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CUSCO
Very lively city with HOARDS of tourists fromall over the world, mostly Europeans, USA & Canadians. Real change fromother places we had visited but I suppose we had been spoiled to date by avoiding tourist crowds. Hotel was nice but not cheap. Spent first few days here finding out what was on offer and seeing some sights. Visited musuems, saw Inca ruins in the city, tried local foods etc. One day I took a self'made tour of INca Ruins outside the city using local buses and a good dose of walking. I saw 5 sites and can even remember their (badly spelt) names¨, Tambamachay, Puka Pukara, Sasayhuaman, Qenko Grande and Qenko "small". Stunning in a word. Gave me a good bit of background before seeing the big MP. Sadly M was too tired to come so caught upon diary & sleep in Cusco.
Another day we took bus to town of Pisac to north of Cusco to see the markets and Inca ruins. M marketed while I attempted to 600m vertical ascent up the side of the mountain to the ruins. The pain was blunted by the emerging Inca city which became apparent during the climb. The Incas had effectively built a city ontopof and on the side of a steep mountain overlooking flat valleys below. This included building what seemed like hundreds of terraces on a 50 degree or more moutain side. Often the final terrace wall just ended witrh a certical cliff of several hunderd metres into the valley below. Stunning place and in some ways I found this more mind'boggling than the big MP, partly I suppose as I saw it first.
Back in Cusco we agreed to take a trek with an agency the following day. This involved trekking for 4 days and the 5th day would be a visit to Machu Picchu. Trek would be about 80km and climb at least one pass of 4,700 metres. This was not the Official Inca Trail as it is now so popular that it is impossible to get on without booking months in advance, not something we have the slightest interest in doing on this trip I assure you, I mean, planning ahead........really!!!!!!! So we settled for the "Alternative" or "Poor Mans" Inca Trail. At least our route would not have 500 other peple on it stayting at the same campe sites each night, so I guess we chose correctly in the end.
Next day, we were picked up at hotel and taken to bus of other tourists and locals for 5.30a.m. departure to starting point at Mollepata. There we met rest of group and breakfasted. Group was Claudette (Architect from USA), her dad, his second wife, Danielle & Mikey (brother & sister team from Califonia) and Eleanor & Sally (friends from Victoria, Oz). Our guide was Darwin, young local chap of 24 who had an infectious grin, promising. Set off on day one with donkeys carrying our main packs and the cook and porter prodding them from behind. We set off ahead of donkeys but we were assuredf that they would soon overtake us. It soon became apparent that Seniot Team America (STA), i.e. Claudette's dad and wife had signed up for the wrong trip, walk they could not. After much waiting, by mid morning on day one Darwin flagged down a passing truck and found them a lift to the end of the day's walk. Then the pace smartened!
Lunch stop was on top of a decent sized hill overlooking the valley we had climbed out of. There we found our donkeys, cook and two other helpers with camp table set up and hot food on the go. What a difference to our unsupported treks where we opted for cold tuna out of tins and stale bread. 3 course lunch feast was great and after half hour siesta we continued on trek up the valley towards ominous mountains in distance. About 8 to 9 hours after starting we arrivbed at campsite, about 20 km of all uphill. Our helper team had done themselves proud again, tents set up, hot tea and local style popcorn waiting! Sorted out our stuff into tents then straight into tea, popcorn shortly followed by 3 course dinner in our own private dining tent. We ate like Lords. The campsite itself was never going to be as peaceful as on our unsupported treks as with a supported trek you must campat official bases in the mountains which see a good number of daily trekking groups. You can imagine the mess that they leave behind but you just have to get on and deal with it (Everest Base Camp being a case in point, it looksw like a refuse tip I am told).
Out of bed early on day two as we had to climb pass and get a long way down the other side by nightfall. Cooked breakfast dispatched, we started. Darwin had kindly arranged two horses for STA so we set off without them, at a good pace. Much climbing and regrouping and then we arrived at top of pass (4,700m alt.) by mid morning. Team photos, backslapping, meeting up with STA etc. before we descended other side.
View from the top I found to be sad largely. Granted the views of mountains and valleys was stunning at this altutide but what stuck me (as a holder of an Honours Geography degree!!!) was the very clear evidence that not so many years ago we should have been looking at a huge glacier winding its way down our valley. Instead all that was left were three morraines marking the original extent of the glacier and a pathetic piece of ice clinging to the mountain above us, i.e. the glacier had shrunk to nothing. This has been happenning all over South American and more & moree evidence is pointing to man'made Global Warming. VERY disappointing if this is the case but it is countries like Peru where the physical evidence of GW is starting to tell. (Now I have had my environmental rant I will copntinue...........)
