Travel Bugs

We loved our time in Peru in 2017. It was one of our favourite countries and still is. This time around, our motivation for returning was to revisit Cusco, a city we loved, and have a second look at a wonder of the world: Machu Picchu. That was all we planned to do this time around, making our stay in Peru just over one week. We planned to acclimate to the altitude in Cusco for a few days, head to Machu Picchu, then return to Cusco for a few days before flying to Ecuador. Cusco is a great city with interesting streets and laneways to get lost in, lots of cute shops and museums, and some amazing food. We took the opportunity to get as many vegetables and healthy options as possible, having come from Chile where we were challenged to find delicious cuisine.

When we did the Inca Trail eight years ago, it was a huge feat and achievement. I had never done any multi-day hiking before besides a short one-nighter in the hills of Perth. The idea was somewhat foreign to me. The experience was eye-opening and rewarding and is still something I remember with fondness and pride.

I wanted to return to soak in the actual site, since the original trip was more about the journey, and less about the destination. I wanted to appreciate the relic and take it in, as previously, I was so tired from our four days of hiking that I didn’t explore it as much as I had wanted to. So, we made extensive plans and spent several hours whilst in a hostel in Argentina one month prior figuring out all the logistics of returning to Cusco and making the journey up to Machu Picchu. This is no small task in and of itself.

There are many hurdles to overcome. Firstly, finding entry tickets into the site was a challenge. What time should we aim for? When we checked approximate dates, we were astonished to see there weren’t many times available—and that we had to do a timed ticket; this was not so last time we visited. We saw that we needed to choose not only a 2-hour time slot, but also a specific route. We couldn’t just go wherever we wanted to. So, we had to research the routes, pick the one we wanted, then hope it corresponded with a time we wanted to go. Then we looked up weather patterns—early March in this area of Peru is the rainy season. When did it typically rain? Was it better to aim for the morning? But the only morning tickets available were at 6am. Did we want to go at 6am? Then we read that the morning is too foggy; afternoon was better. This brought our options down to literally one day, as the only afternoon tickets that were left were at either 2pm or 330pm. We opted for the 2pm, since the park closes at 430pm. This would only give an hour to walk our chosen circuit. We looked at each other and committed to the day, the circuit and the time.

Then, we had to figure out how to get there. From Cusco, there are two bus/train combos. We chose the one that had a website we could navigate (Inca Rail). This brought us into the town of Aguas Calientes, which is the town that services tourists visiting Machu Picchu. It sits below it, about a 30-minute bus ride to the park entrance. This shuttle is an extra cost. We had to research how often it leaves (hourly) and if we pre-buy tickets before getting there (no need, can do in Aguas Calientes the day before or even last minute), and what time to get on the shuttle to make it up to the site for our time slot. This was more confusing, but after talking to the staff running the shuttle (the only company to do so), they organise it by having you line up two hours before your entry time. Crazy!

We also had to decide where to go after our Machu Picchu visit. Aguas Calientes again, as it would be later in the afternoon when we were done? Ollantaytambo, one of the stops on the way back to Cusco? Cusco itself? We opted to take the train to Ollantaytambo, where we wanted to stay for two nights. Aguas Calientes is sort of a grimey tourist-trap town with expensive accommodation and food. Ollantaytambo is a bit more natural and can be the jumping off point to see more Incan ruins and other interesting sites that are often part of a day trip from Cusco. We planned to stay there a night, check out the sites the next day, then leave on a tour back to Cusco our second morning.

All of this planning meant that everything we did in Peru was very dependent on a strict timetable, something we absolutely hate doing when travelling. It was unavoidable and out of our control.

Also out of our control was the weather. We had sunny warm weather the day we arrived in Aguas Calientes. We had beautiful sunny weather the morning of our Machu Picchu visit. And we watched helplessly from a café as the weather quickly turned to overcast, lightning, thunder, and downpours at midday, knowing we would be stuck in the rain at 2pm.

It was very depressing as both of us like to rise early and get on with our activities in the morning. If we weren’t beholden to this timed ticket, we could have been up and down the mountain long before the first raindrops fell. We were indeed drenched during our visit where the rain did not stop the entire two hours we were there. When we initially climbed the first steps with hundreds of other poncho-clad tourists, young and old alike, we could see literally nothing where the ancient city of Machu Picchu was meant to be. This was NOT what I had pictured when planning this visit. We took some ironic pictures and I texted my family to please pray for better weather for us. God was probably pretty busy with more important matters than my personal experience at Machu Picchu, but I thought I would try Him anyhow.

Luckily, the fog and clouds did break a bit and we actually got to see Machu Picchu. Thank goodness! We both privately thought we would not get to. We trudged soggily along the route, doing our best to have a positive attitude, doing our best to take photos and not damage the camera, doing our best to have a good time. We finished our circuit in exactly two hours and managed to catch a bus back down the mountain almost immediately. We went back to our hotel and tried to dry off, using a spare room and a single hair dryer to dry out our shoes and change into fresh clothes. We had a long evening ahead before we were in our next hotel in Ollytantambo.

