Peru

I must say I like Peru this far! Already at the airport in Lima I was very surprised of how modern it seemed, eventhough I quite immediatly met two men with cages with live chickens at the airport!! When I first heard the sound of chicken I thought it was some ironic joke, but then I saw them. And they were for real. But apart from thet everything seemed very modern and effective and people spoke English and were used to handle foreigners, something you don't see in Brasilia!

In Cusco everyone is very professional and helpful and most people speak some English, and even if they don't they have a wonderful patience with my strange mix of Portuguese, Italian and Spanish. Of course Cusco lives from tourism and need to treat their guests welll, but this is not always the case in all tourist destination. In some places you get the feeling they only want to milk as much money ouf of you as possible while you are there but don't give a damn whether you will come back or what you will tell your friends when you come back home. This feeling I didn't have in Cusco.

Not really in Aguas Calliente or Machu Picchu either, although here it is more obvious that it is a professional tourism industry. People are however still very nice.

Visit to Machu Picchu

Somehow I was a little worried that my visit to Machu Picchu would not be as nice as I had expected it to be. The train trip from Cusco to Aguas Callientes was great however. A very beautiful ride in a comfortable train with excellent service and on top of that very nice company. In my group of four seats I sat next to a Peruvian tourist guide who gave free private guiding to me and the two cute German guys sitting opposite us. The only little misshapen was that our train had to lend its engine to a meeting train that had ha engine problem, which delayed us about one hour. But so far still so good. When we arrived there was somewhat of a chaos at the station with all meeting porters from the hotels, no one from my hotel though. But as I knew it would be very close to the station and that the town is tiny I thought it could not be so difficult to find. At the beginning I just followed all the others that went in the same direction, but after a while I asked a lady how pointed me in the other direction. On the way she pointed a small local man came up and asked me what I was looking for and offered to go with me there and carry my bag. When someone does that you tend to believe that they know where you want to go. It turned out he had no idea and had to ask several times and led me in wrong directions several times. By this time it had started to rain so when I finally arrived to the hotel I was soaked and not happy. Not happier to learn that I could not access my room yet. For a while I hesitated whether I really should go up to Machu Picchu today or wait until tomorrow, but decided to go anyway. Who knows what tomorrow brings and I also had a prepaid lunch for today. After having bought the entrance ticket in one place and the bus ticket in another I finally got on the bus and was on the way. And the rain still pored down.

I felt a bit stressed and all wet both from rain and sweat and felt I was not in the mood I would have liked to have going there, but I decided to start with my lunch and gather some more energy and then enter. While eating I kind of had the feeling things would get better and I even felt sure the rain would stop and the sky clear. Funnily that is exactly what happened, when I had finished my meal and left the restaurant the sun shone!

Entering the area and starting climbing up to where you can look down at Machu Picchu is truly magic! So beautiful and magnificent! Somehow the game between rain and sun also made it more magical, with the mist rising from the hills and rainbows in the valley below, fantastic!! So, after all, the visit was just as great as expected.

Morning in Cusco

Early morning and sitting at  my hotel in Cusco looking out over Plaza de Armas and wondering what to do today. Shall I take a guided city tour, take a longer tour to the Sacres Valley, or just walk around the city at will? Still feel a little tired, have a soar throat and headache and might have a light fever so energy is not as high as could have been.
But nevertheless I really like Cusco and realise it would have been nice to stay here for a longer time and go trekking, rafting and hiking etc. But well, I will have to come back.