Peru (2019)
Inhalt/Content
Cusco and Mass Tourism
From Abancay we went in an amazingly luxurious coach (we paid about 2€ more to travel 1st class 😀 ) to Cusco and thus to the “ruta de los gringos”. Cusco was in many ways a different world compared to Ayacucho and Abancay. We were literally left breathless. While Abancay is just at 2377 metres above sea level, we now climbed up to 3399 metres above sea level. We could feel this clearly while we loaded our backpacks and walked towards our AirBnB. Fortunately, we were spared the dreaded altitude sickness during our whole trip, but that does not mean that we never felt the altitude. On the aforementioned arrival in Cusco we had to take several short breaks and catch our breath, even though we had already been walking at “breathtaking” heights the last few days. I really don’t know how the whole thing works with the numerous organized tours that fly directly from Lima to Cusco without any possibility to get used to the altitude step by step.
We spent the first afternoon walking through the city in a very relaxed way. At least it should be relaxed, but then it happened. We had bought a small digital camera especially for our holiday. This was a strategic decision, because on one hand we wanted to take pictures that were beyond the quality of a mobile phone camera and on the other hand we did not want to carry a big reflex camera around with us. Since the digital camera was so nice and handy, Kevin usually just put it in his jacket pocket. Of course what had to happen happened. Kevin had forgotten to close the zipper of the bag and the camera fell out in a careless moment and broke. So now we were standing there in Cusco, wanted to go to Machu Picchu in 2 days and the camera was broken. Meanwhile it was Sunday evening, and there was nothing more we could have done that day. Fortunately, our AirBnB host helped us out by telling us a shop where we went the next day. While our camera was being repaired, we decided to go on a museum tour. Our first stop was the chocolate museum. This is definitely worth a recommendation. The entrance and the guided tour were both free. One learns something about chocolate production and it is allowed to taste some products at the end. Afterwards we went directly to the in-house coffee shop for chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream and the absolute highlight, chocolate tea. The tea is made from cocoa shells and has a pleasant chocolaty note without being sweet. We bought directly another package of tea for Germany. Next, we went to the Inca Museum. That was a nice start, because tomorrow we should go to the famous Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu
There are not many ways to get to Machu Picchu. Legends say there is a bus. But at least we didn’t see any of it locally. Of course you can also do organized tours, but as you know I don’t think much of that, or you can go by train. The latter was the option we chose. Travelling by train in Peru is a thing of its own, because in principle there are no trains there. The only exception were a few tourist destinations and of course Machu Picchu is one of them. The trains are accordingly touristic. First of all: the train tickets are expensive. One already noticed the touristical orientation by the fact that all prices were only stated in US dollars. Similar to everywhere else, there are also different train classes. Additionally, there are different types of trains like panorama trains. But even if one travels “only” second class, there is still a service that is only available in first class elsewhere. For example, food and drinks are included. There are two big train companies: PeruRail and Inca Rail. They do not really differ. To save money, we decided to take the first train from Ollantaytambo station, which is about 62km from Cusco. Of course there are shuttle services that take you there, but apart from the fact that they were quite overpriced, they were also very tight concerning the departure time of our train. Luckily we were meanwhile trained in using colectivos. From the lady at the tourist information we learned that the first colectivos left at 03:00 A.M. Luckily our AirBnB was very centrally located, so we could leave in the middle of the night on foot to the colectivo square. Colectivos are already an interesting and amazingly well working thing. You stand on the square and call out where you want to go and in the next moment a group of Peruvian drivers runs up to you and tries to convince you to get into their minibus. And so we found ourselves in a colectivo with a cracked windscreen and a broken speedometer needle, which rushed at a hellish speed past landslides through the mountain landscape. If the lady at the tourist information said that it would take about 2 1/2 hours to Ollantaytambo, we were already at the station after one hour.
Of course the trains do not go completely up to Machu Picchu. Their final stop is Aguas Calientes. And here at the latest we arrived in the absolute tourist hell. Aguas Calientes was a small city that lived exclusively from mass tourism in its ugliest form. Not only that everything was three times as expensive, one was also tried to get ripped off at every street corner. The worst thing we saw there was a man with his son, who were both wearing ponchos. The man played guitar and sang and the boy danced to it. An elderly man, who was sitting outside one of the many restaurants, happily went along to the music and held his cell phone on the two of them to tell his friends back in his home country about the great musicians at Machu Picchu. Up to now you can think of it what you want, but the thing gets a very bitter aftertaste if you consider that it was just in the middle of the week. It was also no holiday season and the boy was definitely at an age where he should sit in school and learn to read and calculate instead of dancing in front of tourists.
