos as well. The whole thing was very cool with amazing vistas but to tell the truth there is only so many ruins you can see before you start to feel “meh...seen it”. Also fighting to keep my bodily functions in check meant that we missed a couple of Machu Picchu’s highlights; Templo de La Luna (The Temple of the Moon) a cave that hangs above the Rio Urubamba and is
meant to be quite a treacherous climb to reach and Huayana Picchu which provides an unprecedented view over the ruins and the surrounding mountains and valleys, that’s the big mountain that sticks up at the back of the ruins in the photos, but this involved an hours worth of stair climbing Claire had no inclination to attempt it and I felt ready to collapse after the small set of stairs that lead to the observatory. It wasn’t all bad we got to sit and watch a group of American tourists get fleeced by some charlatan performing a spiritual cleansing ritual on them. This involved the group of tourists pressing themselves against the Sacred Rock while their “shaman” shook some maracas and chanted in what sounded very like a bastardised version of some Native American dialect (definitely wasn’t Quecha) so what spirits this was supposed to invoke, because no Inca gods are gonna put up with this crap on their turf, is beyond me and quite disrespectful to those native Peruvians that still make offerings and worship at the ruins. The culmination of this sham was for the wifey to spark up a foul herbal fag and blow thick, acrid yellow
smoke on the group’s heads. Go home reeking of smoke, get cancer and invoke the wrath of the Incas gods, that’s money well spent. In the words of Mr T: A pity the fool that pays money for this kind of mumbo jumbo. Stay in school and don’t do drugs kids!
On the way back down on the bus some crazy kid dressed up as an Inca raced the bus down the twisty track that lead down from the mountain. At every corner he’d be standing there screaming something before sprinting off down the stairs (for those that want to walk up to the ruins) as we passed to meet us at the next corner screaming all the while right down to the bottom, where he then got on the bus hardly out of breath and not a drop of sweat on his brow to cadge money of the amazed gringos. Before disembarking with another cry that was probably something along the lines of “thanks for the money suckers”. I might sound a bit jaded about this but all credit to the kid least he’s making money, keeping fit and providing a spectacle at the same time which is
Cuzco tram?
some weird bus done up to look like a tram for some reason. more than can be said of the pathetic beggars in most of Peru’s towns and cities. Feeling very ill managed a very tasty bowl of tomato soup from Rupa Wasi’s restaurant, then it was off to bed and the train back to Cusco the next afternoon.
Christmas in Cusco, back at Loki. Not much to say really Claire and I were both feeling ill - me slightly better, Claire very bad. Not much festive fun was had and we can only hope things improve for New Year as a lot of ground needs made up. Leaving Cusco on the 27th to head for Puno and Lake Titicaca, which is a shame because as in so many other places we’ve been we missed out on alot of really cool stuff. Cusco is surrounded by lots of Inca sights and the city is a great place just to have more time to wander around and explore would have been ideal. But we need to make it to La Paz for 1st of 2007 so we hit the trail again on another Ormeño bus this time on what was laughably called royal class. Take a Cruz Del Sur bus put in pale
Cuzco skyline
impressive veiw over Cusco from our hostel's bar. cool snowy mountain in the distance. blue leather seats and a bizarre viewing point at the front kick the hell out of it, spill stuff and add random stains for 5 or so years and you’ll get the idea of the grotty under maintained luxury in which we travelled. Still it was comfortable and hundred times better than the thief ridden shed that took us from Pisco to Nasca.
The bus aside the trip was very entertaining as we were treated to some more of Peru’s wonderful varied landscape. This time it was rolling steppes, vast open blue skies and the ubiquitous Andes shepherding us on our way to Puno and the world’s highest navigable lake.
Claire:
There isn’t much for me to say about Cusco really. The day we arrived Ross was so ill that he stayed in bed and I just pottered about the hostel and then we caught the train to Machu Picchu Pueblo for a couple of days.
While the train ride was scenic and pretty enjoyable, Machu Picchu town itself isn’t really all that much to get excited about. It’s a tiny town but very built up as the people try to fit as much tourism into the bottom
train through the Sacred Valley 1
some nice scenery from our trip to Machu Picchu Pueblo. of a valley as humanly possible. The restaurants are expensive and a bit meh, the hotels are all pretty expensive and there’s not much to do. Still, we settled into our nice little wooden cabin room with uber comfy bed and Ross was happy as he had somewhere nice to rest.
Ross has said loads about Machu Picchu itself so I won’t go on about it but it really was spectacular. The views were amazing and the buildings moulded into and around huge lumps of rock and mountain. Everything was green and lush with no mud despite all the rain that falls here and apparently this is due to the bizarre but highly effective Inca drainage systems. We didn’t hire a guide but we wandered between two groups that did have guides and I listened to bit of what they were saying and then went for a nosey to examine what they had been talking about. I didn’t see half of the stuff they were going on about so I'm kinda glad we didn’t get a guide. We just slowly pottered our way around the site (which I thought would be bigger actually) until Ross abandoned me and the
train through the Sacred Valley 2
some nice scenery from our trip to Machu Picchu Pueblo. ruins in favour of a bathroom back at the entrance. I wandered solo around the second half of the ruins and actually really enjoyed just looking at the ruins even though I only had a vague idea what the hell they were. After a close encounter with a llama I headed back to the viewpoint at the beginning of the trail, hoping to get a better photo of the entire site since the sun had appeared while we were touring the ruins. Unfortunately by this point millions of tourists had turned up and were jostling all about the place. I decided to give up and go find Ross.
The rules on the tickets to the ruins were quite extensive and told us no food, no bottles, no rubbish, no walking sticks, no tripods, etc. it was actually quite upsetting to see all the people coming down from the Inca Trail using all their walking stick to help them around the site, doubtless damaging the stone and buildings as they went. There was also some rubbish around, thought the guards did make an effort to remove it. It seems like they put rules in place but can’t be arsed enforcing them
Me at Machu Picchu Pueblo train station
Takin it easy waiting for the guy from our hotel to show up. and all of it seems like it can only be bad for the ruins…
Back in Cusco, I got ill on Christmas Eve and spent the whole of Christmas Day in bed. I was still too ill to do much the next day, Ross looked after me a bit and went to the Pharmacia for me and on the 27th we got a bus to Puno.
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