At first impression Cusco looked like a rather attractive place, in particular the main square and a wall near our hostel, which had been built by carving large stones so that they fit perfectly together; a technique I knew, from some documentary I once watched, was an Incan architectural technique meaning that no cement or grout is required. Incredible. Worried about how cold I was going to get in the Machu Picchu trek, considering that I still had no warm clothes since my thermals were stolen and my one pair of long trousers were ripped again, we went shopping for clothes for both of us. I bought a nice warm-looking alpaca wool jacket, though I wasn't all that keen on the style or the fact it was very bulky and therefore going to take up a lot of space in my bag. Nonetheless, the vendor lowered her price until I didn't feel I could say no and I really did need something warm. I also needed some shoes, since mine were finally starting to fall apart, months and months after having them repaired in Laos. I thought I might get some walking boots, but these were all very expensive. I nearly bought one of two pairs, but I couldn't decide which fitted better, deciding I could come back to choose in a day or two.

That night we met up with Tess and Liam, who had been in Cusco for two weeks already, learning Spanish. Predictably it turned into the usual late night and drunken carnage that seems to be all they do; though they claim that we are a bad influence on them and they spend all their time learning Spanish and doing other wholesome things while we are not around.

Guy in Liam and Tess's hostel with a big bag of coca leaves

Oh dear

Bit more like it

Much nicer!

Is Liam stuck?

The following day Lucy and Zdenek arrived and we met up with them to coordinate Machu Picchu, and bought very expensive train tickets to the nearby town of Aguas Calientes, which seems almost completely to have changed its name to Machu Picchu Pueblo, unsurprisingly. Pleased at our decisiveness and progress we went out for dinner and I had an alpaca steak, which was rather nice, but not a patch on an Argentinian Bife de Chorizo.

Alpaca steak

written by  The Happy Couple on November 6, 2009 from Cusco, Peru
from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon
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I still haven't quite got his moves right. The man's a dancing genius, I tell you.

written by  The Happy Couple on November 8, 2009 from Aguas Calientes, Peru
from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon
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Warning this entry MAY feature excessive photography

The train was nice enough and I wondered why you would possibly want to pay double for a journey that only takes three hours, until we left, passing another train full of passengers with tables between them and waiters bringing them breakfast on platters, and absolutely no riffraff like us on board. Lucy, Joanne, and Zdenek all slept on the train, but I didn't. I just don't sleep easily in transport, also the scenery was quite nice. When we arrived, the people in the hostel were really nice, and one girl in reception told us where the locals eat to avoid gringo prices. We found a place with a S6 cena menú which was perfectly alright, then we bought entrance tickets for the next day and went to bed very early.

The reason we went to bed so early is that the next day we had to get up at 3am to ensure that we were able to get a ticket for Waynapicchu. Waynapicchu is the distinctive mountain towering over the main complex of Machu Picchu. We had heard you get great views from there so we wanted to be in the first four hundred, because only the first four hundred get tickets for Waynapicchu: two hundred are allowed in at 7am and the rest at 11am. We set off not long after 4am and headed down towards the entrance, head torches at the ready, however it was just after full moon and it didn't seem like the lights would be necessary, despite the hostel (and the Machu Picchu entrance tickets) insisting that you bring torches and spare batteries. There was certainly a small crowd heading the same direction as us, but we were in no danger of missing out on our rightful places up Waynapicchu.

Pink-faced people at the gate

There was still an slight air of competition and it was quite steep, but I had weighed myself on the control-freak hostel owner's scales in Puno to discover, after the Bolivia Diet I was only 87kg, a full six down from my peak after Argentina, so it was going to be easy for me. By the time we got to the entrance at the top of the path, at about 5:30am, lots of people had steam rising off them, and nearly everybody had bright pink faces. Now that the sun was coming up we could see some of the stunning scenery we had been climbing through. The surrounding looked quite like the karst peaks we had seen in Halong Bay in Vietnam and Yangshuo in China.

Similar to karsts

Surronded by mountains

Then we all has to stand in line and wait for the gates to open at 6am. Just before the gates opened the first three buses arrived; they would all get to go up Waynapicchu and none of them had to go through what we did. We all agreed that Waynapicchu tickets should only be available to people who have walked up from Aguas Calientes. Then, when the gates opened someone went down the queue, asking whether we wanted to be part of the 7am or 11am group for Waynapicchu. We said 7am, because we wanted to get the early morning views of Machu Picchu and avoid climbing in the midday sun; however everyone else seemed to have received counter-intuitive advice and asked for the later entry. When the gates opened and we all piled in, the 11am crowd all headed sharply up to the left. They obviously knew what they were doing. Or thought they did.

