Thursday April 7, 2016

April 5, 2016 In my last post I forgot to mention that on Sunday evening, the 3rd, we watched the Peru presidential election debates with our host family. It was fun to see the locals’ reaction to the 10 candidates/10 parties. About 10 other candidates have either withdrawn or were disqualified some because of vote buying. The election is this Sunday. We will be in Cuzco this day and we hope it remains calm.

Monday night at 8pm we boarded a sleeper bus for Cuzco. It was really quite comfortable as the seats almost relined all the way plus there was a video screen at each seat. After the meal was served the lights went out. It was just like flying but quite bumpy on the 10 hour winding road up to the city of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains. We arrived at 7am and were met by a van driver for a two hour ride to Ollantaytambo. From there we met the Inca Train for an almost two hour ride through the beautiful Andes to the small town of Agua Caliente which is about 6km from the park of Machu Picchu. Jocelyn had booked us a room at Hostel Inka Wonder which is right on the river. At $30 a night it is quite a bargain in this town of expensive rooms and food. In fact we have been paying a fraction of the prices outside of here on our tour through Peru. We then made reservation for the bus ride to Machu Picchu for early morning. We were going to walk it but were told that the 6km walk takes about 1h30m. We’ll take the bus as we expect to hike most of tomorrow in the park.

April 6, 2016 We were up at 4:30 for breakfast, walked to the Machu Picchu bus which runs every 5 minutes, and were at the park at 6:15. It had rained all night and was still raining. The Andes rainy season is November through March so it is now almost over. A few months ago we bicycled into the Andes while in Colombia, entered Ecuador in Amazonia, then cycled up to the Andes through the rest of Ecuador then entered Peru in the Andes. After two months of constant rain we went to the desert coast of Peru to dry out. Now we are back in the Andes by bus and it is still raining every day. We have adapted well to the rainy season. This morning in Machu Picchu the clouds would sometimes lift and give us a good view for a few minutes. At 9am we began our 3 hour round trip hike to the summit of Mountain Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu translates to “Old Mountain” from the Incan language. It was a tough vertical hike. We were hoping it would clear at some point but it never did. Back at the bottom it was still raining hard and we considered leaving but held back for another hour in the hope that the sun would appear. And it did about 50 minutes later. Seeing Machu Picchu as we did was wonderful, stunning, and spiritual. It is hard to put into words. Those that have seen it know what I mean. On this cycle tour we have discovered the Aztecs in Mexico, the Mayans in Central America, and now the Incans in Peru. The ruins of all these peoples have been very humbling to experience.

Machu Picchu was founded in 1450 and abandoned in 1540 when they heard that the Spanish had invaded Cuzco. They descended from the town to the Urubamba River far below and followed that to Amazonia where they disappeared. The other side of the Andes here in Peru is Amazonia. In fact the main river flows into the Amazon River.

Machu Picchu is a long process to visit and very expensive. This is what we paid from the last major city of Cuzco. The prices are for one person:

A two hour van ride to the train town of Ollantaytambo round trip back to Cuzco: $33.

A 1 hour 45 minute train ride from Ollantaytambo to Aqua Caliente round trip back to Ollantaytambo: $185. We rode the “executive” class that included a soft drink and bag of pretzels. We carried wine onboard and drank it – we don’t know if it was allowed or not but we enjoyed a glass. There are other more expensive classes available.

From Agua Caliente there is a 30 minute bus ride available to the park or you can hike it at 1 hour and 30 minutes. The bus was $24 round trip.

Then there is the park fee. Along with the entrance to Machu Picchu we added the mountain trek which is a 1700m hike to the top of Mountain Machu Picchu. This takes you to around 10,000 feet. This park fee was $142 each. This is still low season here and the Peru government grants 2,500 permits each day. They are not available at the park and must be purchased in advance from Cuzco or online. High season starts in a month and there are 4,000 permits each day granted. The grand total is $384 each. Plus we hired an English speaking guide that was excellent: $50.

It was a great day to visit one of the most awesome historical and architectural sites in the world.