The Ride to Machu Picchu – Part 2

Day 172 Thursday 16^th September – Day 174 Saturday 18^th September

Day 2:

Around 5:30 we got up and headed towards Santa Teresa. The road to Santa Teresa led along the Rio Vilcanota and was demanding. The buzzing of the jungle was still as loud as the night before and the dusty and rocky road reminded me of the Death Road in Bolivia. To the right was the mountain and to the left 100m deep and very steep precipice to the Rio Vilcanota. Lorenz drove slowly and with great concentration and honked as usual before each curve with poor visibility. The background of valley sharply cut by the river was dominated by the 6264m high Salkantay. The scenery was incredible and the brief hour drive for 30km even more impressive than the high mountains of the previous day.

Overlooking the valley with Salkantay Mountain and the buzzing jungle sounds

That’s our path. Good we did not take it yesterday night [in the dark]. And this sound again, it’s weird. Let’s go.

Car coming

River crossing

Mm hey wait… the water is probably pretty deep…Oh the backpack. Be careful!

We saw in the distance Santa Teresa and were taken by surprise. The place looked chic, there have been asphalted road and everywhere there were places for gringos like pizza restaurants, hostels and bars. The reason that the popular Salkantay trail and the Jungle Trail is making a stop here and spend the night before heading the next day to Agua Calientes, the gateway to Machu Picchu. We had agreed to put the bike at a friend of the lender, who ran a small inn along with camping. After some difficulties to find the place (with the name Inca. How surprising for the area) and in between were several times chased by a dog, we parked our bike, and we had brought with us breakfast. Apart from a Salkantay trek group there was a little monkey playing around. He tried to look for food everywhere but he was so spoiled that he broke apart the Oreos and only tasted the sweet filling and the cookie decadent scorned. Now we needed to reach Hydroelectrica, after we turned down an offer for 10 € for the short trip from the hostel, we headed after 20 meters towards the center and had someone that would drive us to Hydroelectrica for 3, -. With us was a Brazilian named Gabriella in the car and we drove to the hydroelectric power station from where we had to walk the 12km in the direction of Aguas Calientes.

Motorcycle-hunting dog in Santa Teresa

We walked the beautiful route along the railroad tracks. From below you could see after a few kilometers of foothills of the ruins of Machu Picchu located 600m higher. After just over 2.5 hours hiking in considerable heat, we reached Aguas Calientes, the city made for the visitors of Machu Picchu. It was built only for tourists and correspondingly high prices, but also the selection of hotels, restaurants, etc.. We ate sandwiches and brought one of our booked the bus. The ticket to Machu Picchu cost about 17 € (student price) and the bus up is $ 7 one way. You can walk as well, but we ran out of time and after the 11km we were not really tempted by a 600m climb. As we arrived at the entrance of Machu Picchu we joined one of the many English-speaking guides. The entire cost 4 € p.P. and lasted 2 hours. The guide did his job well and explained everything very well and was entertaining. After just 2.5 hours, it was 15:00 and we had leave, we slowly walk to Machu Picchu Hydroelectrica back to where our taxi driver was waiting for us at 17:30.

Machu Picchu is incredible and has exceeded our expectations. Although we unfortunately did not enjoy it at dawn it was just as impressive in the early afternoon, like no other ruins before. The spectacular location in the steep mountains towering around the ancient Inca city (never discovered by the conquistadors!) takes your breath away and no picture can do justice about what you see when you are there. The effort had been worthwhile :).

Machu Picchu

Back we saved our money for the bus and walked the 600m distance. On the way back we hurried even more and made it almost on time to be in Hydroelectrica at 17:50. Our taxi driver was unfortunately not there. He had probably forgotten, but fortunately it was almost six and so took the train to Machu Picchu and Cuzco going straight and we managed to get a small shuttle that was even cheaper than a taxi. It was around 7 o’clock when we came back in Santa Teresa, and decided to stay there. We therefore looked for a room and went to the best hotel in the city for a cost of 11 € for a large room. The hotel had a super shower (which we needed desperately) and even a large LCD television with cable in the room. At dinner we met a German couple, who were also riding a motorcycle, but for three weeks in entire south Peru … We then went to bed early, as we had to start driving the next morning by 5 a.m. in order to beat the closing time for the construction site around 7 a.m.

