31 May: Aguas Calientes to Cuzco
We tried to exchange our PeruRail train tickets for an earlier
train, but
were told
it had to
be done 24
hours in
advance;
strange
because
in
Ollantaytambo
they told
us that
tickets
could be
exchanged
up to 40
minutes
prior to
departure...
We
therefore
killed in
time
by
walking
the
2 kms
to
the
Machu
Picchu
museum for
a look
around.
The
museum
is
in a
big
new
building,
but the
exhibits
and
explanations
are a bit
disappointing
considering
the
splendour
of the
actual
site.
We
also
walked
around the
small botanic
garden
next to
the
museum,
but the
flowers
were few
and far
between
and it
wasn't
very
inspiring.
We don't know whether there exist any honest restaurants in Aguas
Calientes,
but we
didn't
find
one! A made-up
tax of 20%
was added
to our
lunch
bill... In
addition
when
we collected
our
laundry
from a
hotel,
2kgs of
somebody
else's
washing
was added
to
our
bag... We
really
weren't
impressed
with the
service in
this town
whose sole
"reason
d'être" is
tourism.
At 14:30
we caught
the
Backpacker
train back
to
Ollantaytambo,
followed
by a taxi
to
Cuzco.
We
arrived
at
our
hotel
in
Cuzco
at
18:00
just
in
time to
head
out
to a
Peruvian
dance show
at the
Qosqo
Native Art
Centre.
Live
music played
on traditional
instruments
accompanied
the folk dancers
in
beautiful
colourful
costumes.
The
girls
in
particular
really
enjoyed
the
show.
 |
 |
 |
| The sacred
valley
and
Urubamba
river |
The street
outside
our
hotel
in Aguas Calientes - the railway line! |
The
distinctive
blue
Perurail
carriages |
1 June: Cuzco to Los Angeles
We had all morning to have a deeper look around the city of
Cuszo. We
started
off by
climbing
up
the imposing
PachuCuteq
monument,
crowned by
a 11.5m
bronze
statue of
the famous
Inca
ruler.
Next we
visited
the
Qorikancha
museum to
try to
learn a
bit about
the
original
Inca sun
temple
that
occupied
the
Qorikancha site now
taken over
by the
Spaniard
built
Saint
Domingo
convent.
Afterwards we visited
the
convent
where
there are
still
surprisingly
many remains of
the Inca
buildings.
The
Spanish
didn't
destroy
all of the impressive
Inca sun
temple,
they
removed
all the
gold and
built splendid
colonial
structures
around
certain
existing
elements,
leaving
some fine
Inca stone
masonry.
The mix of
architectural
styles
is
surprising.
After lunch we visited the Inca Museum, where we saw many
Inca and
pre-Inca
artefacts
found
during
archeological
digs. The
geographical
extent,
structured
society
and
technical
expertise of
the Inca
Empire was
surprising
considering
that
these
people had
no
writing.
At 16:00 we took a flight to Lima, the first of three
consecutive
flights.
Surprise,
we had to
pay 17 US$
in airport
taxes!
Then after
a 7
hour wait
in the
capital,
at 00.50
we took
a night
flight to
Los
Angeles.
Second
surprise, we
had to pay
another
124 US$ in
airport
taxes...!
We were
lucky as we
all
managed to
have quite
a decent
night's
sleep on
the plane.
 |
 |
 |
| The PachuCuteq
monument |
Saint Domingo
convent |
View over the
cathedral
roofs |
BACK
| 
