Hola! Around South America on LAN

[mrs.dr.ron]

This is the ONLY way you would get me going up and down those hills

 

[RooFlyer]

I had a night at Aguas Calientes. Iinteresting place, crammed in a gorge or 2 where a couple of rivers meet; backpacker heaven. Seems to be booming - every second building is 'under construction'. (Wonder how long they have been that way? ). The tour had booked me into the El MaPi Hotel (MaPi = Machu Picchu, geddit?). Its a great contemporary sight in the backpacker / minor chaotic state of the rest of the town, and indeed it would fit most people's bills for a short stay. The hotel is pretty new; my room was basic, but everything worked; like before I think it was probably their cheapest room.

There are green / adventure / wilderness type messages everywhere - on the walls, on the bathroom mirrors, even on the shower curtains. I had dinner included with the tour, and I think many of the stayers do ... but I would have eaten out if I could. Llots of interesting places very close; the fixed menu at the hotel was OK, but not great. Several tour groups (French and Italian) in that night.




But one major plus is that you get a pisco sour thrown in. The bar is GOOD and the guys make a mean one - here the bartender demonstrates his bi-handed technique. See above post for the delicious result!




Views of the town:





The busses that run you up (and down) from the site; bus station on the right. The El MaPi is 5-10 mins walk from each and they will pick up and deliver your bags to the train station.

 

[RooFlyer]

This is the ONLY way you would get me going up and down those hills

In which case it would be:

 

[JohnM]

Well, yes ... in theory ... I guess you could walk back to town. I did see people going up and down on foot and averted my eyes.

Of course I would have walked down ... honestly ... except I had a rendezvous awaiting. Allow me to introduce Ms P. Sour :

View attachment 48798

If you'd walked, you could line up three :mrgreen:.

 

[Fifa]

Thank you so much for the TR RooFlyer.

I look forward to each instalment and love the pics.
Next March/April we are planning a trip to (amongst other places) Machu Picchu via the Inca Trail and the Galapagos.
Thanks to you I am now researching an Amazon side trip in Ecuador.

 

[Bindibuys]

If you'd walked, you could line up three :mrgreen:.

I did walk back from MP to the village (and I was 50 at the time - so no backpacker status) Just saying it is do-able - going downhill.

 

[love_the_life]

Interested to hear about the train - was it the Hiram Bingham by chance. Have a movie of the fun! Quite a few Pisco Sours as well. We had a ball on that!
We stayed at the lodge up at MP so didn't have to do the road up and down more than once, and for us, once was enough. The bus was almost empty on the way up and bounced around all over the place, somewhat scary. On the way down the next day, not so bad.
We had a private guide for the two of us and he was excellent shepherding me up and down the steps (and there were a lot!)
It's a very special place even with the hordes of people and I am really enjoying reliving the trip through your TR.

BTW were there lots of people at MP taking pictures with their iPads?

 

[TomVexille]

BTW were there lots of people at MP taking pictures with their iPads?

I still can't get over the fact people do that

 

[RooFlyer]

<snip>

BTW were there lots of people at MP taking pictures with their iPads?

Yes. Although I almost like the iPad as a camera when compared to the current abomination - iPhone pictures using a 'selfie stick' . Gawd, they should be banned. Actually in the Galapagos, they ARE banned! They allow the camera to get too close to the animals.

 

[RooFlyer]

I was on the 2:50pm train back to Cusco; it would take about 3.5 hours (again, travelling rather slowly). In the Sacred valley, we again went under Mount Victoria, a glorious ice capped mountain best viewed from out the roof windows of the train.




We again got a snack - this time a plate of nuts, fruit and a traditional dish - I think corn meal cooked in leaves.




And of course a bar service - pisco sour again




We stopped briefly at Ollantaytambo, and then turned up a narrow gorge for Cusco (actually Poroy, which is out of Cusco). Then the music started and this guy appeared :shock:. I didn't catch the announcement of the significance of what he represented, but very entertaining dancing and flirting with (female) pax.





Then, in a great surprise, the cabin crew took the form of models for alpaca knit ware for sale. By this time the cabin was rocking - clapping in time, cheering the models' moves (there was a guy as well, but he was limited to jumpers - the girl did the whole outfit transformation thing ... A number of people bought. I had already bought some baby alpaca scarves on the train trip in, and some stuff in Aguas Calientes, so I didn't but. But I could have!




