+098.jpg)
Ok... I was talking about our arrival in Cusco hehe. It was not that easy Alex got sick, monica too and even got a new nickname...no I won't say what it was but she was often running with white paper roll. Personnaly I was not at my best either but we had good reasons. Our night bus, although comfortable, had no heat and we were crossing the Andes at night so you can imagine the cold, we had smoke coming out of our mouth in the bus! By 3:30am it broke down at 4300m of altitude (we were coming from Lima at 160m) so added to the cold we were suffering of altitude and breathing was something that needed a lot of effort. Finally at 4am the bus crew could finally fix everything and we were back on the road, arriving as i said in Cusco at around 11h30 in the morning but completly dead! Bref, we relaxed a bit this day in our Arco Iris hospedaje. Unfortunatly a peruvian girl middle-school had elected our hostal as their stop over for a school trip! Alex and Monica had hard time resting with 20 girls aged around 15 and screaming for a yes or no! However on Monday afternoon, we started our visit of the city and its surroundings. We went on a nice walk taking at first a bus driving 15 min out of town to some Inca Ruins. From there we walk all the way back to Cusco. On our way, we had a few ruins to visit which was our first introduction to inca civilization! Something that we all realized was how the landscape surrounded by high mountains, little country houses, and the fields, gave us the impression of being lost in the countryside whereas Cusco was at 2 km walking distance. Houses in this region are all made out of red mud bricks that each family is making to build their home. The red rounded tiles is adding even more charm to these nice traditional building and colonial influenced architecture. On Tuesday, our program consisted in going for a day trip to the Sacred Valley, which was one of the most populated Inca region. Unfortunatly, Monica and Alex could not come since they were still feeling sick and prefered to rest to be in better shape for the important upcoming days of the Inca Trail to matchu pitchu. 
Sao Mai and I therefore, went to visit a few more important ruins around Cusco region. We went to Pisaq, a very nice town in a wonderfull valley, were some important forteress and terraces were build by Incas. We passed by a small market which of course made us realize once more, how nice the market in Otovalo in Ecuador was! In the late afternoon we arrived in Ollataytambo, another toursitic town famous for its impressive ruins but also for being the last train stop before Aguas Calientes, the Matchu Pitchu train station. (By the way for the little story: This train was a public train until Fujiyama a japanese that was an important peruvian president privatized it. Since then, the services it gave became step by step horrible. Nowdays, Peru-rail offer only one line from Cusco to Matchu Pitchu, exploiting its monopoly asking for skyhigh prices to tourists and having suppressed almost all locals train not bringing enough money. It is almost the only way to get to Matchu Pitchu!). Once back at the hostal we prepared ourselves, Monica and Alex feeling better we were ready for the 4 day trek to Matchu Pitchu. The program the agency had proposed us consisted of: The 1st day going by bus uphill to pass a col at 4500m, and go down by bike to Santa Maria 1500m. We had great bikes with front suspension and good tire however they were quite old and not perfectly maintained (many flat tire, some little accident for Sao Mai whose bike had no back break and excessively reactive front disk breaks!). The night was "enjoyed" in a Gas station hotel. Down here the climate was radically different, hot a bit humid and with a lot of mosquitos and strong singing jungle cicadas. The second day, we walked on the side of the Urubamba river to reach another very small village Santa Teresa. To get there, we passed through many ruins...but not inca! In fact, in 1998 Peru was ferocely affected by the famous "el niño" phenomen which led to incredible water flod. The Urubamba river became a huge torrent erasing from the map many small village and the other train railway. None of this infrastrusture has been rebuild since and we can still see the old villages completly abandonned and some huge broken part of the railway randomly spread on either side of the river. Beside, this things that can seem quite disastrous the landscape offer great views with great varieties. We past in front of coca plantation, walked through mandarines and banana fields, had a break in a small villager house offering us all kind of fresh fruit juices, and walk on the stairs built by the Inka who were using this same "camino" to travel to Matchu Pitchu hundreds years ago!Later in the afternoon, after crossing the river in a cable car we could enjoy a very relaxing bath in a immense hotspring. The third day, was dedicated to walk to Aguas Calientes or also called the Matchu Pitchu city. However, the guide proposed us an alternative to this original program and we 
