Peru: Cuzco and Machu Picchu

From La Paz, we returned to Peru and made our way to Cuzco.  Cuzco is probably the most touristy town we were in throughout the entire trip.  There were a lot more English speaking visitors than other places we had been and it felt strange to suddenly understand the majority of what was being said around me.  The main square had a McDonald's, KFC, and Starbucks.  You could not walk more than ten feet without someone trying to sell you something or asking if they could shine your shoes.  Despite how touristy it was, I really liked Cuzco.  Probably because it attracts so many tourists from around the world, it seemed like it was kept up better, at least in the city center, than other places we had been in South America.  It was clean and most of the buildings had actually been completed.  The police even issued tickets to drivers ignoring the traffic laws.  There were a lot of restaurants and nice shops.  The crafts markets were huge, although every stall did seem to be selling the same thing as the one next to it.  There are Inca walls, colonial churches, and narrow cobblestone roads winding up the steep hillsides.  By the time we got to Cuzco, we were a bit cultured out, so we did not visit many of the churches or museums, but we still enjoyed wandering the streets of the capital of the Inca Empire.

Crossing guard (Cuzco was the only place we'd been in months where they actually cared if you did not use the crosswalk)

City view from our first hostel

Temple of the Sun (Coricancha) and Church of Santa Domingo (The Spanish church was built on top of the Inca temple. Inca buildings and foundations have proved stronger than many present day Peruvian buildings)

Church of la Compania de Jesus

Plaza de Armas

Our first order of business in Cuzco was to get all of our tickets fixed for our remaining flights after a certain airline decided to go ahead and basically cancel our tickets for several flights.  Unfortunately we spent a lot of our time in Cuzco in airline offices and on the phone with customer service.  It put a major damper on our Cuzco visit, but we went ahead and booked our train tickets to Machu Picchu and tried to forget about the airlines for a few days.

To get to Machu Picchu from Cuzco, we first took a combi to the bus station in Urabamba, a small town in the Sacred Valley.  The combi was basically a mini van with extra seats added so that there is no space in the back and very little leg room.   

Transportation to Urubamba (before everyone had gotten in)

From Urubamba, we took a mini-bus that was even more crowded than the mini van.  Luckily we were not the last in or we would not have even had seats.  The mini-bus took us to Ollantaytambo, where we boarded the train to Aguas Calientes.  PeruRail advertised an "amazing" train experience to Machu Picchu.  I found it to be one of the worst trains I've been on.  The air conditioning either didn't work or was not turned on so we were sweating all the way there and the ride was bumpier than a lot of buses.  The scenery was gorgeous though and made up for the uncomfortable train.

We arrived in Aguas Calientes, the small town just outside Machu Picchu, in the early afternoon.  We bought our bus tickets to Machu Picchu for the following day and had a walk around the town, which was nicer than we expected, though like many other Peruvian towns, there were still plenty of unfinished buildings.  The town seems to depend completely on tourism to survive.  Hotels, hostels, and tourist restaurants and shops line the pedestrian roads.  Since Aguas Calientes is accessible only by train, there are no cars in town except the buses that take tourists to Machu Picchu and back.

We left for Machu Picchu at about 6:30am, opting not to rush up at 5am for sunrise with most of the crowds.  It is so common to leave early for Machu Picchu that our hotel served breakfast from 4:30am to 8am.  Even though we thought we avoided the early morning crowd, the line for the bus still wrapped around the block.  Since buses are constantly going back and forth, we only waited about 15 minutes.  The bus takes a winding road up the mountain to the entrance, where you walk through the turnstile like at an amusement park, and head inside.  The ticket provides all kinds of information about what is allowed inside and what cannot be brought in, such as no plastic water bottles and no food.  Judging from what I saw, these rules were not enforced and we wasted our money on the aluminum water bottles we purchased.

Machu Picchu was spectacular. When we first entered, we climbed up one of the terraced hillsides for a view of the ruins.  It is not just the ruins themselves, but the ruins in combination with the location that make it so amazing.  The scenery is absolutely beautiful and it is incredible to think that the Incas were able to build such a massive complex so long ago in the very remote location.   We sat for quite a while taking it all in.  It was quite surreal to be there, as Simon's desire to visit Machu Picchu is what got us thinking about travel in the first place.  After a while, we walked back down and explored the ruins.  We spent about five hours before walking back to Aguas Calientes.

Back in Aguas Calientes, we went to a bar and watched Team USA destroy Argentina in basketball.  Later that evening we went to one of the many restaurants offering a huge menu of Mexican, American, Italian, and Peruvian food.  We glanced at the menu before going in and were so amused that we decided to give it a try.  We spent a good ten minutes laughing and taking pictures of the menu.  It's nice that they tried to translate, but the translations were so bad that sometimes I found it easier to just try to read the Spanish.  

The next day, we had breakfast at a French cafe, which was really tasty, but really out of place.We killed a bit of time wandering around and then headed to the train station to start our journey back.  For some reason, the train ride back to Ollantaytambo was much smoother and so, much more enjoyable.  About half way back, the train stopped and locals tried to sell things through the windows.  A costumed dancer also got on and put on quite a show.  This was followed by a fashion show.  The purpose of the fashion show was to encourage passengers to buy PeruRail's overpriced alpaca wool clothing.

Back in Ollantaytambo we took a collectivo (another shared mini van taxi) all the way back to Cuzco.  This van, like the others, was also completely packed, but at least we did all have a seat.