The Heights of Machu Picchu

On the final day of June, we view the sunrise at the ancient Incan citadel of Machu Picchu. Because we arrive so early (around 6am), we are able to take a few tourist-free shots of the landmark. By 10am, the mountain is coated in tourists; nearly 2500 people visit Machu Picchu each day. This is likely to increase now that Machu Picchu was recently elected one of the "New 7 Wonders." Despite the crowds, the view is awe-inspiring, and we climb to the lower terraces to soak in some wonder and to read "The Heights of Machu Picchu," a poem by Neruda.

This one is something of a crazy Super-8 ad. Notice the Super-8 camera in the bottom left corner capturing a time-lapse of the sun rising over the city.


Here is where I followed a herd of llamas through the labrynthine city.

And the rest... although they all appear to be postcards, I swear I took them myself!

Los Trenes de Aguas Calientes - June 29th

We finish our trek in Ollantaytambo, the site of one of many Incan fortresses in this region. At Ollantaytambo Station we wait for the arrival of the Vistadome train to Aguas Calientes (or Machu Picchu Pueblo as the tour guides like to call it).


As the name suggests, the Vistadome has muchas buenas vistas of the high jungle.


This, or the train from Cusco, is the only way to reach Aguas Calientes, the portal to Machu Picchu. It´s full of tourists from around the world, ready to "bag" the greastest known Incan ruin.

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Aguas Calientes is a horrible town full of pastey tourists and touts more than eager to exploit them. Fortunately, there is at least some nice train spotting to be had as the tracks run right through town.


As an alternative to the expensive gringofied tourist trains, Peruvians can take the "tren local" which doesn´t even bother stopping at the railway station but parks itself in the center of town. Unfortunately for me, I can´t really pass as Peruvian.
-Kevbot

Cusco, Incan Capital - June 24-26

We make it to Cusco, the capital of the 2nd Incan Dynasty, just in time for Inti Raymi. However, we can barely walk thanks to our 22 hour bus ride. We sleep through the evening festivities (that begin at 1am) and decide to venture out the next day for the afternoon cermonies.

Ever since the Spanish conquest in the 16th century (when Incan temples were striped of their stones and turned into cathedrals), Cusco had lost its stature as the cultural center of Peru. Pizarro opted instead for the rather unpleasant climate of Lima, although probably good for trade with Europe. Yet since the big boom of tourism in Peru, there has been a reassurgence of Andean pride and a great historical interest in this region called the "Sacred Valley."

And so we have Inti Raymi. Not only a celebration of winter soltice, the festival celebrates Cusco´s Incan history by reenacting several traditional ceremonies in full Incan regalia. The afternoon begins with a ceremony at the Plaza de Armas and then procedes to the ruins at nearby Sacsayhuamán.

Because we effectively arrive on the day of Inti Raymi, all the shops are closed, and we are unable to buy tickets for Sacsayhuamán. We get to take in most of the cermony at the plaza, the part we were able to see past the hordes of tourists that is. Apparently, we weren´t the only gringos with the idea to come to Cusco for Inti Raymi.

The Incans were particularily successful in that they allowed cultures to remain culturally indigenious as long as they served the Incan empire accordingly. Thus, we have the Cusco flag of many colors, each representing a different Andean region united under Incan rule. Although it is a celebration of diversity of sort, it´s not to be confused with the gay and lesbian flag.

Some smartly dressed Andean ladies.

Luckily, we are able to see some traditional Inti Raymi dancing at the square. The dancing is hard to describe other than it´s kind of like really acrobatic break-dancing with scissors.

One of this kid´s moves was to bite his shoe. Some very unpleasant policemen eventually chased him away.

Jen finds a really nice man who makes bags by hand.

Another street protest. This one is against Alan García, the current president. Not too many people are too happy with him as he was already proven to be extremely corrupt during his first term. Yet somehow he got elected again. Sound familiar?

The long road to Cusco - June 20-23

In Huancavelica we face a fork in the road, so to speak. We need to get to Ayacucho to begin our route to Cusco. On the map, this seems easy as Huancavelica and Ayacucho are actually quite close to each other. However, we soon learn that maps don´t always take into account the Andes and unpaved and damaged roads. We soon learn that to go to Ayacucho means three very rough trips on a series of combi buses. Also, it will likely take a full day and risk us being stuck at night waiting on the side of a road. We decide to take the longer but safer route through Huancayo. This seems a bit silly, since we just came from Huancayo, but we do the math and it makes more sense.

We grab a collectivo taxi, and once we´ve picked up enough passengers to fill up the car, we´re on our way. The driver zooms through the mountains of Huancavelica at mad speed...adding an element of excitement (and motion sickness) to a breath-taking landscape. I think it´s the most beautiful landscape I´ve seen yet. I chuckle at one point when we pass a small thatched roof house surrounded by nothing but air and mountains, yet with large graffiti reading, "Punk Lives!"

After about 3.5 hours, we arrive to Huancayo and wait for the night bus to Ayacucho. We thought this would be a smart choice, to just sleep the 10 hour trip away and wake up in our destination. Yet the road to Ayacucho is unpaved and in sore shape. We spend the whole night tossing our heads back and forth and bracing ourselves on the seat in front of us.