Day 3:

The plan was to reach prior to 7 a.m. the construction site part of the road, merely 70 km away Around 4:40 a.m. we got up and took the bike from the lobby. It was still dark at the time of departure and so we drove the extremely carefully on the road along the Rio Vilcanota. The trip to Santa Maria was nerve-rending, there were already at this early time a few small mini buses and buses on the road. The course we had to overtake it before it is time to create the site. It was on this road (see photos Part I) course, no easy task, especially because of its vehicles that kicked up much dust behind them. We needed a relatively long time for the short route. From Santa Maria, it was then better. It had now become brighter and we could even go faster, especially since the road was wide and flat now. Although it was still unpaved, but at least we had not now to contend with loose rocks and a steep rock face without limit. We were still dusty from top to bottom. So we had managed to quickly and easily to be around 06:30 at the construction site.

Dirt road to the construction site

The mile-long construction zone, we passed through quickly, before we at the point where we have two days earlier, waited the whole afternoon, we had a short break and ate some snacks for breakfast. It had become noticeably colder as the sun was still hidden behind the mountains and we now had climbed about 1000 meters. Now we had to cross the pass again, which caused a little worries because of the colder temperatures. We went up to the 4300m high Abra Malaga Pass and it was incredibly cold and got colder with every meter. On the few sunny sections of the mountain pass we made short breaks to warm up before we went on. The view was incredible and much better than the first crossing, but we could hardly enjoy, because now our legs were numb with cold. The pass crossing took a total of 82km of which only the beginning and the end became warmer again. After about 2.5 hours drive we finally made a break in Ollantaybambo.

As we stopped off the bike I looked as if I would keep permanent damage of the crossing. I was shaking so much and uncontrollably that Lorenz was beginning to worry. Outside temperatures were warm now, but the cold was deep in our bodies. I could not stand any shadows or hints of coldness and waited a bit in the sun to warm up. We ate breakfast and it lasted a good half hour before we could continue. The rest of the day we looked at other ruins, which were certainly interesting, but we were now not really in the mood for these places. My back had by now turned into a single area of pain and so every other bump in the road or the dirt side streets was a torture. In the early afternoon we reached Tipon after we marveled at the ruins, we went there to eat cuy (guinea pig). It was a traditional restaurant where we were the only foreign tourists but still the price of a small guinea pig was almost 10 € which is in Peru a fortune for food. The guinea pig was for both of us at all nothing special. Logically, there was hardly any meat on the small rodent and the taste was not particularly special for our palate. Disappointed we were finally back in heavy traffic towards Cuzco.

Campaign on wheels

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In Cuzco, we marveled at the ruins of the fortress Saqsaywaman and brought back the bike. Of course, something had to happen and so just a few hundred meters away from the motorcycle rental the front tire blew up and Lorenz had to push the bike back very slowly. Well better here than in the middle of nowhere (which was almost all the time) even if it was something stupid though, we’ve made it on the worst roads in Peru and then in the middle of Cuzco shortly before giving the bike the tire blew …

The three-day tour was definitely a worthy farewell to Latin America and one of the best things we’ve ever done. Machu Picchu was better than I had dreamed of me and the landscape around it was at least as impressive as the Andes in Bolivia. It made the trip to Macchu Pichu even more special, rather than being packed with tourists on a bus or an expansive train…

On the same evening we booked yet our 20h journey to Lima with the bus company TEPSA for the next day. The company, which was also relatively cheap was recommended by a number of Peruvians. Especially on this long journey, there are many bus accidents and so the selection of the company was especially important here.

Circus in Santa Maria

Sunrise on Santa Maria

One of the many wooden bridges

The path to Santa Teresa

The road – The Death road was a joke in comparison

Nice

Going through deep water

not good if you have vertigo…

The way

The way

The way to Santa Teresa

The road to Santa Teresa

Monkey with probably diabet!

On the way to Hydroelectrica

On the railways

On the way to Machu Picchu

Along the railways

The surroundings

Machu Picchu on the top

Just before Aguas Calientes

Machu Picchu and the llamas

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu and the llamas

Emilie and Gabriella

The tourist train from Cusco (actually Ollantaytambo) to Macchu Pichu

Walking back on the railways

Hydroelectrica just before the sunset

The dirt road

The road under construction

Finally we are after the construction site!

Dusty Face!

Dusty face

View without clouds

Just before the pass

Funny postcard

Campaign trucks

Around Cusco

Back pain…

Tipon ruins

Eating Cuy (guinea pig)

Eating Cuy (guinea pig)

Another local dish

Cholitas

Saqsaywaman near Cusco

Saqsaywaman near Cusco

Typical drinking hostel recognizable by Irish and Australian flag

Panorama Machu Picchu

On the way down

Me on the bridge at the bottom of the ruins

Lorenz with the llamas

On the way down