By the way, the train is very uncomfortable—for some reason they pump the air conditioning which did not help our soggy feet, and, the seat situation is not comfortable. The seating is in fours, with two facing two, meaning you are knee to knee with strangers with very little room for belongings. There is no wiggle room to shift your bodyweight into more comfortable positions, and they play loud obnoxious music. It was something to endure. Also, on the way up from Cusco, there was a cheesy and embarrassing “show” where the train employees dressed in traditional garb and lip-synched a pre-recorded story with absurd English translations. The love story they play-acted was bizarre and I found myself pretending to be endlessly interested in the scenery outside the train, waiting for it to be over. After the show, the train employees change back into their uniforms and sell you overpriced potato chips and soft drinks.

In Ollantaytambo, we found the square and located a late-night dinner which promptly gave us terrible food poisoning, rendering both of us useless for the next two days. Gone were our plans to explore Ollantaytambo. That part of Peru is still a mystery to us, as we did not venture out of our hotel room for two days. We had to scrap a proper tour of the area back to Cusco, instead securing a private driver who agreed to our whims of visiting one single location (salt mines) before gingerly driving us to our hotel in Cusco.

We had decided to store our belongings at our first hotel (the one we went to when we first landed in Cusco after our Chilean adventures) and take only a small backpack each to Machu Picchu. Then, we would collect our bags from Hotel 1, change to Hotel 2 closer to the main plaza for the second part of our stay in Cusco. Great idea in theory, horrible idea in the long run.

Our next hotel was perhaps the worst one we have thus far encountered on our trip. First of all, we had zero Wi-Fi despite the hotel cheerfully telling us the password. Second, we didn’t have any window to the outside world. Many of the hostels and hotels in Cusco follow a quadrangle shape with a courtyard in the centre. Many times, this is the case, where rooms don’t have windows to the outside. We dislike this type because there is no airflow or chance to freshen up your room. Also, this type of accommodation tends to be very echoey and privacy is an issue. We could hear the people in the next room quite clearly, especially in the bathroom, where the sounds made it seem we were in the same room. Gross. The room itself was dingy with a single light bulb the only source of light. The outlets made it almost impossible to charge our electronics—a game of balance and luck is the only way we managed to do so. Finally, the breakfast in the morning was unsatisfactory. Very little was on offer and what was there was sort of gross. We longed for our original hotel.

Luckily, we managed to go back to our original hotel after only one night. And we got our money back from this terrible place. We didn’t have as nice a room as our initial first few days in Cusco, but the quality of the bedding, flooring, and amenities made us feel instantly better and provided a much more comfortable backdrop to our recovery from food poisoning.

We spent one afternoon walking around Cusco and visited a local food market for lunch. I was very hesitant and wary after our bad luck with food, but it ended up being a very delicious (and cheap!) meal.

We also went to a Peruvian Cultural Song and Dance performance which was next door to our hotel. It was…an experience! It was very low quality, and we quickly realised it was a tack-on activity for a day tour that other tourists had done. We sat in the front row, ready to be wowed by some music and expert dancing and instead sank lower in our seats, polite smiles plastered on our faces as the cast did their best to entertain us. The musicians were a group of grumpy old men playing what sounded like the exact same song repeatedly. Each of the eight to ten songs sounded literally the same. It got sort of hilarious. Callum and I couldn’t make eye-contact for fear of inappropriate laughter.

The singers and dancers were either young and inexperienced or old but still energetic. The women’s tonality can only be described as ‘shrill’. Each song started with dancers trailing out from behind the curtains and ended with them leaving the stage one couple at a time while the pan-fluters kept fluting. They obviously had skill with their steps and their outfits were beautiful, but I wondered at one point if this was a two-hour show, or just a one-hour show. I braved looking at Callum and asked him what he thought. He said he didn’t know. Each dance meant a fabulous costume change for the performers, within which time there was some uncomfortable silences while the grumpy musicians sat like lumps on the stage, fully lit, in silence. Sometimes they played an instrumental piece, but not before at least a minute or two of dead silence. Finally, a grandiose deep-voiced narrator would announce what we were about to see or hear next, in Spanish and only sometimes translating to English. This meant we had no idea what was going on. The transitions really showcased the amateur, disorganisation of the performance.

When we finally made it out blessedly after only one hour, we had to laugh. You know what? We would have wondered about it if we hadn’t gone. It was right next to our hotel! I love watching local dances and music when I travel. What if it was something not-to-be-missed? FOMO is a real thing with both of us. We will never forget it.

Peru is an amazing country and despite some mixed experiences this time around, I would highly recommend it as a travel destination. I am not convinced that was the last time we’ll go; there is so much more to explore beyond what we did in 2017. Next time we’d try and make it there during more favourable weather.