took a little bus to go faster, reach Aguas Calientes at noon, so that in the afternoon we could climb a mountain from which we could have observed a first time the Matchu Pitchu ruins. the way to the city was really lots of fun. We walked on this railway, used once a day (it is the remaining of the railway previoulsy talked about that was destroyed by the El niño) for workers and small local communities. We finally, arrived in Aguas Calientes after a nice enoyed walk, had a bad lunch and finally did not go to climb the mountain since the weather was bad. It was no big deal, we took this opportunity to rest and walk around this small city full of hotel, making us think of a summer 70's architecture french ski resort, enclaved in between huge cliffs and moutains. We went to bed early and well prepared to discover the famous new wonder of the world. At 4:00 the alarm rang and we walk up with great energy and motivation! At 4:30 everyone was ready and we started our walk to the mountain. Our guide had apparently this same motivation and excited energy which led to reaching the entrance 800m uphill after only an hour! We were the first one!! however we had to wait for the entrance to open its gate. When it opened, the excitement was at its maximum even though we were still out of breath from our rapid stairs climbing! We entered, with an already great croud of 5 or 6 bus that had made it just after us and run to the Waynupitchu. Indeed, this other name is the moutain which is as famous as the ruins that stands on the bottom part of the site and from the top of which the view is incredible. The only inconvinient is that it is limited to 400 people a day. Therefore, ALex Sao Mai, Monica, Dany (a friend from the group) and I ran to the waynupitchu gate. Bad surprise, it was opening only an hour later. We ran back to catch up our guided tour and enjoyed the ruins and its explanation like explorators discovering the treasure of their life research! +091.jpg)
Finally, after the tour only Sao Mai, Dany and I found the energy the climb the 400m higher waynupitchu moutain. It was well worth the extra effort and we even took an incredibly relaxing nape on a terrace on top of this hill overlooking the MatchuPitchu site (see first picture). We than came down. But we did it the local way. All those buses I was talking about our dropping thousands of tourist in front of the gate, not only did we do it climbing up the stairs but running it down faster than the buses! Indeed, many kids wearing a traditional costume, earn they pocket money on week-ends running down the hill waving in each turn to the tourist going down the hill by bus. They are running incredibly fast and it was lot of fun to try to follow him and wave at those lazy tourists! hehe! We finally took this stupid train costing 40$ for an hour to go back to Ollataytambo and from there come back to Cusco. We were all really happy of our trip and did it for soo cheap that we were even more happy (140$ everything included ,food, guide, entrance fees, and even the train!).
Sao Mai and I therefore, went to visit a few more important ruins around Cusco region. We went to Pisaq, a very nice town in a wonderfull valley, were some important forteress and terraces were build by Incas. We passed by a small market which of course made us realize once more, how nice the market in Otovalo in Ecuador was! In the late afternoon we arrived in Ollataytambo, another toursitic town famous for its impressive ruins but also for being the last train stop before Aguas Calientes, the Matchu Pitchu train station. (By the way for the little story: This train was a public train until Fujiyama a japanese that was an important peruvian president privatized it. Since then, the services it gave became step by step horrible. Nowdays, Peru-rail offer only one line from Cusco to Matchu Pitchu, exploiting its monopoly asking for skyhigh prices to tourists and having suppressed almost all locals train not bringing enough money. It is almost the only way to get to Matchu Pitchu!). Once back at the hostal we prepared ourselves, Monica and Alex feeling better we were ready for the 4 day trek to Matchu Pitchu. The program the agency had proposed us consisted of: The 1st day going by bus uphill to pass a col at 4500m, and go down by bike to Santa Maria 1500m. We had great bikes with front suspension and good tire however they were quite old and not perfectly maintained (many flat tire, some little accident for Sao Mai whose bike had no back break and excessively reactive front disk breaks!). The night was "enjoyed" in a Gas station hotel. Down here the climate was radically different, hot a bit humid and with a lot of mosquitos