Cusco & Machu Picchu, Peru

Day 75

Another night bus down, we arrived around 6am in Cusco. Only 1 more night bus to go thank goodness! They don’t get any easier. We found our way out of the terminal and to the street, negotiated a price with the taxi driver and were on our way to the hostel. It is a nice city with lots of old buildings, we don’t think it is as clean and nice as Arequipa though.

We checked into our hostel and had a bit of a rest before heading off to find some breakfast. Luckily, there are an abundance of cafes in this town to cater for all the tourists, no pigs tongues for us today!

After breaky we went and got some information on how to get to Machu Picchu, we opted to do the 5D, 4N Salkantay trek, which is far less busy than the Inka trek (it is booked out until November) but supposedly very scenic. We agreed on a price with a tour company which had very good reviews and said we would be back later to pay. While we were resting in our hostel that afternoon, a random guy came up to us and offered us a cheaper tour, with an extra breakfast & ziplining! So we were sold – in hindsight we should have reviewed the company he was selling for in more detail. But anyways, what was done is done!

We went to a Vegan restaurant for dinner, those pig tongues have really changed Ellen. Or maybe she just wants to be like her sister… She has always wanted to be like Jordan!

We had an early night, we leave for the Salkantay trek tomorrow at 4:30am. Eeeek!

Day 76

We awoke at 4am to leave for the Salkantay trek. The tour company didn’t turn up to 5:30am! Great start lol

After a 2 hour drive we stopped in a small town for breakfast at a restaurant and we met our fellow trekkers. We have a mixed bag of people from China, Denmark, USA, Australia, Peru & the UK.

After breaky we went to the starting point of our trek and we were formally introduced to our guide. We were promised a fully fluent English speaking guide but unfortunately our guide couldn’t speak too much. Another great start! We have some Spanish speakers in our group so we thought it wouldn’t be to much of a hassle.

We headed off on around a 3 hour trek to our first campsite. Nothing too hectic so far, although there are some nice mountain views.

We were surprised because instead of camping in tents like we were told we were checked into a dome! We had to share with a Danish couple but it is much better than a tent. Ellen was stoked.

We then had a bit of lunch and then headed to Humantay lake, a 1.5 hour walk up a mountain. We were fine with the altitude and elevation, but some people in our group battled a little bit. Nonetheless we all made it! The lake was beautiful, similar to what we could see in Patagonia.

We stayed up the top for around about an hour and then walked back down to camp for dinner. Over dinner we got to know our fellow trekkers well, and found that we have quite a mixed bag of personalities which I have summarised below. The combination made the trek hilarious.

Trekkers 1: 60 year old Chinese couple

Characteristics: Loud, retired, plasma physicist, large hats for sun protection, gets angry when photo is not taken on their camera, Chinese man has been beaten into submission after 40 years of marriage.

Trekkers 2: Mexican/Indian couple

Characteristics:

Indian man – punching above his weight, loves wearing sandals, takes off runners at every rest stop, loves cooking curry.

Mexican girl (Elizabeth) – 24 year old qualified doctor, Indian accent, translator for our “English” speaking guide, likes to run at 4600masl

Trekkers 3: Danish couple

Characteristics:

Man (Jonas) – punching above his weight, struggling with altitude so smokes a ciggy

Woman (lilayla or something) – fun school, can’t understand Australian accent.

Trekkers 4: Australian/UK couple

Characteristics:

Woman (Jana) – all clothing she owns is pink, from Perth (lol), supports West Coast Eagles (lol), is the boss

Man (Davo) – Environmental engineer, wants to be Australian (nicknamed Wannabe Dave), loves a beer, drinks pinot noir instead of water, is the boss on Sundays & some public holidays

Trekker 5: Lady from Lima, Peru

Characteristics: Speaks no English, represents Peru hard with Peru Beani and flag for photos, has very fast sunglasses, nicknamed Lima

Trekker 6: Australian man

Characteristics: Has a Melbourne haircut, knows all about the ins & outs of Harvey Norman, Kathmandu represent

Day 77

We awoke early at around 5am and readied ourselves for breakfast and our big hike ahead. The Chinese lady entered the breakfast tent yelling “Goodmorning!!!!!” I nearly fell off my chair, she is so loud. Noise to size ratio is outstanding.