After another 2 hours of walking fromthe pass we met our very efficient team who had lunch ready to go for us, in fact we were late, oh dear! Another good lunch then we set off again continuing our winding route deeper down into the valley below. Track soon dropped down into dense Cloud Forest, very different fromopen high Andean mountain scenery. Coulds, flora, fauna etc. made this bit most impressive in its own right. We merged informally with other trekking groups and all slowly closed in on the as yet invisible campsite for night 2. Worryingly, ii was becoming dark and still no sign of camp, and we were towards the front of the group. We got to camp when it was barely possible to see. Campand dinner was of course already sorted. I picked up a torch and headed back up the path to see if any of the remaining trekkers were stuck without light, luckily none were. Danielle had already been rescued by a horseman on a particularly scary piece of track with certical falls into the valley below of several hundered feet, not fun in the dark!
Dinner, as usual was superb as was the team discussion of the day's activities. Another good night of sleep then breakfast. Here we learned that Darwin, Mikey & Team Australia had taken a nightime excursion to neighbouring hot'springs, v brave indeed in that jungly environment in the dark. Day three started with only half of STA on horse so pace was limited. Steep downhgill walk through jungle to valley bottom to meet thundering Andean torrents. Here, hidden in a corner next to a river was a outdoor thermal pool which had been made by locals using boulders to trap thermal springs coming out of the valley side. So us weary travellers rested ourselves here for an hour before continuing, great when one has not had a shower. Rest of walk was along the side of thundering river through Cloud Forest (looks like jungle to us Eruropeans). Luch was the end of the day's trek. After that we bussed to Santa Teresa only to arrive at camprground in torretial downpour. Tents were not yet up and ground was waterlogged so team voted for a stay in local hostal (a cowardly but sensible decision under the circumstances). A nightime visit to thermal springs here after dinner ended the day nicely.
Fourth day of trek was the walk to Aguas Calientes (Spanish for Hot Water!) the town which sits below Machu Picchu. First we had to cross a large river with no bridge. Ingenious Peruvian solution is a rickety metal cage pulled across some wiressuspended above the torrent. It is either this or swim, the latter option being more suicidal than the first). After waiting in a queue with locals we eventually got our turn, after a not insignificant amount of queue'barging by locals put us back a bit (well, it is their country so why not). After the "bridge" we walked gradually uphill for about 3 hours in stifling heat in a canyon before reaching Hyro Electico, which is exactly that, a Hydro Electric Power station, a few shacks and a rough market. This is also the terminus of the railway line from Cusco. After a brief lunch stop here we continued. The final bit of the walk was walking along the railway tracks to Aguas Calientes. This in itself was an experience as surely every child in the world grows up knowing that this is a naughty thing to do but such fun!!!! Tough on the ankles though as the railway sleepers are just too close together for comfortable strides and the ballast under the sleepers is like walking on loose boulders.
Part way down the track we were stopped and asked tolookup and see the terraces of Machu Picchu, wow! A bit later we arrived at town of Aguas Calientes. This is a good example of how not to develop a town in beautiful, pristine cloudforest below one of the world's premier ancient wonders that is Machu Picchu. It is a disaster. Uncontrolled concrete urban sprawl in a line between the river and the railway track. Ugly hotels and apartment blocks everywhere and not a single piece of evidence of the indigenous town that onceexisted there. The lure of tourists' money was clearly too much for the council / local companies. I repeat, DISAPPOINTING!! (that's the end of my second rant).
That night we all ended up in different hotels which was a shame but we had a team dinner in a local restaurant. That night we all agreed that we would walk to MP the next morning, a walk of 30mins to the steps then a solid hour of climbing stairs out of the valley to get there. STA decided to take the bus!! So, up at 4.00 to beat crowds, we all met up at 4.30 to start walking. Arrived at entrance to MP at 6.00, gates do not open til 6.30 so we did well. When we did eventually go through at 6.30, it was a pea'souper (i.e. due to low cloud we could see barely 100 metres, oh dear, what a let down). Your first entry into Machu Picchu is supposed to be one of the biggest "tourist" wows of your life so it was a bit of a shame. Nevertheless, we had a good wander then had an informnative tour by a guide. All of this was in fairly heavy rain so thoughts were more on "when will it end" rather than what it should have been. After tour we took Darwin and our tourguide for lunch tyo wait for better weather. Indeed it came in the end. After a few hours it cleared up and became a wonderful day so we went back in to see it properly. It is as amazing as you would expect but of course by this time hundreds of outher tourists were enjoying it too. Oh well. Towards the end Mikey & I climbed a mini mountain within the MP city, Huayna Picchu. V tough, but the best views, good decision Mikey! Then we all regrouped, returned to Ag Cal and said farewells to team who were heading back to Cusco by train. M & I stayed anmother night to rest our bones before returning the next day.- comments