Until now I thought that nothing could match the majesty of Angkor and the intricacy of Borabodur, but this place has to be seen to be believed. Itīs hard to imagine that while the majority of our ancestors were running around with woad on their faces and covered in animal skins the beginnings of the precolumbian cultures that flowered into the Inca culture produced the magnificent ceramics, art and architecture.

Ate very ordinary dinner after running the gauntlet of about 50 restaurant touts - all meals about $2 to $4 inclusive, and for some reason avocado with everything. Next morning 5am call , breakfast then bus UP the mountain, a switchback straight up for about 30 minutes. Early enough for sunrise but it was overcast. We were absolutely blown away by the vistas of this huge site and took photos for about an hour , then in came the rain and fog. Sat in a hut for abour 2 hours talking to others and seeing nothing. so we decided a retreat to the 5 star hotel at the bottom for hot chocolate and 5 star toilets (what a change , they actually have toilet paper ) was in order.

An hour later the sky gradually cleared and we had a great 2 hour tour all over the sight with our guide Cerafino. Back the the bus for the ride downhill, a couple of beers with 2 Americans plus a vegetable sandwich (yes they do this here, warm beans and carrots , tomatoes and onions in bread) and onto the train for the ride home. 4.5 hours turned into 7 hours when PeruRail broke down in the middle of nowhere. The time went quickly though because sitting across from us were a nice Dutch couple who spoke perfect English (have you ever met anyone from the Netherlands who didn't speak at least five languages ?) and so we told each other travel stories until the train was fixed. We were all given broken up chocolate bars and sweets from the little shop on board to ward off starvation , then eventually the train limped to the nearest station and we were all collected by buses and delivered home about 11pm . An absolutely fabulous couple of days that we won't ever forget.

Speaking to others it seemed that the bus took 16 hours so we decided to fly to Arequipa.
Peru: the navel of the Earth and a lost city.
25/11/03
Gīday from Cusco in Peru, here we are, breathless from the high altitude and the grandeur of the Inca empire. The trip over was long but uneventful, the contact made on the internet met us at Lima airport and we spent three pleasant days in the capital of Peru before flying up into the Andes to Cusco. We took a bit of a risk booking accommodation with a tout in the airport, thinking if it didn't turn out all we lost was $20. As it happened everything worked out well, the little man (the locals are quite short
in stature and very brown) holding up a board
with my name on it at the airport arranged
transport right to the steps of the hotel. 

The ambiance of Cusco is very pleasant and so we are having a couple of quiet days just mooching until we catch the train up to Macchu Piccu on Thursday. Have taken some good pictures with the new digital camera and bought some postcards to remind us of all the magic things we've seen. The tourist agencies are pretty much the same here as in other countries, one day they will wake up to the fact that the dumb tourists don't really want to be haulled from cathedral to museum to ruins and cut out all the bullshit, just go straight to the warehouse selling alpaca jumpers at inflated prices. I've yet to go on a 'city tour' that isn't an excuse for flogging souvenirs.
The Hotel Conquistadores is next to the main plaza which is pretty during the day and spectacular at night (the plaza that is, the hotel is a little seedy and run down, but good value for $US20). We breakfast at a chinese restaurant next to the hotel that looks out over the plaza, real 5 star stuff. We can stay at really good hotels because it is the beginning of the wet season all the prices have fallen from the peak season (same as Darwin)and the touts out-number the tourists. Some of the restaurants we've eaten in are outstanding; no fear of food poisoning.... yet! 

Several of our fellow tourists are stricken with altiude sickness, one is in hospital with a drip in his arm, and he had booked an expensive Toucan tours trek along the Inka Trail to Macchu Piccu. Fortunately weve been off the booze and drinking copious amounts of agua, necessitating multiple trips to the toilet every night, and having salty soup for lunch, so far the only symptoms are tiredness and lack of appetite. We really like the ambiance of Cusco and are having a couple of quiet days just mooching until we catch the train up to Macchu Piccu on Thursday. Have taken some good pictures with the new digital camera and bought some postcards to remind us of all the magic things we've seen. 
29/11/03
Itīs all proving to be so easy maybe shouldn't speak too soon.  We bought one 'todo inclusivo' ticket at a shop next to the hotel , train , ( 5am wakeup call then 6am breakfast before this) , bus up the mountain and entry to site then return train and pickup from station . You don't even have to think about anything, the 'gringo trail' is so well organised anyone can make the trip to Macchu Piccu (MP). When we were ther about 1000 gringo tourists (and inumerable
Peruvians) visit the site every day.

The train takes about four and a half hours thru farmland and then rainforest with loads of natural orchids and bromeleads and arrives at a small
ramshackle town by the river at foot of the mountain site of MP .

Stayed the night in a small hostel, Wayne indulged in a local hot springs, actually a few jets of hot water where he sat accompanied by a couple of old
local blokes who were washing their hair and then their crutches with Pantene shampoo (they did keep their baggy swimmers on). He then soaked in a tepid brown pool followed by a jump into icy water. It's supposed to be fun & invigorating. Since then he's been covered in bites or itchy rash. 
Macchu Piccu
Words canīt really do the vision justice. As one walks into the main entrance the view of the site is amazing, mindblowing, I canīt imagine what it must be like to see it through the Sun Gate at sunrise. Thatīs right, I didnīt walk the Inca Trail because my knees are shot and I didnīt relish the experience of crying to the guide that I wanted a little Peruvian porter to carry me down the hill. This good sense was reinforced when I saw the trail curving down the side of the mountain toward the city site. If this was the last bit (said to be relatively easy) how difficult are the first two days ? Rosemary said she would have walked the shortened version (the last two days) had we discussed it as an option but neither of us has to prove anything these days, and that seems to me the major motivation for those semi-couch potatoes that walk down the last steps white faced and breathless.
We took the Backpackers train from Cusco to Macchu Piccu Peublo (formerly known as Aguas Caliente), hit the ībaņos calienteīand stayed at a new hostel at the top of the main street. The town is a bit of a construction site at the moment with considerable debate about whether the number of tourists should be curtialed. I suspect that the local authorities will have little say as the site is the major cash cow of Peruvian tourism with 85% of the income flowing directly to the Government in Lima. Iīll leave it to your imagination where the money goes from there.

Maccu Picchu is really a misnomer, nobody really knows what the Inca name of the site was, the Incas didnīt leave written records and the Spanish never found the site, that was left to a Yale scientist, Hiram Bingam, who, in 1911 stumbled on the site looking for Vilcabamba, the REAL lost city of the Incas. The reason why itīs (undeserved) significance is much greater than Cusco stems from the fact that it sat unchanged and covered in jungle for 400 years while Cusco was smashed down to the foundations and reconstructed in the image of a 16th century Spanish city. So, to be fair, more time should be spent winkling out the beauties in Cusco, but itīs the overwhelming nature of Macchu Picchu that assaults the senses. 
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