Welcome to Cuzco - Give me your Money!

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After almost 8 months on the road we have seen first hand the strange and often irreversible effects that tourism has upon the world. From increased communication between cultures to the mass production of slightly suspect ´local´ handicrafts. The world is forever altered by ebb and flow of people and, some would say more importantly, money around the globe. Only every so often, however, does this issue drag kicking and screaming the traveller into the cold hard reality of the 21st centuary.

Lets get this straight right from the off - Cusco is a buisness. A cold hard money making machine. The home of the great Incan Empire that streached its colossal bueraucracy (of red string no less) across South America for almost 300 years. A city at once beautiful, but immediately ugly. This is not the place to experience Peru, this is not the place to be alone and it´s certainly no longer the place for a backpacker.

Don´t get us wrong the city is incredibly pretty with an amazing mix of historic Incan walls, Spanish Cathedrals and more Lattes than a human could ever consume. It´s only when you see its darker side that things start to ... well ... ´pee you off´ (Pardon the French - they know not what they do. Oh and the bad language).

For a start, for the first time in our travels, and probably the only place in the world, foreigners are not allowed to use (some) public transport. Instead of hoping on the local train, squished in with sheep, llamas and many many mini Peruvians, foreigners must take ´tourist trains´that come in at least 20 times the price! Add in the fact that tickets to sites are paid individually and even with the cheapest ticket you out more than 20 quid each - double the price it was in 2007. Of course this doesn´t include Macchu Pichu or any of the churches in town which again cost more money. It all adds up to a package-tour tastic time for the touts, tour guides and of course government.

This is all of course done under the guise of copnservation and protection of the sites, but that´s kind of hard to believe when we haven´t seen a single person in any way ´protecting´or ´conserving´ a site. Maybe the money would be better spent on bins so the place wasn´t covered with rubbish or maybe that´s just us being British again.

What makes the whole thing quite annoying (upsetting) for us is that we´ve seen it done so much better before. Take Angkor Wat for example, an amazing historic site with hoards of tourists in a relatively poor country that could really do with the money. Sure the ticket to get in is expensive, but once that´s paid that´s it. You are free to do with it as you please. You are asked to look after the site, but that´s it. No extra train fares or bits that aren´t included in the ticket or special taxes. No, they just want to show it off to the world. We´re just wishing Peru was the same.

Still we head to Machu Picchu in a few day so lets hope all is forgiven and it blows our socks off.

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