Our Peruvian story last left off with the hero’s (me and my cousin, obviously) mesmerising ascent towards the ancient Inca Sun Gate, the original entranceway for the mystical Machu Picchu- followed by a free t-shirt.
Hard to say what impressed me more.
Snaking our way down towards the ruins, we experienced our last moments of tranquillity before the constant commotion of people started. We got stopped at a roped entranceway to a viewpoint that only hikers had access to. The Watchman’s Hut (circa 1450 AD) is here along with some plastic reinforcement mesh for the grass (circa 2020).
Take as many snaps as possible, this was one of my favourite viewpoints of Machu Picchu. The circuits/pathways are one-way so once you leave an area, you can’t exactly backtrack. There are heaps of personnel that monitor the flow of tourists.
It turns out the alpacas were brought up here for extra flavour, they don’t naturally live at the altitude of Machu Picchu since it’s too low. But you don’t see me complaining- I.ATE.THEM.UP. Figuratively, but then later on literally.
Circuit 3, which was included in our tour was extensive- after hiking 43kms I didn’t realise that I would have to walk the pathways around the ruins. And there are a lot of ruins. I thought someone would carry me around in one of those human-powered transports like Emporer Kuzco. I think mighty highly of myself.
Our last night (we did the 5 day/4 night trek) was spent in a hotel in Aguas Calientes- the town created at the base of Machu Picchu. We took the bus down to the town (downtown), walked the short distance to our hotel, then squealed at the sight of a bed and a shower.
We met our tour group one last time for dinner at a restaurant where we had a bevvy with a side of alpaca (tastes a bit gamey, thicker than a pork chop).
The next morning my cousin and I did Circuit 2 + bridge (well, I did the bridge). After the theme park line ups and turn-stile entranceway (less Sun Gate and more overtourism-gate), that wasn’t even a good joke but I’m going to leave it in anyways, with tender legs and a broken tailbone (really milking this) we gingerly began our familiar explorations in a defined, set route, that millions of people have already discovered.
the inca bridge
For the Inca Bridge, [trigger warning for all the Acrophobes out there]-shield your eyes and scroll down, I’m about to describe heights.
The trail is very narrow, with sheer rock wall on your left and sheer cliff drops to your right winding its way around the side of a mountain.
The Inca Bridge closes earlier than the rest of Machu Picchu and has time slots. When we arrived at Machu Picchu, we ended up making our way to the bridge first to book our slot, then we waited around that area taking pictures. It is a one-way system so you can’t exactly wander off and come back.
Again (I’ve never typed this before), I love not having expectations for things. This bridge is so funny.
I feel like the Incas were a race of ninjas. The end of the trail abruptly stops at a cliff edge and in front of you, engulfing your vision is a massive rock wall. I did a cartoonish double take to see what the few people next to me were taking pictures of.
Following the trail with my eyes, the pathway actually continues into a thin line that connects to the massive rock wall. A ledge was chipped away from the hard surface, then there was a gap. Presumably the rock wouldn’t budge or didn’t want to be made into a ledge. Nature says neh, neh. Then the pencil line of a ledge continues to connect to the other side of the mountain.
The gap where the rock wall didn’t want to move is where they built a “bridge” which is actually a ledge.
Funny, funny ninjas.
Here are some pictures that make more sense than my disappointing description (unless your phobia is so bad that even looking at pictures frightens you, my bad).
We finished up the rest of our circuit, then caught the bus back into town to catch our Vista Dome train.
the train from Augas Calientes to Cuzco
Let me talk about this train situation for a hot minute.
Aguas Calientes is small so you can easily walk to the train station, which is basically in the heart of the town. It was quite empty when we arrived way too early as per usual. There was a thing with train departure times on it but we didn’t really understand when our train was supposed to arrive on the platform. A guy dragged a paper sign board to the doors, but didn’t announce anything and that was that. They did check our tickets before we went up the luxury ramp of the Vista Dome so we knew we got on the right train.
