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Published: October 28th 2006
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The Classic Shot
I lost count of how many Peruvians wanted thier picture taken with me. Really felt like a movie star. Should have looked a mite more presentable maybe, but they were smitten with the tall Gringo. The final count was about 30 children who used me as a picture prop Well, when travelling in Peru one has to visit the place really. After my foray to the floating islands and seeing plenty of ruins at every turn since entering Peru, i was I admit going to skip it. The whole aura around the trip is dreadful. As soon as you enter Cusco you cant avoid it. Everyone is trying to make money from it. If you´re a backpacker it´s meant to be a monetary crippler, and the actual place is full of older (wider in girth possibly) tourists with far too much money to spend. So, certainly not the sort of backpacker foray i´ve been used to of late. So when i got here i was going to do a tour of the sacred valley instead and save some cash.
Enter my enthusiastic new Dutch freind (Frank - of course Frank) and a scheme to get to MP via the local buses and a mini Inca Trail through the jungle all of our own (we met a Peruvian chap on the way who said we were on the´Ámigo Trail´ rather than the Inca or Gringo). Basically in a few years i think the way i did it will be as
The hike
Lugged the guitar all the way and then they wouldnt let me take it to the ruins. poo. used as the present favourite of the train form Cusco. But, for us, we can say we did it when hardly anybody else did. We met no other gringos in the jungle trek and the rides on the local buses were certainly not of touristy comfort. The day ran thus...
8pm Wed: Leave Cusco on a local bus serive (i.e. cramped, overcrowded, slow and smelly) to the small town of Santa Maria. In the middle of nowhere, and because myself and Frank had decided to take no map, we could have been anywhere.
2am Thurs: Arrive Santa Maria. Warm, mosquito ridden. Full of truckers on thier breaks. And, one small mini bus (capacity 12...take note here) waiting in a dusty corner that allegedly went to an equally small town in the middle of nowhere else at 4am.
4am Thurs: Sure enough deperture was uncommonly promt from Santa Maria. We did however cram 21 people in the mini bus, and the ride was not for the faint hearted. At times it made the death road look a walk in the part. Totally mad and something i´m glad is over. The drops were bigger, the bus much more dodgy.
But crucially no-one else uses the road so for the most part it was plain sailing to the village of Santa Teresa.
6am Thurs: Now according to the plan at this point in steps bus number 3. However it didn´t exixt and so from Santa Teresa at 6am, with no sleep thrugh the night we embarked on a 5 hour hike through the jungle and then along old railway lines (i was going to put dissused but at one point i found this was not the case at very close quarters). This hike was pure magic. Forget the Inca trail. I´m sure it´s great, but this hike was equally jungly, full of olf ruins, only took 5 hours, and we met no-one else for the whole thing. Ace times.
11.30am Thurs: Limpèd into the small town (and awfully touristy) of Agua Callientes (i´m sure this spelling is wrong). A quick lunch and congratulations at thus far spending 20 Sols ($6) rather than $68 on the train.
12noon Thurs: Ok now we cheated a bit. We could have hiked another 8km up the hill to Machi Picchu, but we got the tourist bus for $6. Doubling our expenses
Waiting at Santa Maria
A time lapse experiment for a 15minute bus ride. We did walk down though and get totally lost which was fun 5 hours later.
And so finally a few words about MP. Only a few though as you just cant descibe it. Like nothing i´ve ever seen before its a crazy huge Inca settlement on top of a huge mountain which was discovered by farmers around 1900 (there is a myth that some people flew over in a plane in the 1920s and found it, but this isn´t true. People have always known about it from what i can gather but its only become big business in the recent past). To begin with i was ready to be unimpressed given the cost most people have to put up with. However, at one point we got away from the crowds on top of a nearby hill, and looking down in an hours silence, we realised what its all about. It mysterious, tranquil (even with all the tourists), unique, mindblowing, and unmissable. Those who want to do it really cheap can hike up from A. Callientes, and also try and follow the bus route back i used to get there. Sadly i ran out of time and cheated with the train on the way back.
Its nearly farewell to Peru - I leave this evening for Bolivia again. Ah sweet Bolivia. Peru has had mixed blessing for me. I´ve enjoyed parts of it a lot, but think i wasnt here long enough to real understand it. A bit too touristy for my short stay. Still good times continue to roll. This sadly isn´t half of the story of our crazy adventure but time is precious this evening - buses to catch and all that. I´m sure you´ll get to here of it in detail when i see you all.
marc
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Simon's mum
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Amazing MP
Simon forwarded your blog to me. We visited MP in 2004, doing the shorter of the Inca Trails and getting that fantasic view from the Sun Gate. Yes, I agree that it's all a little touristy but it's a place everyone just has to see. We loved Cusco by the way, but didn't like the way the local women appeared on every street corner with a llama ready to charge for a photo! Enjoy the rest of your travels.