Llamas

Joanne next to nice Inca wall

Not sure what this is. Cute though

Hard not to grin

Houses to the right, temples and stuff to the left

Across the plaza to houses

Almost as soon as you are through the gate, you get lovely views of Waynapicchu and you can already get a feel for the size of the place. Round the first bend we were met by a herd of llamas who apparently live in Machu Picchu, keeping the grass short, I suppose. Most of the buildings aren't too badly ruined, but there large piles of boulders here and there, and none of them have roofs anymore. We headed in the direction of Waynapicchu in case we had estimated the distance badly, but we were there in no time and hung around looking at other nearby bits. We took so many pictures that I can't be bothered continuing very much with the description. It is an amazing place. Machu Picchu was one of my reasons for wanting to travel and it wasn't disappointing.

Waynapicchu and Huchuypicchu

Joanne and Waynapicchu

Me and Waynapicchu

Us!

Something sacred

When the gates for Waynapicchu opened we had to queue again, then sign a register. Most ominous. The track up the mountain was quite difficult going, and very steep in places; nothing for a seasoned hillwalker such as myself, of course, but the others struggled a bit, especially Lucy. Near the top of the path, some typical Inca terracing started; this is usually used for agriculture, but here the ground was ridiculously steep. Then we saw that at the top of all the terracing was a ruined house. Insane! Somebody had built this path to access, and built all this terracing as a vegetable garden for one house. Someone must have really hated the rest of the community or been very important. As we got higher the views of Machu Picchu started to disappear as clouds started to rise out of the forests we had climbed through that morning. I imagined that it was actually all of the sweat form the early arrival, rising to form clouds. I wondered if this is why most people wanted the later tickets. For a while the view was obscured, then much nearer the top is started to clear up again and it stay completely clear for the rest of the day.

Start of path up Waynapicchu

Joanne struggling a bit

First view from above

Crazy terraced garden

Crazy steep path

Moon behind the Waynapicchu house

Waiting for the view to come back

The View is clearing

A bit higher and it's definitely clearing

Me and Mach

There's also terracing further down

Yup it's clearing

Clear!

Quite impressive

Composure returned

Onwards and upwards

What a place

Crowds at the top (it was much worse on a bit)

The top of the hill only has a little space and you can see why they restricted the numbers; otherwise it would be like lemmings up there. The views are fantastic. The stonework, the architectural, and engineering achievements of these people who didn't even have the wheel, are very impressive indeed, but what really makes this place is the scenery. What a place to build a town: at the top of a mountain, surrounded by other beautiful mountains and valleys, and from the top of Waynapicchu you can really appreciate the full context of Machu Picchu. I was really glad that we had got up so early and managed to secure our free tickets to the mountain. The first bit of the way down was even steeper than the way up and most people were going very slowly. In front of us was a group of about five middle-aged Canadian women. They had apparently been adopted by a young Glaswegian guy, who must have been working for the Scottish Tourist Board. He was keeping the ladies laughing the whole way down, offering to take their walking poles at tricky bits, and taking their hands when necessary. By the time we overtook them at a wide bit, they had started calling him their “path angel”. Good work! All Scots are like that, of course.

Imagine living here.

In case of altitude

The full picture

From the house above

Incredible terracing and Huchuypicchu

Big mountain nearby

More garden, I presume

Steep path down

Incan stone work

Oh it's Machu Picchu

Alternative route

Back near ground level I decided I wanted to climb the smaller mountain, Huchuypicchu, closer to the ruins, but nobody else would join me. They would wait for me, they said. I set off quickly, not wanting to hold them up to long and soon I had to squeeze past some slower people on the trail. Not long after that I was aware of a bad smell. Checking me shoe I realised that I had stood in something, and my stomach told me it was something human. I tried to wipe it off as I was walking and retching, but the smell still followed me. I pushed on faster, still retching, hoping there would be lots of grass at the top, but the haste I had added to my speed just caused me to trip, and I fell on my knee, ripping the new trousers that I had bought in Cusco to stand in for the ones with the crotch rip. I really wasn't having much luck with trousers! Anyway, at the top I was able to clean my shoes more and get fantastic views of both Waynapicchu and Machupicchu that are closer up than viewing one from the other.

