Machu Pichu and up yours capitalist slime

So Machu Pichu...one of the 7 wonders of the world and all that shit. The Incas spend a damn long time building a damn beautiful city, stonework that you wouldn´t believe, a wonderous setting...and this is actually the only city they sucessfully hid from those ravenous Spanish douchebags who took apart every other Incan city they found in order to use the stones to build houses for their syphillis infested girlfriends.

So who should be the guardians of this ancient Peruvian marvel...if you answered Orient Express Ltd a British multinational corporation based tax free in Beemuda and specializing in $1000 a night luxury hotels where i would be arrested for peeking through the window, you would be correct.

For the hour and a half train trip to the ruins from the nearest town (their are no roads here) they charge a fairly unfair 60 bucks for the squashed lowest class. This in a nation where half the population has to get by on under $700 a month...this country is cheap and poor.

We don´t mind paying the $40 to see the ruins, that money at least goes into the pockets of corrupt Peruvian politicians and may actually at some point trickle down to the people who deserve it, but we´d be damned if we are paying more than that to some scam train. This is where the back way comes in.

Up to 2500 folks check out the ruins every day...According to my math, 8 of them, including Lycia and I went the independant back way. I can´t decide if it was easy or hard, but it was fun and certainly worth it to this ex anarchist and always cheap Jew.

We woke up bright and early at 4:50 am to get to the bus station to buy tickets for the 6 am bus to Quillabamba (we would get off at Santa Maria for those who majored in middle of nowhere Peruvian geography in college) We actually got there in time, only to find out that we were misinformed, and the bus was at 8 am. Hot start. Since we were in the middle of, apparently, 3 dangerous slums, we taxi´s it back to the center of town, and a few hours and a few egg sandwiches later, we are off. The bus had full windows all the way down, and I said to Lycia, "At least this isn´t a scary cliff hugging ride like all the others, with these windows, I´d probably puke.¨ As I should have learned by now, I should not say anything. Ever.

Not only was it a climb to 4600 meters, the fog was so thick you couldn´t see out the front windshield. At parts the road was closed so we were going over a dirt trail through switchbacks so tight it took a 7 point turn at times to make it. Lycia slept. I was jealous. I watched a 7 year old girl puke and miss the bag her mother held.

We did get to Santa Maria, where we were hoping to catch an irregularly non scheduled van to take us to Santa Theresa. We got out of the bus to see a van about to leave. Perfect. Except that counting the driver and his rowdy friends, there were 20 people already squashed in there. We looked in dubiously. The driver was confident. Only because he coveted our money and cared little for our happiness. I didn´t know if i wanted to get in or not, but suddenly I sucked in my gut and there were 22 of us in the van with seats for 13...Hmm, the train was seeming better all of a sudden. Luckily the driver cared as little for speed limits as our comfort, and in an hour and a half we were in Santa Theresa, and since they sold chocolate bars and dorito´s there, we were happy.

Another 30 minutes in a more comfortable van and we were at a hidroelectric plant. Prime vacation destination. It had its upside, though, it was where some abandoned (well, as we were to learn, semi-abandoned) train tracks began, which if all went well, we could follow to Machu Pichu. Is anyone following along with their calculator and sunset chart? If your not, I´ll fill you in. It was 5:45 PM,we had 30 minutes till sunset and a 3 hour hike along rocky railroad tracks. Shout out to Lycia´s dad, who had at the last minute, supplied us with flashlights. We hiked in the dark, made it, and since I´m getting bored, saw Machu Pichu the next day.

For information on MP, look to anyone else but me, I only enjoy writing about stupid things.

We did have a lovely time there. I liked it when we saw the jails that prisoners would get tortured in. There arms would get broked, there necks snapped and they would get walled in. That was fun for us. Then we left Machu Pichu and did the trip in reverse, except this time to spice things up, when we were halfway down the tracks, we realized we had forgotten to go to the ATM near Machu Pichu and were almost out of money and about 5 hours away, by bus, from the nearest ATM machine. Needlesss to say we only drank 1 worried beer that night, but by the skin of our teeth we made it back to Cusco. It helped that we found a 3 dollar hotel for the night, and here we are now, safe and happy with bellies full of llama.

Life is good and see you all soon. Sudden ending cuz i hate typing.

J and L

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