Cuzco and the Inca area

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OK, so I came to Cuzco last Thursday just in time to
find a hostel and get arranged (and go back to the bus
station because I forgot my fleece in the bus 😊, and
to go to the habad house for the purim megila reading.
It was nice, but no special celebrations - the rabbi's
kids are cute, some guy brought napazim to blow up at
every 'haman', clown hats for extra kipas and a meal
afterwards. I went to sleep and woke up the next day
when Thomas came to the hostel from Puno and joined my
room (I actualy got up just after he went and came
back...), and went to meet Uri in the main square. We
went around some agencies to check details about
trekking on the way to Machu Picchu, saw a little of
the city on the way, and after I kept walking around
the city - it is very beautiful and packed with
preserved old buildings, churches and squares. It
sometimes reminded me of Jerusalem becuse it is
surrounded by mountains and has layers of building -
many houses have old inca building in the foundation
and on it colonial or newer building. It also somtimes
reminded me of Ouro Preto because of the amounts of
well preserved colonial building and because all of
the streets go either up or down (no flats - quite
tiring, but nice views almost wherever you go). In the
evening I went to the habad house for prayer (I think
the one that most reminded me of home this whole trip)
and to meet Uri - we saw that we are not going to trek
together and basically said goodbye. At night me and
Thomas went out, first to some pretty 'dead' bar that
had live music, than to a live music bar that was more
lively and than to a purim party at one of the
Israeli clubs. I met there some Israelis (including
one of the girls that I traveled with in Rio) that
went Bungee/Sling-Shot jumping the next morning, and I
decided to joined them. So we took a cab to this
adventure complex outside the city, and I decided to
go for the sling shot (I already went bungee jumping
once in Israel and wasn't that excited...) - like
upside down bungee - the rope launches you to 125
meters and from there you go up and down like the
bungee... It was quite expensive, but was worth it -
crazy adrenaline, lots of fun... The rest of the day I
walked around and checked my options with some travel
agencies, and at night me and Thomas went out again to
the (better) live music bar, basically to say goodbye
as he went to Machu Picchu the next day, and then he
went to sleep and I went to a club for a while. On
Sunday morning I met Barbara, a Polish couchsurfer I
know from BsAs, we caught up a little, and after
talking to her I figured out that I both don't have
time for a 5 day trek and don't feel like doing it
without anybody I know. On the rest of the day I went
uphill for an Inka archeological site called
Saksaywaman that overlooks the city (there is also a
Jesus statue mirador nearby, quite a common thing in
south america) - it was mostly ruined and didn't have
any explenation signs, so coming from Israel it wasn't
very impressive (though I heard some explenations when
I joined a tour of some old Americans for a while),
but the views where very nice (you could see most of
the city) and on Sunday the place is full with local
families and kids playing (some of the ancient rocks
are slippery and used as a slide - fun), so it was
worth the climb. The night I spent with Barbara and
some of her friends in a club. On the next day I went
on a guided tour in the Sacred Valley, a tour with
stops in 3 Inca archeological sites in the area around
Cuzco. These sites where more preserved (you could
actually understand roughly how the inca village
looked like), I finally had somebody to ask questions
and to get information about the incas from, the views
on the way (snow capped mountains, terraces and green
valleys) were beautiful, and overall it was a very
interesting tour. I decided the next day to start my
way to the Machu Picchu on a road that by-pass the
expensive tourist train and includes about 3 local
buses and a little bit of walking and suppose to have
nice views, I didn't find anybody that wanted to go
with me on the same time, so I assumed that I will
probably meet somebody on the bus (and I did...). It
makes more sense to start this route on a night bus,
which left me another day in Cuzco. So I saw Thomas
again and said final goodbyes before he went to Lima,
and used to rest of the day for some arrangements and
going to the sites in the city that I already had an
entrance ticket for (you have to buy a combined ticket
for the archeological sites I visited) - that included
a couple of boring museums and a convent I didn't stay
long in, and a cool statue of one of the inca kings
that had some interesting information and nice views
of the city. So at the evening I took some food, water
and cloths and started making my way to the Machu
Picchu. At the bus station I met a nice Argentinian
