Cusco to Machu Picchu under our own steam

Cusco is a nice enough city with beautiful buildings, gardens and rich history.  But the busy streets, tooting horns, roundabouts and many people overwelmed us a bit.  We were constantly hassled by  people selling tours, food, clothes.. you name it.  We just are not city people.  We did however join a free walking tour... but as we all know, there is no such thing as a free lunch - and at the end we were hit up for a hefty tip.

We did however enjoy what comes with a big touristy town.  Reasonable coffee and a lovely dinner out but...after a day we were glad to be leaving.

The following day we rode up and out of Cuzco seeing sights most tourists don´t.

 We were amazed and disgusted at the amount of rubbish on the roadsides.  Dogs and people rummaged through it - quite sad really.

We weren´t disappointed we missed the festival where you could enjoy eating guinea pig!

We enjoyed a long downhill before we found the gravel road that took us through to Ollantaytambo.  It was closed for roadworks due to slips but these were easily passed and the roadworkers happily let us through.  It was a beautiful road through a big vallley.

We arrived Ollantaytambo about 2pm and had the most amazing coffee - the best yet in South America.  It set us up to go exploring the many Inca ruins in the hills above the town.  

We weren´t expecting much of this town but it ended up being one of our favourites.  Quiet cobbled cute streets with friendly locals often in traditional dress.  We enjoyed walking the streets and felt so relaxed there

Ready for delivery!

Can you see the Hummingbird?  Beautiful

An original Inca door

At the crack of dawn we were on the road and heading up the 2000m climb up to Abra Malaga at 4800m.  An amazing climb up gentle gradients and so many switchbacks.  We saw ladies carrying potatoes, lots of dogs and farms on very steep hillsides.  They really work hard here.

As we approached the summit, the cloud and rain rolled in and we put on our layers.  For the first 1000m descent we couldn´t see anything other than cloud and froze as we zoomed down the mountain.  As we descended the weather cleared, reavealing a beautiful tropical valley below us.  We passed several groups of MTB tours who were on full suspension bikes and wore full body armour.  They get dropped off at the top and enjoy the 3hr downhill.  It felt pretty amazing sitting on our steel framed bikes layden with gear, flying down the hill without even pedaling.  Unfortunately the downhill came to an end at Santa Maria and we had a hard climb up the gravel road to Santa Theresa.  It was a beautiful ride but we were a little concerned we wouldn´t make it before dark. Thankfully we rounded a corner and there she was.  We promptly checked into a nice Hostel.  It had been a great but long 154km over a big pass

We spent a few hours the next morning cleaning the bikes, fixing a puncture and tightening up the gears.  We headed off up the road to Hydro Electrica - it was hot and dusty but for some reason we were determined to walk and ignored the passing taxis

Bags of bananas ready for pickup

We joined the railway track and walked 2hours up to the base camp for Machu Picchu - Aguas Calientes.  It was tropical.

We paid our 50USD entrance fee to Machu Picchu and then found a reasonable hostel.  We went out for some traditional Peruvian food and were sorely disappointed.  It seems the locals in this town are only out to rip off tourist.  We had an early night before the alarm went off at 4am.  We wanted to be early to the entrance gate that opened at 5am.  We were not alone, but found ourselves about 20th in the queue.  We were let through these gates and walked up the steep stone steps to the next entrance gates that opened at 6am.  As expected we put the hammer down and were first through the gates at 6am.  It was so nice to see the sun rise, the fog lift and have the place almost to ourselves.

We spent the morning exploring the full extent of the ruins. We were both surprised at how big it was and didn´t want to miss out on anything.  

 We were pleased we made the effort to climb up and around to see the Inca Bridge. OMG, you had to see it to believe it.   

We had also purchased a ticket to climb Machu Picchu Mountain to see the ruins from high above.  It was a very hot and tiring climb but it was Incaredible!

As we do... we skipped and laughed our way down again and our calves paid for it for the next few days.

By the time we got back down to the main area, the crowds had arrived and the place was heaving with American tourists... time to leave.  We walked back into town to get our bag and reluctantly walked back down the railway to Santa Theresa.  We had intended to take the train, but at 88Soles when the locals pay 5Soles, we couldn´t bring ourselves to pay.

We enjoyed another night in Santa Theresa before heading off on the gravel road back to Santa Maria.  We had a few unexpected surprises on the road out ....not all pleasant!

We decided to take a local taxi back up the 3000m climb to Abra Malaga and were looking forward to the downhill on the other side... but it was pouring with rain at the top and our driver convinced us to stay in the taxi until Ollantaytambo.

What a great few days we had had.  A highlight of our trip.