Included in our tour package, was the normal train that left Aguas Calientes at 14:55 arriving back in Cuzco at 19:00. After travelling for 1.5 hours, the train ends at Ollantaytambo station where a van then drives the rest of the way to Cuzco. I’ve seen maps where there are closer stations to Cuzco (such as Poroy), but I’m not sure if the train tracks even go that far.
We ended up booking a flight to Lima that left that same evening at 21:45 (the last departure possible). My cousin and I debated whether the normal train would give us enough time- partly because it would be our luck to miss the flight, but mostly because at the time of booking, there was civil unrest with protests. If the climate were different, we would have kept the original train instead of booking the Vista Dome, which departed at 13:37, giving us an additional hour in case of whoopsies.
We had to pay an additional $67 each for this domed (not doomed) train, which turned out to be fine I guess. It was a train like many other, depending on your seat allocation you may have gotten a better view. We were quite near the front, which was just by luck. For the size of the windows, I can’t tell you if they were bigger than the normal train ones, maybe slightly bigger than average, but I’m not a window expert. The dome part I didn’t really make use of because I get motion sickness and looking up strains my neck.
We did get a snack box though.
It turns out we had plenty of time so we could have stuck with the original train. We arrived at our hotel around 19:00, transferred our hiking gear from the orange duffel bags back to our regular backpacks.
We had so much time that we went to eat guinea pig (cuy). That’s what I often do when I have time on my hands. Eat children’s pets.
We could have left our duffel bags at the hotel or with the driver, but we had time so we decided to walk (again with the legs!) to Orange Nation’s office to give them back. I can’t speak highly enough of Orange Nation, the worker called us a taxi to the airport and paid for it.
We arrived before 20:00 for our 21:45 flight and just sat there for what felt like ages. The airport doesn’t have any food facilities or anything of entertainment so we just spent the time soaking in the fact THAT WE JUST HIKED MACHU FRICKEN PICCHU.
lima bean
I caved and took a taxi from the Lima airport to our hotel in Miraflores instead of walking the 3 hours and 52 minutes at midnight. If there is one thing you can count on in life, is getting overcharged by booking a taxi (read: airport shuttle) through your hotel.
Lima is rough- I don’t mean to poo-poo places, but it was one of the worst cities I’ve ever been to. I lied, I wholeheartedly meant that poo-poo.
Miraflores is the only place I saw in Lima that looked safe enough to be as a foreigner. There is a big oceanfront mall, which I feel was a missed opportunity for nice houses. There is a decent walk along the ocean front with a racing waterfront highway (have these people never heard of city planners?).
We took a taxi (yes, I was annoyed typing that) because it was the only mode of transport that made sense to see the historic center, if you can call it that? The old town part of Lima has a few buildings. I don’t know the history or even one single fact about Lima, but Google just referred to it as The City of Kings.
More accurately, The City of Kings with Poopy Pants.
We gave it our best efforts- we went to the main market Mercado Central, but I wish we didn’t. The best sight that we saw was all the cats at Kennedy Park. There were so many it was like they were growing out of the ground like flowers! Everyone feeds them and they are a treat to pet.
A redeeming quality of Lima is its food. We ate ceviche and drank pisco sour at Punto Azul, which was YUM.
We had 3 nights here, but technically since we arrived so late from Cuzco the first night doesn’t really count. My cousin left before the third night even started, so technically that one doesn’t count either. We had one full night with one full day and a half in Lima (I technically had slightly more), but in my opinion it was too many nights. Lima can be skipped.
The poo-poo keeps coming!
My cousin left like a thief in the night back to the airport to catch her flight to Canada. I took the airport bus from Tourist Information Center (Av. Larco) the next morning to catch my flight to the Netherlands.
Peru, we bid adieu.
our route
- lima: 1 night (flight to)
- lake titicaca: 2 nights
- puno: 1 night (day bus to)
- cuzco: 3 nights (tour to trailhead)
- inca trail (4 night/5 days hike)
- vistadome train from aguas calientes to cuzco
- lima: 3 nights