and strong singing jungle cicadas. The second day, we walked on the side of the Urubamba river to reach another very small village Santa Teresa. To get there, we passed through many ruins...but not inca! In fact, in 1998 Peru was ferocely affected by the famous "el niño" phenomen which led to incredible water flod. The Urubamba river became a huge torrent erasing from the map many small village and the other train railway. None of this infrastrusture has been rebuild since and we can still see the old villages completly abandonned and some huge broken part of the railway randomly spread on either side of the river. Beside, this things that can seem quite disastrous the landscape offer great views with great varieties. We past in front of coca plantation, walked through mandarines and banana fields, had a break in a small villager house offering us all kind of fresh fruit juices, and walk on the stairs built by the Inka who were using this same "camino" to travel to Matchu Pitchu hundreds years ago!Later in the afternoon, after crossing the river in a cable car we could enjoy a very relaxing bath in a immense hotspring. The third day, was dedicated to walk to Aguas Calientes or also called the Matchu Pitchu city. However, the guide proposed us an alternative to this original program and we 
took a little bus to go faster, reach Aguas Calientes at noon, so that in the afternoon we could climb a mountain from which we could have observed a first time the Matchu Pitchu ruins. the way to the city was really lots of fun. We walked on this railway, used once a day (it is the remaining of the railway previoulsy talked about that was destroyed by the El niño) for workers and small local communities. We finally, arrived in Aguas Calientes after a nice enoyed walk, had a bad lunch and finally did not go to climb the mountain since the weather was bad. It was no big deal, we took this opportunity to rest and walk around this small city full of hotel, making us think of a summer 70's architecture french ski resort, enclaved in between huge cliffs and moutains. We went to bed early and well prepared to discover the famous new wonder of the world. At 4:00 the alarm rang and we walk up with great energy and motivation! At 4:30 everyone was ready and we started our walk to the mountain. Our guide had apparently this same motivation and excited energy which led to reaching the entrance 800m uphill after only an hour! We were the first one!! however we had to wait for the entrance to open its gate. When it opened, the excitement was at its maximum even though we were still out of breath from our rapid stairs climbing! We entered, with an already great croud of 5 or 6 bus that had made it just after us and run to the Waynupitchu. Indeed, this other name is the moutain which is as famous as the ruins that stands on the bottom part of the site and from the top of which the view is incredible. The only inconvinient is that it is limited to 400 people a day. Therefore, ALex Sao Mai, Monica, Dany (a friend from the group) and I ran to the waynupitchu gate. Bad surprise, it was opening only an hour later. We ran back to catch up our guided tour and enjoyed the ruins and its explanation like explorators discovering the treasure of their life research! Finally, after the tour only Sao Mai, Dany and I found the energy the climb the 400m higher waynupitchu moutain. It was well worth the extra effort and we even took an incredibly relaxing nape on a terrace on top of this hill overlooking the MatchuPitchu site (see first picture). We than came down. But we did it the local way. All those buses I was talking about our dropping thousands of tourist in front of the gate, not only did we do it climbing up the stairs but running it down faster than the buses! Indeed, many kids wearing a traditional costume, earn they pocket money on week-ends running down the hill waving in each turn to the tourist going down the hill by bus. They are running incredibly fast and it was lot of fun to try to follow him and wave at those lazy tourists! hehe! We finally took this stupid train costing 40$ for an hour to go back to Ollataytambo and from there come back to Cusco. We were all really happy of our trip and did it for soo cheap that we were even more happy (140$ everything included ,food, guide, entrance fees, and even the train!). Today I stood alone in Cusco, yeah, the other ones went to Puno. I prefered to have another day in this nice cusco colonial town...i have to admit a lot of this was to be able to watch the rugby. But i had a great relaxing day and now it is time to get prepared. A bus is waiting for me at 10pm. I'll be arriving in Puno on the Lake titicaca at 5am and meet Alex Monica and Sao mai at the Europa hostal! From there some more exciting adventure is waiting for us! See you soon for more news!!
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario