A swing through South America

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LIM-CUZ LA2356
A320-200 Y+
CC-BFX
On time

In this trip report Y+ will indicate Premium Economy. LA don’t have J for domestic and most short-haul intra Sth America, even though it’s technically the same as Eurobusiness so they could call it that. But I guess they have integrity. Take note European airlines.



Middle seat blocked. The other advantages of Y+ are some snacks are offered, extra legroom and the first hold bag is included. When I booked Y was about AUD90 and Y+ AUD175, so I’d say it’s a no brainer.


Everyone loves a 767.


There’s two more following us out!

2D images can’t do justice to the scale of the vertical relief of the mountains.




We then hit a fairly thick cloud layer until finals.

This was the only way to track location.


At one point it said one minute until arrival and we were still in cloud, which for an arrival in mountainous areas makes me nervous. Always reminds me of this:


Fortunately the flight time remaining updated to show 8 mins and then a couple of minutes later we popped out visual below the layer.


Light rain, some vegetation and then some houses on the outskirts of Cusco.


After landing and pulling off the runway there were these two jets just sitting on a taxiway. Engines running. Strobes on.
Even after we disembarked I could see them from the terminal still in the same spot. I wonder why?

 

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Had free airport pickup from my Cusco hotel so easily found the person with my name on a sign. Such a nice feeling knowing it’s all taken care of as every second dodgy looking male is ‘taxi’, ‘taxi’, ‘you need taxi’…

I try to lace my ‘nah mate’ with as much scorn as I can muster, but I don’t think it works in a foreign country.

They have this little replica stashed in a corner in the baggage claim area.

 

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Dropped stuff at the hotel and then went for a (slowish) walk to end up at my briefing for the Machu Picchu trip the next day.

Old town is quite nice.









So the day trip I had booked was advertised as approx 0630 hotel pickup; vehicle transfer to Ollantaytambo; train to Aguas Calientes; shuttle up to the world heritage citadel; English speaking guide on site for the two hour tour; then travel in reverse, with return to hotel around 2030.

So that was all on the itinerary but pick up was listed as 0440-0500 and return 2300-2330. This annoyed me greatly as I have a tour the next day to Rainbow Mountain with a 0330 collection from hotel. Made my displeasure known and used the exact words that this is a bait and switch probably so you can book me on cheaper train times. They apparently went back to see if there was an earlier return option. I looked it up independently and actually knew before the tour rep came back that there were no earlier returns for sale.

WCMO: this kind of nonsense. Yapa Explorers are one of largest and well known Machu Picchu tour organisers so not sure why they’ve done this. The other three people on the same tour as me were still flying in so they got the itinerary sent to them via WhatsApp at 1910 that evening (after the tour office closed at 1900 - they are equally p’d off as they had dinner reservations for 2100)

Guess I was just purchasing a bundle of rights…

Took myself off to the Llama Cafe for dinner.

Irish llama yeah?

Food was good. Service was great.
Then back to the hotel and prep for tomorrow.

 

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Tomorrow.

0430 WhatsApp message from the pick up driver that he was at the hotel.


…whilst driver was getting the other three guests.




Enroute Ollantaytambo.




Some rustic road surfaces; not helped by having the driver think he’s some latter day Ayrton Senna.


Trains.

Unique way to organise pax into their carriage groups: follow the lady with your letter.











Allocated seating. Not long after this every seat was full.

Enroute views. Massive scale Andes mountains.

 

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Aguas Calientes is the town at the foot of the range that Machu Picchu was constructed on. The trains stop here and the town has a sort of tourist frontier feel. Had two hours before the bus up to the citadel so went for a walk around town and grabbed a coffee (not great) at one of the many cafes proudly displaying their espresso machines.

The local wrangler that the tour company employs kept spamming me messages. Initially he didn’t identify himself, just sent a message saying send me your location now. I duly ignored it and most other stuff including his calls which all just appeared to be coming from a random Peruvian number. Eventually he confirmed who he was and worked for and linked me up with the rest of the tour group. He’d had them waiting in a line for the busses for over an hour, for nothing… it’s good to be organised but that was stupid.


The bus line. Hurry up and wait.


What is the fascination with putting locks on bridges?



The train tracks continue through the town.








Here’s a view of some people that are actually being useful with spray cans and a wall space.

 

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The winding bus ride up the sheer mountain road only takes about 15-20 minutes.



Then more lining up ready for the ticketed entrance time. I’d been allocated a guide all to myself as the others in the tour group were doing a different circuit.

 

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Some thoughts.

There’s a fair bit of waiting around to get to the site but once there it didn’t feel crowded or rushed. The day trip option worked for me but maybe better to go and spend the night in Ollantaytambo or Aguas Calientes. If you stay in Ollay, you can take your luggage with you as it’s a car/bus transfer to get there. If in AC you need a smaller overnight bag only as luggage space on the train is minimal and they say max 8Kg but even a roll aboard might be problematic.

My guide (Christian) didn’t try to make things up. I asked him a LOT of questions and he was honest when he said much of what is told about the MP site are hypotheses. He generally gave multiple answers covering the different speculations. Even the name of the site is not know: it’s called Machu Picchu after the name of one of the high mountains at either end of the site, but the name the Inca used for the site itself is lost to time. It was supposed to be two hours on site but we ended up taking 2:45 to do circuit 2 and there was no rushing or being moved along.

The key thing I want to know when I visit places is why did people develop settlements, cities or things of interest there. To me building the citadel up in that high remote location seems nonsensical, but they had water from a spring and it has some strategic advantages with the river below protecting nearly three sides. The hypotheses were:
- a place of religious worship
- a place of education for not just local Inca but others from territories they conquered
- a retreat for the most senior Inca

Whatever the reason, the eventual arrival of the Spanish in the area meant the site was abandoned; the lack of an Inca system of writing (they used verbal storytelling and knots in string to record history); and the eventual death of multiple generations meant knowledge of the what and why was lost.

It was good day. Great to see the site and undertake the journey there but I wouldn’t say it was as awe-inspiring as The Pyramids, or of visiting Petra. If you have the chance definitely go.

 

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As the tour company had then ridiculously left is 4 hours to wait for the return train I found a cafe, had some dinner and caught up with the world.

The return train ride was in darkness so I listened to a podcast and just closed my eyes. Then the bus ride back to Cusco was also just an exercise in dozing. Dropped off at the hotel at 2320 and had the quickest shower then into bed ready for the early start the next day.

 

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This was a pre-booked tour to Rainbow Mountain or Vinicunca as it is locally known. It’s about three to four hours from Cusco, initially on tarmac (with the constant speed bumps because Peruvians don’t seem to believe traffic rules exist), then on what was basically a rural dirt track that is best approximated as a fire trail.



Was collected in a van at 0330 and it was about three degrees. We made our way with pax mostly dozing in the darkness, to the final village before hitting the dirt track, where breakfast for tour groups was organised at a local restaurant.


Pretty good setup and they had a decent buffet for 0540. I had two coffees whilst others were getting some last minute coca tea before we started the ascent. Both Cusco and this site were about 3000m (10,000ft) altitude. We’d be driving up to near 4500m and then hiking to the mountain at 5000m.


Dirt road after breakfast with the sun just breaking onto mountain tops.


Again the vertical relief was amazing to see.

This was the parking spot or base camp.