In the land of Incas

After successfully entering Peru on the 20th of December, and having been suggested by the border guard to fake ourselves a document that we have actually bought our bike (as we do not have any actual proof that we did, as we never even saw the "owner") because we will not be able to leave the country without that document, we headed towards Cuzco. I was a bit afraid to get there right before Christmas because it is not just another town on the road.

There are many ruins also in Cuzco and right around it. One of the ways of reaching them is on a horse. 

Cuzco is the biggest city (400,000 people, elevation 3,400m) close to the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu. And Machu Picchu, of course is probably the most famous sight that almost everyone who visits the continent feels like they can't do without. Because of that, Cuzco is literally the most touristic place you can go,  so especially around Christmas and New Year many people want to be right in that city. So the first idea was to drive through Cusco before Christmas, visit MP and be close to the coast by New Years.

But when we got there, then we actually found such a lovely hostel (nice owners, wifi, kitchen, space for motorbike, private room, good price. the only downside being that the water was always kind of lukewarm, which is not ideal in the crisp climate of the mountains) and we also made friends with some people we liked,  who were staying in the hostel for Christmas. So before we knew it, we were organising an Estonian-style Christmas dinner for most of the people in the hostel (there were only eleven in the whole hostel at that point).

Our Christmas dinner

Although there were some bumps on the way of making it - there was no oven for the pork roast, we accidentally bought sweet potato instead of the normal one for the mashed potatoes and I put the sauerkraut to marinate way too late,  the end-product was pretty good and our international crew of judges,  consisting of a British/Irish, an American, a Colombian, a Bolivian and an Ethiopian approved. The celebrations were quite long, especially because on the 24th they also have some fireworks at midnight and celebrations go on for a while.

An example of Incan stonework.

The next morning (after four hours of sleep) we headed towards Aguas Calientes, which is the small town that is directly besides the mountain on top of which lies Machu Picchu. Now, the tricky part is that there are no public roads going to Aguas Calientes. They like to make you believe that the only way is to no go by a (very scenic) train from Cuzco. That means 60 US dollars each way (on top of Machu Picchu itself also costing at least 50 dollars) which will add up to being quite a lot. And if you can not climb the 1,5km of stairs that take you 500m higher from the base of the mountain to the gates of Machu Picchu, you will pay an additional 12 dollars each way to go there from Aguas C. With these buses going up practically every 5 minutes... I really hope that all the money at least goes into making something better in Peru, not into some private hands. That is a lot. At high season there is a chance that you can't get into MP because they have already filled their daily limit, which is 2500 people a day (most of them using the 120 dollar train and the 24dollar bus)

There actually are other ways to go to Aguas C. as well. You can take one of the multi-day treks that takes you over mountains and through valleys,  but we didn't feel so sporty, so we took a 6-hour bus ride, that goes around all the mountains of MP (amazing views in the high mountains) to 'Hidroelectrica' , which is basically the closest spot that the public roads reach to Aguas Calientes (and Machu Picchu). From there you can follow the train tracks for 11km (walking) and voila... you have saved a lot of money (the bus to Hidroelectrica is 17 dollars for the return ticket).We could have gone to Hidroelectrica by motorbike as well but that would have meant leaving it in a quite random place for two days plus that would have been all days drive each way.

The walk on rails between Hidroelectrica and Aguas Calientes

Now, as we were climbing the stairs up, to finally see the world wonder, I was preparing myself for a disappointment. I had read many articles about it being kind of disappointing and people expected more and also people talking about it being unimpressive and whatnot. At what point in their lives did these people fall from a very high place directly on their head? What does it take to impress them?

First of all, the location - on three sides it has 500m of natural straight cliffs going down,  creating a natural fortress. On the fourth side it is a bit more easily reachable, but when it was built, probably still nearly impossible, as the current road for the buses is not something the Incas had. There are also two "inca trails" going up to the fortress  (built as a place for the Inka elite to escape when things got bad) - on one side, the 'trail' runs along the side of the same 400m drop cliff and has a 'bridge', consisting of hole in the path that can only be crossed using the two planks going over it,  that they could easily move if needed (making it impossible for anyone to enter their mountain fortress). The other path(s) leading in were also narrow and easily defendable. And of course the cliff-looking mountain that MP is on, is also surrounded by similar looking ones on the other side of Urubamba river which runs around the hill, which create amazing views. 