Terracing up the side of Huchuypicchu

Alternative view

Me an' Mach

My own private view

Me and Waynapicchu

Waynapicchu

The top bit where we all were

Top of Waynapicchu close up

We spent the next few hours just wandering around the site, taking photos, lazing about in beautiful places, and trying to take in as much of the experience as we could, simultaneously trying to ignore the lingering aroma from my shoe. Eventually the crowds really started to fill the place up and some small black flies, just like the evil ones at Iguazu Falls, started attacking us. The locals all talk about mosquitos, but this was not a mosquito as we know it, it was more like a midgie, but the bite is much itchier and each one actually draws blood. I wonder if to Spanish speakers “mosquito” just means little fly i.e. mosca + diminutive.

This rock is meant to have power

Oh yeah I feel it now

Curious llama

The "power rock" is meant to mirror the mountain profile

Joanne and llama

Llamas

Awesome Inca stonework

Temple of the Three Windows

Looking down on the housing

Us

Huchuypicchu

Someone on top of Huchuypicchu like I was

Except nobody took a photo of me

Views from higher up on Machu Picchu

Views from higher up on Machu Picchu

We were there!

Joanne was there!

Pose

More Chinese or American

Views from higher up on Machu Picchu

Views from higher up on Machu Picchu

All knackered

The crowds arrive

Contemplation

Meditation

Excitation

Aggregation

Views from higher up on Machu Picchu

Chased off by the little flies, we decided to see what remained of the site and be off. The last bit was an Inca bridge, which was another fifteen minute walk. The bridge was another incredible feat of engineering, in fact the whole path along to the bridge was, but it was undergoing some reconstruction, so who knows what state it was in before. The strangest thing about the bridge is that it didn't seem to go anywhere: it clearly crossed a difficult gap on the contour the path was on, but then it seemed to peter out. Maybe it was all just eroded and there used to be a path beyond the bridge heading up to the next pass, but it wasn't obvious. Anyway, Machu Picchu is an awesome place and everyone should go there. The ruins are great, but it's really the scenery that makes it stand above any other ruins I've seen.

Joanne and Inca Bridge

But where does it go?

Flower

Waynapicchu from near Inca Bridge

This is the Inca Trail

View from Inca Trail

Machu Picchu

We had planned to get the bus back to town, but when we discovered that the $7 did mean US$7 and not just 7 Soles, we decided to walk back down again. It was purer that way anyway, wasn't it? We celebrated with beer and coca sours (another take on Pisco sours), and Zdenek bought a kilo of cheese from a street vendor. Happy days.

View of site from ground level

Aguas Calientes

Coca sour and Cheese

Looking pleased

Looking pleased

They make everything from coca

And it is good for everything, as David said

The next day I thought my shoes had been through enough and I wasn't convinced they'd ever smell right again, so I threw them out. The rest of the day was spent at the baths the town is (or used to be) named after. Quite nice, very cheap, but oddly they have a sand bottom which makes the water look really dirty. Then it was back on the train to Cusco.

End of shoes

Machu Picchu was the coup de grâce

written by  The Happy Couple on November 9, 2009 from Aguas Calientes, Peru
from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon
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I didn't sleep at all well that night. Lucy and Zdenek had been put in the room we had before and our new room had a really old uncomfortable mattress. To make matters worse, my stomach felt really unsettled and by morning I was convinced that I had food poisoning again, so I stayed in bed all morning while everyone else went out. By the afternoon I was starting to wonder whether altitude sickness wasn't playing at least a part in my ill health; Machu Picchu may be quite high, but it's not really high enough for altitude sickness, and the town is only at about 2000m, so I had probably de-acclimatised while there and now I was having to re-acclimatise in Cusco. Or else it was just food poisoning, I'm not sure. I managed to get up in the afternoon, but I still wasn't feeling right by the end of the day.

Inca wall

Inca wall

Despite that, I still managed to go out with the other three to book bus tickets to Arequipa and take a few photos of the town, since we had been too drunk last time. Zdenek was keen to see an Inca Sun temple, but we discovered it had been added to significantly by the Spanish and they had turned it into Santo Domingo Church. See how they've done that? Sun. Domingo. Anyway, you had to pay to go into the church to see what was left of the temple inside, so Joanne and I didn't bother, but Lucy and Zdenek later told us it was quite nice.

Sun temple turned into a church

Front of Santo Domingo Church (Sun temple)

Main square

Main square

Main square

In the morning I was feeling much better again. We walked around a few travel agents, considering changing our next destination from Arequipa to somewhere there might be a beach for Joanne to relax a bit before heading off, but in the end it was just going to be too much hassle and it would mean missing out on the Nazca Lines, as well as Colca Canyon, which a few people had told us was their next favourite after Machu Picchu, and one person even went as far as saying they thought it was better than Machu Picchu.