We spend a couple nights in Ayacucho recouperating. It´s a nice town. It´s a bit of a tourist town, but mostly for Peruvians. The first paved road from Lima only reached here in the 1999. It was also home to the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and some 60,000 people died in this region (mostly Campesinos).We do see some gringos here. Like us, they´re most likely stopping on their way to Inti Raymi in Cusco.

Next, comes the 22 hour bus ride to Cusco. The roads were only bad for the first few hours of the journey, but it was a long time to spend in a spring-poking arm chair, especially on a bus without bathrooms. But we endure and make it to Cusco the next night ...just as Inti Raymi begins.

Huancavelica - June 19th

Huancavelica is suppossedly the poorest town in Peru, so we were bracing ourselves to meet a rather tough atmosphere.

In actuality, we found it to be a quite pleasant mountain town, albeit freeeeezing.

I´m sure it is a poor town, after all it is a mining town and no one has it worse than the miners around here. My guess is that most of the visible poverty lays in the outskirts of town which we didn´t have time to explore.

And just to prove this point, we encounter a protest of campesino miners marching toward the plaza.

We´ve seen a total of 5 or 6 protest/processions already in our short time here. This leads us to inquire a bit. We find out that the regional elections are fast approaching. Each region has its own president- seemingly more important a role than a Governor, but not exactly sure how. That said, people are a lot more mobilized in terms of local politics here than back home.

Not knowing enough Spanish to really understand the issues, I can´t help but side with the campesinos anyway. No one can really argue that they don´t have something to complain about. The main mine is jointly owned and operated by the Peruvian gov´t and the EU. Somehow, thinking the EU gets a better deal than the campesinos. Besides, love those hats.

These appear to be the only gringos in town.

I venture off to document the arrival of the Tren Macho at Estación Huancavelica.

People think I´m pretty weird. They keep telling me where I can buy tickets and don´t seem to understand why anyone would want to photograph these gritty beasts.

The inside of Tren Macho.

There´s a nice trail up above the tracks full of old rail cars and debris where the campesinos seem to like to spend their time.

I like it up there too.

El Tren Macho - June 18th

We arrive early in search of the Chilca train station in Huancayo to look for passage to the small Andean town Huancavelica.

It takes us a while to find the station, but we enjoy taking in the rustic scenery.

The Huancayo-Huancavelica line is aptly dubbed "El Tren Macho."

We finally find Chilca station.

We had planned to the the Tren Ordinario, but for reasons I couldn´t quite grasp, the express train was running in its place.

The express train is called the "Autovagon." It´s something between a tram and a train. It has a single car that houses both the passengers and the engine. I imagine the small size and light weight allow it to move a bit faster along the tracks. Normal service to Huancavelica is 7 hours, but the Autovagon makes the trip in 5.

The car purrs into the station, and passengers scramble to enter and fit their bags in the limited overhead storage.

I´m pretty happy about it all. Jen says trains are one of the few things guaranteed to make me smile.

The journey begins.

We sit next to a retired school teacher who loves to eat. We share apples from Cajamarca, and she feeds us extremely sour citrus fruits of unknown origin or name.

Across from us sits an old man whose name I´ve already forgotten. He was returning from a visit to his son in Huancayo. I showed him pictures of my family, and he complained that no one called him for Father´s Day. He even had to make a trek out to his son or not see him at all. He got off by himself at Izcuchaca, a couple stops before ours, and we were a little bummed.

The views are great as we climb higher into the Andes.


More and more people get on.

It gets a bit crowded.


At one point we have to pull off onto some side rail and wait for the Tren Macho from Huancavelica to pass. There´s only one track for both directions.


Indeed, it appears a little more macho than the Autovagon

We almost don´t make the final acsent to Huancavelica. Our wheels keep spinning, and we go back and forth trying to make the hill, but slipping backwards. One solution was to sweep dirt onto the track. That seemed to work, and we made it safely into Huancavelica.

Tren al Cielo - June 15th

We arrive at 5:30 in the morning in downtown Lima to take the long-awaited Tren al Cielo. It's still dark when we enter the desolate Estación Desamparados for our departure.

Desampardos translates as "helpless," and it's an apt description of this station. Once a bustling hub connecting Lima with the rest of Peru, it now stands vacant, an archive of days gone by, save for the two departures a month of the Tren al Cielo.

We board the train crusty-eyed and prepare for the 15,600ft climb to Galera Station.

We've splurged a first-class car and the digs are pretty nice.

This also allows us access to the open-air observation car (which doubles as a bar!) at the rear of the train.

We meet Rodrigo, the man who basically runs the operation. We'd already been in touch via email, but I tell him about American Transit and he becomes our virtual guide through the rest of the journey.

The views are stupendous.

By the time we reach Galera Station, I feel like we've landed on Mars. It's incredibly eerie and surreal. We get out and explore while the train changes engines for the decent.

As we approach the mining town of La Oroya, we discover that there are miles and miles of cars and trucks lining the highways below. Rodrigo informs us the it's a blockade by the miners in protest of recent deaths and unsafe working conditions. The cars have already been stuck there for over 24 hours, and four protestors/miners had been killed by police. Basically, a good choice to take the train today.

The average life-span of a miner from La Oroya is 40 years. It's the most polluted town in Peru, and that's saying a lot. You can see the pollution in the surrounding mountains that have turned white from the lead smoke from the mines. Here's a shot as we pass through.

More later, we have to take a 22 hour bus ride through the Andes. Love, K+J