The adventure started on August 5th when I took a colectivo from Cusco to Chinchero, which was known by the Incas as the birthplace of the rainbow, and is a typical Andean villageat 3.762 m altitude. It has some very nice Inca ruins (agricultural terraces - again - but they are always different depending on the landscape they are fitted in and in any case they are always fascinating...), a nice little colonial church, which was built on the foundations of an old Inca wall, very beautiful mountain views and a on its main square a little handicraft market, with far less tourists than the one in Pisaq (but, well, it was not a Sunday...)
From there, I took another colectivo to Urubamba (couldn't this be a name of a place somewhere in Africa ???), the central transport hub of the sacred valley. Local transport is really easy: you just stand on the side of the street and you wave to one of the buses, combis or colectivos passing by and if there is availability (and there always is... as they always manage to squeeze somebody in... ;-) ) you get on it after having agreed on a price, usually between 1 and 3 nievos soles (25 to 75 Euro-cents..). In Urubamba I was dropped off at the main gas station.. the village is quite ugly, so I just lookd for a restaurant to have lunch and found a little place where locals had their almuerzo (set "business" lunch), consisting of a soup, a main dish, a desert and a drink.. the soup and spaghettis with beef meat were quite tasty...and for 3 soles (75 cents) for all this, you cannot complain...
With a combi (little mini-bus) I went to Ollantaytambo, from where the trains leave to Machu Picchu. This time, my trip was less confortable: I was the last passenger to be squeezed in and so I had to keep my head down during the 40 minutes trip in order not to bump my head against the van's ceiling. I had a bit of a stiff neck afterwards...
Ollantaytambo has splendid ruins and is the village where the original Inca-town-planning structure is best preserved, with narrow little cubblestone streets and canals in the middle, mostly set out in squares... The village is very cute and I sat on the main square for a while and observed the village-life.. I took some nice photos there with women in their traditional costumes.. it was especially cute how excited they all were about the ice cream they had.. the little girl had quite some problems to eat it properly as nobody had taken off the plastic foil around it.. but somehow she managed anyway... ;-)
I stayed one night in Ollantaytambo as I wanted to visit the ruins in the morning wothout the tour groups.. I booked a very nice cute little room in a guest house on the train platform. Actually it is situated in the old train station, but has additional little buildings aroud a big courtyard / garden.. It was nice to chill out in a hammock ... unfortunately major clouds came up and it started drizzling (for the first time on my trip except the major rain during one night in La Paz, when I was safely in my bed..). It is not cheap but definetely worth the money... http://www.elalbergue.com/en/ Unfortunately, I fogot to take pictures of the place... (how could that have happended I wonder...??) Dinner there was also exceptionally good... I complimented the Chef and he was very pleased.. I wonder whether this had happened to him for the first time ??
The next morning I got up much later than planned, but I really needed the sleep (now you will all say: That's how we know him much better... ;-) ).. So by the time I had breakfast and arrived to the ruins, the first tour groups were already there.. but well, it is a tourist attraction after all... The ruins were really interesting and as always fascinating.. But as always you had to climb up first... the special feature of this site is that it relates to another site just on the hill opposite: they carved one huge face in the rock that you can only see form the ruins on the other site (I have a photo of that one...) really impressive... As I still had time, I also climbed up the other hill.. a little bit of sports and training for Mach Picchu cannot harm..
In the early afternoon, I took my train to Aguas Calientes, or also called Machu Picchu village. The train ride was again very nice.. The interesting thing is that the train goes DOWN the valley as Machu Picchu is far lower that Cusco and the sacred valley.. the landscape quickly change from mountains to high rainforest with a completely different vegetation.. all of a sudden, there are trees everywhere and flowers in all colours... my train was almost empty: only 6 passengers !! I wonder why it was said that the train was fully booked when I tried to book it in advance... another one of these mysteries that will never be lifted.. Aguas calientes is without any interest.. I think I said that already previously .. so I went to the market and I bought a ... RUG !! Yes.. I know, I wonder myself, but it was really nice and not expensive... but it is quite heavy...:-( My hotel, the Gringo Bill's (what a name !!! ;-), was quite ok and I had a little balcony with a quite a dramatic mountain view...