I got picked up at Poroy by the tour people, and then it was about a 40-50 min trip to my hotel in the centre of Cusco.

 

[JohnM]

You're a great memory rejuvenator, RF .

 

[RooFlyer]

Cusco - capital of the Incas and said to have been founded by the first Inca leader Manco Capac in the 12th century according to legend. Today it has a population of some millions and seems to be bulging at the seams. Most of the attractions are in the city centre, but better preserved Inca sites are on the outskirts.

I stayed 2 nights at the Novotel, which is only a block from the Plaza de Armas. The Novotel is based around an old Spanish courtyard house, and it has an imposing first part. The main part of the hotel is modern, and out the back and pretty standard Novotel.

The entrance is off a narrow one way street - no parking, no waiting!




Cusco sits in a valley, but in fact today its crawling up the hills of the sides of the Valley, and over their tops! In the centre of town the Spanish architecture dominates - this is La Catedral, or part of the 3 part structure, which was begun in the 1500s and repaired several times after major earthquakes.




The centre of the town is the Plaza de Armas, ringed by shops, restaurants and a number of churches.




All about town are the signs of the conquering Spanish - but next we'll see that the Inca architecture is actually well in evidence.




I did a half day tour with my guide (including some out-of-town stuff), then had another 1/2 day to myself. Again, I wasn't unduly affected by the altitude - just a bit short of breath and I wasn't very hungry. However the restaurant scene in Cusco is quite lively, so I ventured out the evening I arrived looking for something light and I just dived into the first decent looking place.

I only wanted a small mains, so had to choose the cuy with 'smashed' sweet potato, after a pisco sour and some bread with garlic infused olive oil. I'm not sure if the cuy was a great example of the local chef's art - seemed to have a bit much crispy skin and not enough meat. but I guess they are small little sods. Anyway, it was enough for me. Tomorrow's dinner would be a different story!!

 

[RooFlyer]

This is an experiment - a video of the Machu Picchu train entertainment can be found here. [video]https://vid.me/C8OW[/video].

Seems to work OK.

 

[amaroo]

This is an experiment - a video of the Machu Picchu train entertainment can be found here. [video]https://vid.me/C8OW[/video].

Seems to work OK.

Worked perfectly.

 

[RooFlyer]

Righto then. Here are male frigate birds displaying and calling on Genovesa island, Galapagos. [video]https://vid.me/Y3Lq[/video] (Actually the video quality seems to have deteriorated a bit during upload.)

Will upload a number tonight, as I'm paying for high speed internet in a hotel!

 

[RooFlyer]

This is the sea lion herding the school of fish at the Galapagos, and a shark crashing the party: https://vid.me/KdCk


And Red footed coughies building a nest https://vid.me/FYJI

 

[love_the_life]

Did you see the Last Supper in the Cathedral in Cusco? The one with cuy and corn?
Also the Black saviour (or was it Christ or was it Madonna?) in the same cathedral?

 

[TomVexille]

Love the videos ​RF

 

[Bindibuys]

Did you see the Last Supper in the Cathedral in Cusco? The one with cuy and corn?
Also the Black saviour (or was it Christ or was it Madonna?) in the same cathedral?

All I saw & partook of at the Cathedral was the oxygen @ US$5.00, still have the face mask

 

[kpc]

All I saw & partook of at the Cathedral was the oxygen @ US$5.00, still have the face mask

I should have partook of the oxygen as well...I finally succumbed on the 3rd morning and got some oxygen at the Cusco hotel I was staying. I think RooFlyer did what I now recommend to people going to MP to avoid altitude sickness...as soon as you land in Cusco, don't stay in Cusco but grab a taxi (or prearrange with your hotel) and head to Ollantaytambo for the next 2 nights...this is the closest you can get to MP by road (the last bit you do by train). Ollantaytambo is 2792 metres above sea level, and Cusco is 3400 metres...trust me, this small difference in altitude makes a BIG difference; by the time you return to stay in Cusco (which is worthwhile as you can see from the photos above) your body would have acclimatised to the altitude and you won't be so breathless and hopefully don't develop the dreaded throbbing headache due to oxygen deprivation!