cusco, aguas calientes y machupicchu
from there, we caught a bus through puno to cusco. cusco is the biggest touristy town i have been in so far. this is the town where hikers for machupicchu usually start at, so things were a little bit more pricy. but the clubs were fun, and you can still bargain with the restaurants because of the competition. getting to machupicchu with an agency costs like $300 to do the whole inca trail thing, we decided to do our own thing and we ony ended up spending about $40! the alternate route and specific directions was sent to us by enda’s friend from home who was recently there, so it was something we could all rely on.
we started our trek by taking a bus for a few hours to a town called santa maria, where we crossed a river in a little pully and then walked along a rail road for about 6 hours. we saw some ruins on the way, as well as a glimpse of machupicchu. we finally got to a town called aguas calientes, which is at the base of machupicchu. we then slept for a few hours, and woke up at 4:30 to hike up to the entrace, because the gates open at 6. we also wanted to avoid the tourist companies who shuttle people up the hill in the morning.
well..it ws pouring rain but we went up anyways, and by the time we got up the hill the gates were open and the sun was starting to shine. i have seen at least a hundred photos of it in restaurants here, but seeing it person was incredible.
there is a hike up winay picchu that allows a limited number of hikers a day, and we were fortunate enough to be one of those. at the top is a beautiful view of the machupicchu ruins!!! we spent another day in aguas calientes, and then back to cusco, where we got one hour massages for 15 pesos! (5 dollars)
carnaval has also started, which means crazy parties but also water balloons being thrown at everyone and anyone. you walk down the street and can not escape a stand trying to sell water balloons or super soakers. walking down the street means you are always looking behind your back. we didn´t know this on the first few days of it, and made the mistake of walking up an alley where we saw a bunch of mischievious looking kids. the first girl had a bucket of water, and was like, ´”do you want some water?” we were like, no…and then saw boys with super soakers and water bottles/balloons. as soon as one balloon hit, the rest came towards us, and we have never ran up hill that fast in our lives.
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