How NOT to visit Machu Picchu. All night hike, anyone?

Our flight left Iquitos's impossibly small airport at 8:40am. We were flying with Peru's flagship airline Peruvian Airlines, which boasted leather seats, impressive snacks and delicious juices. For an hour and 10 minutes we felt spoiled.

Our plane touched down just before 10am, and after rushing through baggage claim we were on a city bus to the intercity bus station. We decided to spend a bit more for a 1:30 departure, as it would put us in Cusco at 11am the next day.

Our bus was more like a land-plane. We had a stewardess, a safety demonstration and snacks being served. Our seats were advertised to go down to 55 degrees, and we were given pillows and blankets. The TVs showed one movie after the other. When dinner time came by, we loaded into a local restaurant, and were served on the house.

At 4am our bus came to a stop in the middle of nowhere. Ahead of us was a string of busses all stopped by the same landslide that was blocking the road. Two and a half hours later, we were on the road again, only to be sidelined again a few minutes later, this time with a flat tire.

Just as we pulled back onto the road for the last 6 hours to Cusco we were passed by the Ormeno bus. The cheaper bus that left Lima 3 hours later, that we chose not to take in order to give Cusco more time. Dammit.

We arrived in Cusco at 4 in the afternoon, found a hotel, and food. We also planned our trip to Machu Picchu for the next day.

On Friday we decided to walk around Cusco for a few hours before heading to Machu. We decided to shoot for 11am at the bus station. We made it on time, but didn't realize the next bus wouldn't be until 1pm. We bought our ticket, though the bus didn't leave until 1:45, and we were overcharged.

Good morning Cusco!

Our 4.5 hour bus ride turned out to be a 6.5 hour, sickening climb into the Andean Mountains, full of switchbacks, bumpy roads, and altitude changes. We couldn't reach Santa Maria soon enough.

And more switchbacks...

When we finally did arrive at 8pm it was already dark, and there were no cheap taxis to Santa Teresa. We were lucky and hitched a ride with a dump truck, but unlucky 1.5 hours later to find a rock slide had wiped out the road. We walked the half hour to town, listening to lose rocks fall ahead and behind us on the dark path.

We were in Santa Teresa at 10:30pm, and the locals (the few of whom were still out) were shocked that we were determined to keep trekking to Aguas Calientes, Machu's base camp, 18km away.

After some quick directions, and a vastly drawn map we were on our way. The moon was almost full, and lit the path quite well. It was mostly flat as we followed the river in the valley to the midway point: Hideoelectrica. A street dog followed us from Santa Teresa, we decided to call him Little Dude.

Santa Teresa

At Hidroelectrica we took a snack break. It was 1am. 30 minutes later and we were on the road again, this time following train tracks the rest of the way.

Luckily, this bridge had a pedestrian portion... but we weren't always so lucky!

We arrived at the entrance to Machu Picchu, just outside of Aguas Calientes, at 4:30am. We had walked 20km in about 6 hrs, and now the climbing was about to begin. But first we had to wait until the gates opened at 5am.

When they finally did we started our ascent, with several early risers from Aguas. After some thousands of stairs and an hour and a half later, we reached the base level of Machu. We took a break before going in.

When we finally did enter, we were rewarded with the post card picture of pristine and grandiose Machu Picchu, with Wayna Picchu peak in the background.

We spent at least an hour taking pictures, then visited the houses, temples and sundial. We had declined a guide, even though she insisted without her all we would see is rocks and walls.

What the heck is this?! A rabbit-squirl?!

At 10am we started our hike up Wayna Picchu. It was a killer hour up, but once we got to the top we were literally at the highest loot overlooking the Lost City. By this time the train with luxury day-trippers from Cusco arrived and the place started to get packed. We decided 6 hours was enough, so we descended Wayna Picchu and then all the way down to Aguas.

That white zig-zag line is the road... but the trail just goes straight up, crossing the road multiple times.

We were lucky and caught the 2pm train back to Hidroelectrica (not before some more Chaufa), and from there a collectivo taxi to Santa Maria. It was just before 5pm, and there were no busses back to Cusco until 8, but we found a tour company with 2 extra seats, and found ourselves racing down the mountain with a front row seat.

We were exhausted from having pulled an all-nighter hiking (and then having hiked up to Machu and Wayna), and we both passed out in the van, though Abra kept leaning onto me, catching herself, the doing it again.

Leaving Machu Picchu... and running for the train from Aguas Calientes!

 

After a little detour due to angry-citizen made rock road blocks (not sure why they're mad this time) we were back in our hotel by 10:30pm.

Sunday, after a bit more siteseeing in Cusco, we took a 1:30pm bus to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. 7 hours extended into 8, and we had little to do after arriving, besides eat Chaufa and book out boat trip for the next morning. (The next bunch of photos are from the bus, on route to Puno).

Our not-so-great room in Puno.

The van picked us up at 6:40am from out hotel and brought us down to the dock, where we loaded up onto a small tour boat to visit some islands.

Our first stop was the Isla Corazon del Lago. It's a floating island of the Uros tribe, made from reeds. The reeds must be constantly replenished as the ones on the bottom rot away. The surface is very bouncy. Everything is made from these reeds: houses, boats, and furniture.

Click on me to make me big!

A float by market!

The Uros were extremely nice and welcoming, but since they rely on tourism, they were a bit exploited by the tour company, who had them sing songs in 6 differet languages for us (including their own idiom). After visiting the rest of the tiny island (there were 6 families on this particular island, there being 56 floating islands total), we got back on the boat for the 2.5 hour ride to Isla Taquila.

Isla Taquila is home to another indigenous tribe. It's a real island, and much bigger. We visited the city square, had chaufa for lunch (we brought it from Puno), before boarding our boat again at 3pm for the 2.5 hour ride back to Puno.

Click on me to make me big!

Our bus from Puno to Arequipa would leave at 2am. It was just a 7 hour ride, so any earlier departure would put us in Arequipa before daybreak. So we left our bags at the hotel, and wandered around the streets of Puno in search of food and shopping.

At around 9, we were our of things to do, it was raining, and things were definitely slowing down.We still had 5 hours before our departure, so we hung out in the hotel lobby catching up on the blog, and in general, wasting time. At 1:30am we caught a taxi to the bus terminal, and by 2 we were both tossing and turning in our bus seats, trying to get a few hours of shut-eye before Arequipa.

No rest for the restless!

Posted by Hans, Photos by Abra