At around 6am we left on our hike, a small load of backpacks was taken via the mules and the rest we had to be carry. We hiked up towards the Salkantay mountain, the closer we good the better the views were, and also the less oxygen there was! By the time we got to the top at 4600masl we were all gasping for air, except for the Mexican girl named Elizabeth, she was running at times.

We hung out up the top for a while and went and visited another lake a small walk from here. The Indian guy took his shoes off at every opportunity when we stopped, he says he hates shoes and wishes he had his sandals.

From here it was a 2 hour walk down to the lunch location. It started to rain a little bit at one point. Happy to be sitting a while, we were all very tired and quiet. Our guide doesn’t speak very good English at all so the Mexican girl is often translating for us.

After lunch we headed another 4-5 hours down, down, down getting further into the jungle. We started see banana trees loaded with green Banana’s. No wonder Banana’s are so cheap here! Mosquitoes also started to come along with the humidity of the jungle.

I stopped trying to listen to the guide when he stops us. I think he speaks in a combination of Spanish & English. The Mexican girl said when he explains in Spanish it sometimes still doesn’t make sense – we don’t think he has much of an idea of what is going on, or just doesn’t care.

Finally, after 10 hours of hiking we made it to our campsite! We were all very tired so hooked into some overpriced beers and wine. After dinner, we were blackmailed by our guide into giving a larger tip. He said that because our bags were overweight (they weren’t), we should pay a $25 USD tip each instead of paying the overweight baggage fee. What made this better is he was telling the Mexican girl in Spanish and then she had to tell us. She got super mad and turned into a bit of a shouting match, it was all very intense! Ellen & I were just sitting in the corner throwing a bit of salt in every now and then, saying words like “Yeah!”, “No way” etc. Davo even started speaking Spanish so shit was getting serious!

Anyhoo, the guide left and we all calmed down and laughed about it. We stayed up learning about the bizarre Mexico City hospital system. Elizabeth (the Mexican doctor) is only 24, and after finishing her degree she was thrown straight into the deep end making critical decisions about patients surgeries. She has seen a lot of people die, but seems unfazed! Absolutely crazy. She said once, a man came in with gun wounds, they patching him up, but during the night someone from the mafia came in and shot him in the head. After all her efforts she only gets paid a poor $50 USD a month. We are so lucky to be from Australia!

 

Day 78

We had another early wake up, today was a very cruisy walk downhill into the jungle. Our guide seemed a little bit more quiet today, we think he is hungover. And to further prove this theory, a minibus came and picked us up earlier than expected and drove us the rest of the way to lunch. Pretty funny, our hiking guide who doesn’t want to hike.

At lunch we learnt how they roast their coffee beans. After lunch we were meant to walk a bit further, but nah, our guide didn’t want to walk so we got a minibus to our next camping spot. For the afternoon, we went to some thermal baths. Due to the lack of hiking for the day, we wanted to walk there as we thought it was only 2km away and found it on the map. We told the guide, but he said it was actually 13km away and we need to get the bus which will cost us. Losing daylight, we agreed to get the bus, but it was only a 2km drive!! Ellen was pissed, she had a go at him about it but he just ignored us. Just a scam to get more money!

The thermal baths were nice though, it was our first shower in 3 days yay! After a few beers at the baths to forget about how annoying our guide is we went back to our campsite for dinner. The Danish had a huge crack at the guide! They are only young and don’t have a lot of money so we can understand why they are getting super mad.

Dinner was delicious though, the cooks are doing a really good job which is making up for the small annoying things that keep occurring. At dinner, the Danish told us about a school called “fun school” which only exists in Denmark. Basically, if you do not know what you want to do in life after high school, you can go to fun school and do what you love to do such as; music, dance, party etc. In Denmark their first degree is paid for by the government so they want to make sure they aren’t going to change degrees half way through like so many do in the rest of the world!

After dinner, there was a massive party. A lot of other trekking groups are staying here as well. We were convinced the lady from Lima was going to hook up with the guide which would of made our day! But no, it didn’t happen 😦

Day 79

I was very sick in the morning, way to much red wine & Inca tequila! Today Ellen & I went ziplining for the morning and the rest of the group were to walk to the next lunch spot at Hydroelectrica.

Ziplining was loads of fun, I think we did 4 one ziplines across the valley, followed by a walk across a sketchy bridge which was super scary.