During the night I was woken up by the noise of heavy rain !!! Oh noooooo!!!!!! Ansd in fact the rain did not stop until 4h45 when my alarm clock went off.. I took my shower, went to breakfast, but the situation did not improve.. I decided to wait a bit and not to take the first bus up at 5h30 as initially planned and started thinking about changing my train ticket and to postpone the visit to the next day.. At around 6 the rain was less strong and I decided to go.. I was up at the entrance at 06h30 and went in to queue for the climb up to Wayna Picchu, which is a peak next to Machu Picchu from which you have an excellent view on the whole site. There is however a daily limit of 400 people on a first come first serve basis.. Even without taking the first buses I made it among the 400 lucky ones, after quite a bit of waiting (actually 1,5 hours !!) and climbed up the very steep hill, in the rain and completely in the clouds... wondering if it is worth while the effort as there is probably nothing to see up there because of the clouds... The path was quite demanding, not only because it was steep, but also because it was extremely slippery... but I made itr and on the top there was quite a nice view on the Vilcanota/Urubamba-valley, but Machu Picchu was comletely invisible... I waited up there for about 45 minutes, when the clouds started to go higher up and the Machu Picchu appeared .. that was amazing, really !! I was down again at Machu Picchu at around 10h30 and took a lot of time visiting the quite extensive site (which first of all looked quite small..) For four hours I wandered around, sat down to admire a especially nice view and was suprised that most people visiting in groups have only 1,5 or 2 hours for the visit.. If you come all the way up here, why don't you take your time ??? The only positive thing about the groups is that you can stand and listen to what their guide is saying, which sometimes was quite interesting.. (not always though because some guides were really useless.. ;-) I met a German group from "Studiosus" (sorry for the non-Germans...but this is an insider..), which was so typical and I was so glad that I did this trip on my own... ;-) All these smart teachers, architects etc. with their arrogant attitudes... unbearable... ;-)
For the return to Aguas Calientes, I did not take the bus, but walked down a very nice path through the "rainforest" to the quite well presented museum and from there back to the hotel. I took a noce hot shower and rested a bit. I was so tired that I completely forgot that I initially had planned to go to the hot springs which gave Aguas Calientes ("hot waters") its name..
The next morning I had my train back to Ollantaytambo. From there I took a bus back to Urubamba and fortunatley found a young couple (he was Peruvian and she American), who were willing to share a taxi to visit the salinas of Maras and the circular ruins of Moray (you saw already some pictures below..) there is no other way to get there than by an organised tour or by taxi.. walking is too far.. I would have gone aso alone but sharing the price among three was certainly much better... The ruins of the agricultural terraces of Ñoray are exceptional as they are in circles, like an amphitheatre.. it seems that the Incas used them as a labaratory for testing climatic conditions certain plants need.. and this was found nowhere else.. the salinas were onte of the most impressive things I have seen after Machu Picchu: a small fountain with salty hot water actually provides the water for all these little basins spread out in a whole little valley. Then the sun dries them out and they harvest the salt. It seems that the salinas are almost 1000 years old. I took dozens of pictures from all perspectives as I found this truly amazing !! Back in Urubamaba, I took the bus all through the sacred valley back to Cusco, which actually took much longer than I thought.. but the bus stops all the time to let people out and new ones in.. the women generally have lotrs of stuff with them, which always needs to be stored on the roof of the bus or in the trunk.. but it was also quite interesting to observe all this from a nice SEAT !! ;-)
I will write a small special chapter about the Incas and the importance of Machu Picchu later as I am really tired now and need to get up early tomorrow...
Hope I am not boring you guys.. if so, just close the window and do something more interesting... ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment