Peru: From Cusco to Abra Malaga, Santa Maria, Huancacalle, Vilcabamba, Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, and back to Cusco (From 18.09.07 to 26.09.07).
That was good, that was actually very good. We had a lovely time during our last trip. We got excellent advice from a good friend that we made in the Llanganuco lodge to go to Huancacalle, and not to do the trek from Santa Maria to Machu Picchu (which other local guides agreed was not that interesting). We did a circle from Cusco to Abra Malaga, Santa Maria, Huancacalle, Vilcabamba, Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, and back to Cusco.
We hired bicycles at Cusco from the agency http://www.adventureteamperu.com/ . On Wednesday 18.09.07 we took a five hour bus ride to Abra Malaga. After arriving we went on a five hour! bike ride. The road was very rough and honestly I would not recommend it to any one. We started the ride at around 01.50 pm instead of 1pm because the bus had a flat tyre that had to be replaced during the trip, so was around 1 hour late. So the last 20 minutes of the ride were in complete darkness. The road goes through a valley and often u can see the river that runs through the valley. The part that was interesting was watching the locals burn the hills to create more agricultural land.
We got to Santa Maria in one piece, and stayed there for the night. As Santa Maria is at low altitude, there are LOTS of mosquitoes, and during the bicycle ride and the night I got something like six BITES on one finger on my left hand. The problem with the mosquitoes there is that they are extremely advanced: very light, small and black in colour. Facts that made them impossible to trace, only after the bite. In the next few days my two fingers of my left hand started to expand dramatically, up to a point that the swelling was pushing my fingers nerve, which made them feel numb. It took me some more days to recover and to get my senses in my fingers back to normal.
In the morning we took a taxi to Huancacalle. And here it was all waiting for us. In a valley surrounded by green mountains a small town sits next to a river, with nice inhabitants and very fresh air. The guest house called Sixpac Manco is run by a nice elderly couple, one of whom shares part of history. The owner Binjamin Cobar was the local guide for two expeditions that came to the area in search of the last & lost city of the Incas, which was eventually ¨found¨ by American Gene Savoy (led by Binjamin): a place called Espiritu Pampa.
In the area of Huancacalle we went on a few day trips. First we visited the ruins that are nearby called Nuestapata and Vitcos. Apparently the first set of ruins was the escaping point for the Inca Manco. The walk was easy and in a loop shape and normally takes about two hours altogether (it took us five because we really took our time).
The next day we did the start of the trail to Chorequeo. We walked for about 3 hours on the trail, which was along a river through an open green valley.
On the following day, which was Shabbat and Yom Kippur I decided to fast and continue business as usual. That was the wrong decision. We were supposed to walk to the next town called Vilcabamba, which was supposed to take an hour and a half to two hours. We finished it after more then five hours. The walk was moderate and was through a valley going uphill along a river. Unfortunately we started our walk very late, around one pm, with the assumption that it would take us four hours to return. But obviously we had the wrong approach. We got to the village after five and were welcomed by the local mission that is run by a team from Italy. After having a small chat with Carlos who came from Italy for two years as a volunteer, we headed back to Huancacalle. I decided to break my fast with a proper meal in Huancacalle. At this point I was starving. When we started walking back the sun had set and the road did not look attractive at all. After five minutes we decided to return to Vilcabamba and try our luck for accommodation in the mission. We were very welcomed to stay and it was a very pleasant experience. Apparently the Father arrived in the town about 15 years ago and saw the level of poverty in the town which was caused by the death of the local cattle, and decided to come and help the community.
On the following day, which was Shabbat and Yom Kippur I decided to fast and continue business as usual. That was the wrong decision. We were supposed to walk to the next town called Vilcabamba, which was supposed to take an hour and a half to two hours. We finished it after more then five hours. The walk was moderate and was through a valley going uphill along a river. Unfortunately we started our walk very late, around one pm, with the assumption that it would take us four hours to return. But obviously we had the wrong approach. We got to the village after five and were welcomed by the local mission that is run by a team from Italy. After having a small chat with Carlos who came from Italy for two years as a volunteer, we headed back to Huancacalle. I decided to break my fast with a proper meal in Huancacalle. At this point I was starving. When we started walking back the sun had set and the road did not look attractive at all. After five minutes we decided to return to Vilcabamba and try our luck for accommodation in the mission. We were very welcomed to stay and it was a very pleasant experience. Apparently the Father arrived in the town about 15 years ago and saw the level of poverty in the town which was caused by the death of the local cattle, and decided to come and help the community.
Once every two weeks the kids have a special treat, meat for diner, every other day they get vegetarian food. Of course, the day we arrived they were having meat! As I keep kosher I could not break my fast with non kosher food. So we cooked our own pasta with tomatoes, garlic, rosemary and onion. It was the best meal that I ever had after Yom Kipur.
The next day, Sunday morning, we walked back to Huancacalle enjoying the beautiful scenery and the lovely adventure that we had just had. We left Huancacalle on Monday morning to go to Aguas Calientes through Santa Maria and Hydro Electrico. At Hydro Electrico we had to take the train because it is not possible to reach Machu Picchu with any other form of transport. The train ride was quite funny. For some unclear reason the train was being driven in a very bizarre way. It drove forward for a few minutes and then stopped, drove back a few hundred metres and then continued forward again, and so on every ten minutes. A ride that could have taken ten minutes took about an hour and half! On our way back from Aguas Calientes to Ollantayambo I noticed that the train was doing the same thing. But it did not actually go backwards, rather parked on a side track for few minutes until the train travelling in the other direction had passed. So it became obvious that the reason for the long train ride (apart from the fact that it was the worst train that I have ever been in mechanically) is that there is only one train track for the trains travelling in both directions.
We arrived to Aguas Calientes on the 24.09.07 in the afternoon and found a very nice room in the hotel Suma Wasi ($25 US a night). The next morning, we took the private bus up to Machu Picchu. Luckily when we arrived the site was not full and was pretty impresive. During the lunch break it started raining and then even more tourists left the site. So when we came back from our luch break it was even emptier.
The whole experince in Machu Picchu was pretty funny. Because we had lost our trust in local guides, after a few bad experinces that we had (A true dialoge with our guide in Pisac ruins near Cusco: 'What was this room for?' The guide: 'This was... for storage...' and strangely enough from there on every room was for some reason for storage) we decided not to hire a guide. But to wait for our luck by waiting for a good guide accompanying what looks like a high end tour group. And our luck came when we noticed this kind of group approaching with a very knowledgble guide. We got all the info we needed and the tour was fantastic (at last!). Unfortunately we kind of stuck out as we tacked onto the group as we were the only people under 65. Im sure the guide noticed we were there as freeriders despite our efforts to blend in, as the next day we bumped into him at another set of ruins a few hours a way, and he smiled and said hello to us!
On the 25.09, in the morning we took the train from Aguas Calientes to arrive in Ollantayambo. The ride was through rainforests and with friendly staff that did a modelling show of local clothes to the passengers during the ride, complete with catwalk music as they strutted the aisles. On arriving in Ollantayambo we went to the ruins that are above the town. This time their wasn't any high end tour group so after a walk through the site we decided to try our luck again and hire a local guide. He was a local guy from Ollantayambo who was studying Tourism to become a guide. He was pretty good and we got a lot of info from him. In the afternoon we took a taxi from Ollantayambo to Cusco and we were very happy to go back to a familiar place on the eve of Sukot.