After this we were driven to Hydroelectrica to meet the others for lunch. Apparently our hiking guide didn’t want to hike again so he just gave the others in our group directions where to walk and he caught the bus. Apparently he tried to make them take the bus and pay more but they kindly told him to piss off. We came here to hike champion.

After lunch we walked from Hydroelectrica to Agua Calinentes along the train tracks. Again our guide tried to make us pay to get our bags transferred on the train while we walk. Again we kindly told him to piss off.

It was around a 10km walk, at about half way we could see Machu Picchu high on top of the mountain. We can’t wait to get up there tomorrow and check it out.

After 2 hours or so we arrived in Agua Calinentes, it is a town which was just created for tourists visiting Machu Picchu. It is a lot bigger than expected and loads of restaurants and bars offering 4 for 1 drink deals.

We checked into our hostel and then went for a bit of a wander around town. We had some drinks with Davo & Jana by the river which was nice. There isn’t much else to do in this town. We then went and had our last dinner with our guide (thank the gods), he was also supposed to give everyone in our group their Machu Picchu entrance & train tickets home. Luckily, the tour agency we booked through already gave us ours so we weren’t stressing. Turns out, our guide didn’t have their tickets at all and was calling all the agencies trying to get them and print them off. It was hectic, everyone was getting very very stressed and angry, it turning into a bit of a shouting match in the lobby. By about 11pm the tickets were finally provided, however, the times for the Danish tickets (both entrance and train) were wrong. This turned into more red faced arguments, but I think just being in our guides presence was pissing them off so they just ignored him and called the agency directly to sort it out. I left and went to bed, we have an early day ahead. Thank the lords for no more guide!

Day 80

Machu Picchu day! Davo, Jana, Ellen & myself all woke at 5:15am to start the 1.5 hour hike up to Machu Picchu. We all have entrances for 7am. It was absolutely bucketing down all the way to the top, we were all a bit stressed it would be very foggy up there and wouldn’t be able to see anything.

We got to the top on time and made it through the gates successfully. But we couldn’t see much in front of us because of the clouds! Ahhhh, I had a bit of a chuckle, nothing has gone right for us the last 5 days! We passed by the main viewpoint and couldn’t see anything, so we decided to go on a small hike to the Inca bridge. The clouds were starting to clear at this location which was promising. I don’t know how the Inca’s used this bridge back in the day, it is a sheer drop straight off the edge! I wonder how many fell trying to build it.

We wandered back to the main viewpoint and sat down for a couple of hours to see if the clouds would clear. To our delight they were starting to lift, slowly by surely!

We were stoked, it is truely a magical place Machu Picchu.

There were now loads of people up here so it was getting a bit congested. Apparently 3000 people per day visit this place, I can see why. It is beautiful. Now we were satisfied with the views we wandered down into the city. One thing I learnt about the Incas, they are bloody good at stacking rocks! Experts still aren’t completely sure how they broke the rocks into smaller pieces, I reckon it was aliens.

We wandered through the city for an hour or so, the scenery is just amazing. There are also some super celebrity Llamas getting around. These Llamas have the life.

Once we had seen everything we left this magical place and headed back down the mountain. There were still loads of people coming up, we are glad we got the early entrance. I can imagine how packed it would be in the afternoon. At the bottom we departed ways with out new mates Davo & Jana as they were taking the train back to Cusco, we are trying to save money so are taking the bus back from Hydroelectrica.

A 2 hour walk back to Hydroelectrica along the train tracks again and then we caught a 6 hour minibus back to Cusco! Tired but content we made it! Machu Picchu & the Salkantay trek were absolutely amazing. Even the amount of shit our guide put us through couldn’t ruin the experience.

Day 81

Complete rest day in Cusco. We had a big sleep in, good coffee & breakfast and rested our sore legs. We watched a lot of Game of Thrones and I did my first ever Tripadvisor review and ripped our guide to shreds!

Day 82

We ate some more good food and went on a walking tour of Cusco and learnt about a bit of the history of the city.

Ellen got a message from a girl we met, she just completed the Salkantay trek with another company 2 days after us and their guide got drunk on the 3rd day and then ditched them! What the hell is going on Cusco!

There is loads more treks and things to do around the Cusco area but we need to keep moving to get up to Huaraz where the real mountains are! 33 peaks over 6000m are in the Huaraz area. Which one will we climb!?

We got some rest for the afternoon, tonight we are catching a 16 hour bus from Cusco to Ica!

More photos located here.