Monday 25 October 2010

Peru- Machu Picchu

After Huacachina we had a 20 hour bus journey ahead of us from Ica to Cusco.  Luckily in Peru they have really good buses for long journeys, that have completely reclinable seats, called 'camas' - beds.  It was pretty exciting to have a fancy bus like that after a few of the long journeys we'd had.  We were even given little meals like you'd get on a long flight.  After this overnight journey, we had to get on another bus, not at all luxury this time, (there were clucking chickens under the seat beside us), for a five and half hour trip through the mountains to Santa Maria, where we then got a little mini bus to take us on the hour long journey to Santa Teresa along the scariest road yet, passing through three streams with terrifying drops at the edge of a bumpy dirt track.  This epic journey was all in an attempt to get to Machu Picchu on a budget.  There is only one direct route to reach Machu Picchu, or actually the Machu Picchu town beside it, Aguas Calientes, and that is by train. But there is only one train company, and so it's ridiculously expensive.  The cheapest tickets from Cusco are one hundred dollars return and the luxury ones are six hundred dollars return.  Then when you get to Aguas Calientes, the shuttle bus is 14 dollars return and the entrance to Machu Picchu is about 42 dollars.  Maybe it doesn't sound like too much in Irish standards but when you consider that our nights accomodation in Santa Teresa was 3 dollars, it's just crazy over here.  It is cheaper for Peruvians though. 

Views from Cusco to Santa Maria...
 Bus snacks, like sugar puffs, they're everywhere in Peru...
Political slogans are painted everywhere, on the walls of loads of peoples houses too...
Next morning in Santa Teresa, we caught a lift at six with workers going out to the nearby hydroelectric power station.  This was beside the train tracks, which we followed by foot for a further two hours before reaching Aquas Calientes.  A Slovenian guy who was doing the same journey joined us for the day and it was actually a really nice scenic way to get there.

Santa Teresa main square in the morning...
 The walk along the tracks...


Aquas Calientes was a ridiculous touristy place purely catering to the Machu Picchu crowd.  Apparently an average of 3000 people visit it a day, and when we arrived at half eight there were already long queues for the shuttle buses.  There's one hotel right beside Machu Picchu which costs a grand a night, it didn't look like anything special at all, but by the look of some of the people there that kind of money wouldn't mean anything to them.  One guy we saw walking around the ruins was dressed in a bright white suit, with snakeskin shoes and a Luis Vuitton bag, not the type of crowd we were used to seeing.  Anyway, when we finally got there it was worth the effort and we really enjoyed it despite our original skepticism.  The location is really amazing, the mountains are just so steep. We also got there in time to climb up the adjacent Huayna Picchu, which is the peak in the background here - only 400 people are allowed to per day. 
The climb up Huayna Picchu was a real struggle at altitude...
Smiling trying to hide the exhaustion and fear of heights...
Machu Picchu creatures...
Funny Japanese group posing for photos, one at a time...
So after a few hours of walking around Machu Picchu, and with jelly legs after going up and down Huayna Picchu, we started our descent down the mountain back to the train tracks, for our two hour walk back to the hydroelectric station, to catch a lift back to Santa Teresa.  We were starving and wrecked, but it'd been worth the effort. We got a lift from Santa Teresa to Santa Maria and then a guy offered to drive the three of us all the way back to Cusco cause he was going anyway, for slightly more than the bus but in less time.  The police stopped us for some reason along the way, but the guy just gave them a few coins and we were free to go again. 

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