Secondly, thete is the city itself - you can see a lot of the famously good Incan stonemasonry, when huge chunks of rock have been cut to exactly sit on top of each other, so that there is virtually no gap (corners cut into stones etc). And they had built steps out of stone for the fields and systems to direct the rainwater exactly where they needed it. So everything was very well planned and thought through. You could look out of the windows of the Incans and see the same view that they did. Plus it offered scenic views being on hundreds of different levels with stairs connecting them.

One of the trails into Machu Picchu

And what is more amazing is that the Spanish colonisers never discovered the ruins while they were exploring the country and therefore didn't destroy them. Of course they were not in a perfect shape when the first whites "discovered it" (the locals of the area knew of its existence all the time), it was all abandoned and overgrown with the lush nature of the area (it rains a lot so the nature is very green), noone was living there except for one family (who had come quite recently) who were using some of the fields and buildings. It had almost become one with the nature before they restored it partly.

You can't see it ion the picture but there is actually a trail that goes along that cliff - one of the entrance roads to Machu Picchu

But I have to say that what is amazing,  is not only Machu Picchu by itself, but it is also what surrounds it. It is in an amazing place, between green and lush mountains and valleys which contain ruins (Incan and even pre-Incan) everywhere you look. Such rich ancient culture behind every corner.  Most of the other ruins are not very well-known unfortunately but there are said to be ruins just as impressive as Machu Picchu. The whole Incan kingdom area (stretching further than Peru's borders even) is a treasure chest of history, living in harmony with the nature, being build to blend in with the nature,  and unique craftmanship with places with such a strong energy that I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

When we visited MP, we did miss a bit on the views, as it was the rainy season and there were almost constant clouds and fog between and on  and around the mountains so we never saw the full 'postcard view' that you see when you see any picture of MP. And most of the time we didn't see the surrounding mountains or the ground. But it was still very much worth it. We went in and around twice, as there are some stupid systems, where they don't allow you to go back from some places - they have 'circuits' that you can take, but noone actually knows about them so you can easily discover that you have missed half of the whole thing (of course it happened to us as well) so we went in for the second time to see some more. On the second go, there were almost no people compared to the first time, so it was much more peaceful and magical plus there were chinchilla-like animals all over the ruins jumping around, who came out after most of the people had left. When you started looking around you could see tens of them in each direction minding their own business, in addition to the llamas and alpacas roaming around because lawnmowers would be quite inappropriate up there. 

After the excessive walking of MP for several days and a day of rest in Cuzco, we discovered that New Year's Eve was too close for leaving anyways. So we decided to stay in Cuzco, since we also had some old and new friends staying in the hostel for the celebrations.

Exploring the colorful hills around Cuzco with some new friends

On the 30th of December, our life took a sudden change and instead of living in a quiet and cozy hostel with just a few beds filled, it was suddenly full if people. Even our tv room had its floor covered in people on mattresses  by the actual 31st. The party was big in Cuzco, with streets full of people with yellow accessories (it is believed that wearing yellow underwear on the change of year brings you luck. but everything yellow goes nowadays) and loads of fireworks.

When the New Year's fireworks had faded (they actually never did completely) , we decided to head straight across the country towards the sea for a change of scenery. By that point we had been up in the mountains for almost two months and the last time that we saw sea had been in the middle of July (I think it must have been the longest time in my life without seeing sea) so we were eager to get some warm weather and fresh seafood. The seafood thing goes mostly about me. Erik,  being a former seafood hater, has had to suffer my seafood craziness going on since Copacabana, Bolivia. 

Of course we had to climb up to more than 4000m three times more (each time dropping down to 2000 in between) before we could get down from the hills. It was not just around the corner. At one point we had been driving at the hight of 4600m for almost an hour already, because we were on a sort of a plateau and getting occasional rain and hail; plus the wind is unstoppable on these high plateaus as well, so we were freezing, despite all the clothes we were wearing (snow on surrounding mountains). So we stopped the bike, climbed into a ditch by the road and pressed ourselves against the slightly warm concrete walls of the ditch just to warm up a little bit.