couple that I met several other times during the next
few days (if I can't go back to Argentina, at least I
can hang around with Argentinians in Peru...), and
went on the bus to Santa Maria - it took them about an
hour to start and fixed the bus, but surprisingly
enough it got there on time (in Bolivia the buses got
stuck in the middle of the way, getting stuck in the
bus station is better...). It was a night ride, so I
missed the views, but I met 3 other Israelis (a guy
from Faran and 2 girls from Haifa) that I made the
rest of the way with. So at 4am we took the next bus
to Santa Teresa, which was an experience in how many
ppl you can put in a minivan, and there I met 2
British guys that I also met a few times during the
next days. The bus went on a narrow road very close to
the 'tehom', and after the sun went up we had some
nice views of the green mountains around and the river
under us. On the middle of the way he also picked up 4
local school girls that went on the roof with the
backpacks (pretty dangerous, but I guess better than
walking 3 hours to school...). From there we took a
cab to a place called Hidroelectrica, where the road
ends, and the only way to continue to Aguas Calientes
(the town under the Machu Picchu) is by walking along
the railroad. The view on the way was nice (although
got a little boring after a while), walking on the
railroad was a nice experience (reminded me of great
depression movies...), and after about 3 hours of easy
walk we got to town. After some arrangements we were
ready to go to sleep, probably the earliest in my
life, around 18:30 because I barely slept the night
before and we wanted to wake up at 4:00 to go early to
the Machu Picchu. We actually got up on time and took
the 2nd bus to the mountain, but we didn't see any
sunrise because everything was covered with low
clouds. We walked around a little, I was impressed by
how preserved the whole site is, but we couldn't see
far because of the clouds. What was good about getting
there early was that we could be among the firsts that
go up the WaynaPicchu, the mountain that stands above
the Machu Picchu in all of the photos, and that only
400 ppl a day are allowed to climb. So after an hour
climbing we got to the top, there were some ruins
there too, but no views because of the clouds. So I
picked a rock, enjoyed the sun and waited for the
clouds to pass. The other 3 had a train ticket back,
so they had to go back down, but I decided that I
wanted to stay the whole day at the site and stayed on
my rock. The clouds moved and you could see different
spots every once in a while, and at 10:00 most of the
sky cleared and I could see all of the Machu Picchu
from above - only from there I saw how big it is and
could be impressed by the symetric form. After a while
of enjoying the view, I went down with a group of 15
Israelis, and joined their guided tour that was very
short. The first thing I noticed when I got down is
that you could see around you a lot better, and this
was the ruins and the terraces are much more
impressive. The whole site looks like ppl left it not
a long time ago, and all the buldings are well
preserved. I kept walking around the site, enjoying
the views and the buildings and hearing explenations
from random groups that passed by. After one of my
stops I realized that I don't have my camera anymore,
so I went back to where I stopped (around 10 minutes
later), and it wasn't there anymore. So I spent the
next 2 hours looking for it and asking half of the ppl
on the site if they have seen it, but with no
results... Good thing that I burnt all of my photos
before Thomas left, so I only lost part of my pictures
from Cuzco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu (which
is enough). So one of the British guys from the bus
took my picture, so I have one from there, and then
they closed the site (at 17;00!). I walked down to
town and went to the train station to buy a ticket -
although expensive, I wanted to go back to Cuzco fast,
and to the police station to report the camera stolen.
At night I went down to the Plaza to watch the local
kids play, met there the Argentinian couple and then
the British guy too, we talked a little and me and the
Argentinian guy played some with the local kids
(football, actually my first time in south america!,
and generally fooling around), which was fun and
improved my mood. Actually, except for the whole
camera part, I really enjoyed my whole Machu Picchu
experience. So after a sleep, a train and a bus I got
to Cuzco at noon and bought a simple film camera for
about 70 shekels, I had enough of losing expensive
ones, so I guees I won't be uploading any more
pictures until the end of the trip (I'll try to figure
something out back in Israel. I took the bus to
Arequipa, where I am now couchsurfing, and I will go
tomorrow to a 2 day tour at the Colca Canyon, one of
the deepest on earth.

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