Nice balcony

Way up to our hostel

Coca shop very near our hostel

Since my shoes had finally died, it was really urgent that I get a new pair, so we returned to the two shops I had seen likely candidate shoes last time we were in Cusco. Unfortunately neither of them were open, so we had to try some other shops. In the first few shops, I looked for a pair of shoes I liked then asked if they had them is a size 44, to which the all said that they had nothing bigger than a 42, so in the next few shops I just came straight out and asked if they had anything in a size 44; a couple of shops said that, oh yes, they do have a size 43, which they seemed to look at as a kind of outsize shoe, but they didn't fit me. The two shops that weren't open must have been stocking gringo shoes, because nowhere else did anything bigger than a 43. I didn't think my feet were that big, but when I asked for a 44, the shop owners all looked at my feet in amazement. I told them all that Peruvians are small. Then we tried to get Joanne trousers and exactly the same thing happened, so I told them that Peruvians are small again, and one woman replied that Americans are big, so I put her straight on that one. Instead, I resorted to getting my last pair of shoes repaired. They hadn't fallen apart as badly as the ones I had just thrown out, they just had holes in the soles, so maybe they were salvageable. The guy put new soles on them and we were off again.

Ancient rite

On the way back to the hostel we passed an advert for an ayahuasca ceremony on Friday. This is a plant used in shamanic rituals, which sounds quite interesting, though I don't think Friday the 13th would be the right day to have the shamans treating you. Once we got back one more thing fell apart: the leather and stone bracelet thing that Joanne had got me for my birthday had finally had too much continuous wear and completely fallen apart. Nothing lasts a year!

Dead birthday present

When the taxi came to pick us up to take us to the bus station and deliver our tickets at the same time, we realised we had been done: the company on the tickets was not the company we had agreed to go with. When we got there we were at the back of the bus, where we had specifically asked not to be, instead of the middle where we should have been, and we discovered that the tickets had cost S35 rather than the S60 we had been charged. This was the first time in South America we hadn't got the tickets at the bus station and it was a mistake. We had thought S60 was OK because the hostel had tried to sell us tickets for S165! As it happened the bus was actually fine, but it was still very annoying knowing that we had been ripped off like that.

However, a good night's sleep was not to be had: some idiot had set their mobile phone alarm to go off at 4am and took ages to switch it off. It might not have bothered me so much if it hadn't been the alarm on my old phone I used to use to get up for work. I was completely awake. Then just as I thought I might get back to sleep some evil person called me on my phone. It really irritates me that I can't turn off all incoming calls. I can divert them all, but to where? I want them to divert to nowhere (or /dev/null if you want to get geeky).

written by  The Happy Couple on November 11, 2009 from Cusco, Peru
from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon
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Well the sun's over the yard arm - woops no it's not

After breakfast, I thought I might as well have a wee drink, since it feels like I'm still up from the night before, and we'll be going to bed for a rest soon, what's the harm? Of course everyone else agreed it was an excellent suggestion and joined me. How civilised the world is outside Scotland, that you can just order a beer whenever you, as an adult feel like it. We weren't alone in fact, and I was actually given the idea by the older guys at the next table from us who were already drinking.

Main plaza

Main plaza

Condor overhead

Lovely restaurant balcony

Condors

Lucy

After a couple of beers, a march started in the square below. After a bit we realised it was more of a demonstration: it seemed to be trade unionists from the local area, then they were joined by trade unionists from other areas, but it all seemed very peaceful. After a while longer, some other groups arrived that didn't seem to be trade unionists, and they started marching around the square in the opposite direction. Round about this time, the riot police arrived, although they didn't look very heavily kitted up. There was lots of military-sounding music, possibly some communist- and some fascist-sounding, but there's not much to choose between tunes intended to rouse the proletariat, so I couldn't be sure, but in the end they all just marched away in different directions and it remained just as peaceful as it had first seemed.

Trade Unionists

Marching

People marching the other way too

The plaza

Once the demo had disappeared, we returned to the hostel, buying tickets for a Colca Canyon tour the following day. Our minibus pickup was at 3am. I have never got up so early so often other than on this trip!

A big rabbit

That evening I finally had lomo saltado, which literally means “jumped beef”, though I'm not sure what it means: mugged beef, maybe. It's a national dish of Peru and I had never really fancied it, but the cheap restaurant we had gone into didn't have many other choices, so I decided to make it a bit more exciting and have it mixed with beef spaghetti, which was one of their options. It's kind of like a Chinese beef and peppers dish, except that it has chips through it. Great cuisine in South America.

Lomo saltado (on the right of the plate) - Yum yum!

New beer

More new beer

Plaza in the evening

written by  The Happy Couple on November 12, 2009 from Arequipa, Peru
from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon
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