From Aguas Calientes there were two ways to get to Machu Picchu. There was a footpath, but it led along a road and was not very pleasant, and there was a bus where the prices were of course again in US dollars and there was already a long queue in front of the ticket office. As we wanted to save our energy, we decided to take the bus anyway. Machu Picchu is incredibly impressive and a must for every visit to Peru. But Machu Picchu is also full. Especially at the beginning you climb up the last meters together with a horde of other tourists. As soon as you have your destination in mind, the groups already start to swarm around the best photo spots. However, the further you get away from these first photo spots the emptier and more pleasant it gets. What you also have to consider when going to Machu Picchu is that it is actually quite exhausting. The terrain is huge and there is an incredible amount to see and explore. As we were there in summer, we were constantly in the blazing sun. That doesn’t mean that winter would be a better time to travel here, because the winters in the Andes can be damn cold and the numerous steps are probably terribly slippery once they freeze over. A special highlight for me was a selfie that I could make with an alpaca on site. Since then animal selfies have become a tradition on our trips.
After we had visited most of it, we took the bus back to Aguas Calientes. Actually, we had packed sleeping things and toothbrushes with us and would have been prepared to spend the night in Aguas Calientes and drive back the next day, but we were dreading to spend even more time in this tourism hell, so we went directly to the train counter and tried to get a ticket for the next train, which was not so easy at all, because most of the trains were already fully booked. The last seats we could get were in a first class car of Peru Rail. Everything we experienced there was a new crown for mass tourism. There was once again food and drink, additionally an alpaca fashion show and an exaggerated “traditional” Peruvian performance, which I like to call cultural prostitution. And all this while the impoverished houses of the local population passed our windows. As if we were being punished for it, Kevin and I both got sick the next day. Mass tourism literally hit us in the stomach.
Rainbow Mountain
So after spending the last day in bed sick, we were luckily fit enough for one of the biggest but definitely the most exhausting highlight of our trip, thanks to good local medicine: Rainbow Mountain. This is a mountain that is colorfully layered with different types of rock. Normally I am not at all a fan of organized tours, but Rainbow Mountain is so remote that otherwise there would have been no way to get there. In fact, in retrospect I would say that this was actually a very well organized tour. The guide was highly trained and made a great effort to provide everyone with knowledge and to keep an eye on us medically. This was also important, because all the altitudes we had been on until then were a joke against what was waiting for us that day. So we did not climb Rainbow Mountain itself, but a neighboring mountain, whose peak was at 5200 meters. We arrived about 1000 meters lower and already the short way to the public toilets made one completely out of breath. From there, there were two possibilities. We could go hiking or take a horse. Either way, you have to walk the last meters, which are also by far the most exhausting. Even though Kevin was not a big fan of the horse option at first because of his fear of heights, I was still able to persuade him to do it, which was definitely the better option given the altitude. Kevin’s horse was the fastest of all and so he was the first to arrive at the climb to the summit. My horse, Nero, took it a bit easier. I used the time to talk to the horse guide, Jesus. He was curious about life in Germany. Vice versa he told me about his children and about the work with the horses. With one walking stick each and green vests, which should make us easier to find for our guide, we now dared the last meters to the summit. This was indeed one of the most exhausting experiences of my life. Every 2 steps we had to stop and catch our breath. And yet we made it to the very top. The feeling to have made it together with the breathtaking view was just amazing. After we took the obligatory photos above and admired the nature around us, we went down a little bit, where we not only had a coca tea at a local’s place against the effort of the height, but where we also took one of our most famous holiday photos: A photo with two alpacas in our arms. Of course this was touristic, but it didn’t feel as wrong as with Machu Picchu. One hears a lot of bad things about tourism at Rainbow Mountain and I don’t want to gloss over it. However, our guide explained us later that the originally very poor villages in the area are now really flourishing and schools and kindergartens could be built. Tourism is a doubled edged sword.