Trying to defreeze

But when we suddenly started going down from the ladt mountain,  the weather started going warmer with every kilometre and the air thicker, so it was actually a bit strange to breathe a first - there was just too much oxygen in the air . The nature also changed, as now we were surrounded by rocks and sand everywhere you looked. All the way since leaving the mountains, the only green sections have been around rivers (every inch used for fields) , as it almost never rains in this area because of the same current that brings the dry winds to Atacama desert. We never would have believed it but Starcraft actually took us all the way over the Andes. We had almost no hope in him when we first bought him (and everyone were telling us that it is impossible to cross the mountains with anything that small) but he is tougher than he looks and he did do it.

4600m meters from sea level - never thought that Starcraft would take us this high

Nazca was the first stop back in warmer climate. The place is known for shapes in the desert made by moving stones from one place to another just after year 0. The shapes are generally animals and insects and have lasted in the area for all this time thanks to not really having rain to shift the ground around. They tell you that you simply must take a plane ride to even grasp them and anything else is pointless. The truth is that the watchtower built between three of the pictures gives you a pretty good idea of what the other ones would as well (in other words, we were too cheap to do the plane thing) . But they are very difficult to notice from the ground level, which is also proven by the fact that they managed to build a road through one of the pictures before their existence was even discovered. They just didn't notice a huge shape of a lizard drawn on the ground.

One of Nazca lines

We also visited Paracas, which is a little town on the beach, with prices quite high and the whole town living on tourism. It was nice to chill over there for a couple of days but since I get tired of going to beach quite fast and Erik doesn't care for it at all, we continued up the coast towards Lima.

Paracas beach

The whole way up towards Lima was quite surreal. Everything was sand and dunes and small hills (virtually no trees or plants, except around the few rivers) . In some places there were villages in the middle of all this, made up from little huts that actually had people living in them, in some places, the fields were covered in small huts made of stone - maybe a maximum of two-three meters wide both ways. And the houses were empty of people with no facilities or anything. Don't get me wrong, we have seen similar failed attempts to re-locate in many more places and the failed ones are always at a ridiculous distance from any city or place of population (why even build these pointless houses there? ) . But these ones looked plain idiotic. Who would want to live on a field of sand, surrounded by only mountains of sand, far from anything? We also saw some areas of villas, that looked like white tumours on the side of the rock walls above the sea but the weirdest place we saw was where we spent the night.

Palpa lines - even older than Nazca lines (before Christ)

We had found a place on iOverlander (irreplaceable app when traveling by moto/car) that claimed there to be a safe and free place to camp on a beach in a town. When we turned off the highway some time before our camping beach, we were first greeted by hundreds of white houses in rows that all looked exactly the same. There were playgrounds and roads, all very nice and clearly made for richer kind of people, with guards on gates and flowers between houses. But I repeat again - all the houses looked like exact copies of each other and a small handful of people lived in the whole complex/town.  So it was basically an empty rich ghost town. 

Close by, there was another town that we stayed in. This town looked more like a real tourist town - white sanded beach and the streets made up of only hotels and restaurants. Rows and rows of restaurants and rows and rows of hotels but... there were no tourists. None. Noone to buy their overpriced foods,  noone to explore their streets especially built for tourists.

Lima

Now we have made it to Lima where we stayed for a couple of nights to make some big fixes for the bike. We even visited the beach but didn't go into the water because it was dark red/brown with orange/yellow foam. Can't see it on the picture because the blue sky reflecting on it makes it look blue. But tomorrow we will continue up north, away from Lima. The problem is that everything interesting is back up high in the mountains... I am trying to speak Erik out of going at the moment because I have missed warm weather so much. 

And we are still feeling tired all the time because of recieving so much new information every day and right now we are thinking more about resting than exploring. We'll try to find a balance

Lima beach. Can't really tell the color of the sea from this distance 

Compared to Bolivia, the life is a bit easier - we can buy fuel anywhere we want to, the food is a bit more varied (although they still eat everything with rice) and the people a bit more polite.

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