There are so many fascinating places in the world. I think Machu Picchu is all the more so because it takes some effort to get tere and see it.
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7 Wonders of the World Friday, July 11, 2008
On the 7th July last year (07.07.07) the The New7Wonders Foundation announced the list of The New 7 Wonders of the World. The list was the result of over 100 million votes from all over the world. The announcement took place in Lisbon in Portugal, at the Benfica Stadium.
Of the original list of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, only one now remains, the Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt. The original 7 Wonders were: * Great Pyramid of Giza * Hanging Gardens of Babylon * Statue of Zeus at Olympia * Temple of Artemis at Ephesus * Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus * Colossus of Rhodes * Lighthouse of Alexandria
The new list, from New7Wonders, announced in Lisbon is as follows: * Pyramid at Chichén Itzá, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico * Christ The Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil * Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy * Great Wall of China, China * Machu Picchu, Peru * Petra, Jordan * Taj Mahal, Agra, India
This means that there is one glaring omission from my list, being the Pyramid at Chichén Itzá. If I add this to my list, when complete it will mean that I have seen all Seven Wonders of the World.
So, as "Fly-By-Wire" in New Zealand has now closed down, as mentioned in the blog a couple of days ago here, I have now removed that from the 100 list, and replaced it with "Chichén Itzá, Mexico"
The other Finalists for the New7Wonders were as follows: * Acropolis of Athens, Athens, Greece * Alhambra, Granada, Spain * Angkor, Cambodia * Statues of Easter Island, Easter Island, Chile * Eiffel Tower, Paris, France * Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey * Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan * Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow, Russia * Neuschwanstein Castle, Schwangau, Germany * Pyramids of Giza, Egypt * Statue of Liberty, New York City, U.S.A. * Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom * Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia * Timbuktu, Mali
I have seen 4 of these, and have 3 more of them on my list, so there is still plenty of scope for something to add to my list after 100goals is finished!
There may be trouble ahead ... Thursday, January 28, 2010
With my Easter Island goal well and truly achieved, I have been enjoying my time on the island, practicing my Spanish with Andres, and riding around on his scooter checking out things I haven't seen yet. I have also spent a bit of time catching up on emails and website tasks which I have let slip a little recently.
While checking my email yesterday I got one from Val, who I meet up with again very soon in Cuzco in Peru. He suggested that my next goal, our trip up to Cuzco and onwards to see Machu Picchu may present us with some serious challenges. He sent me a news link which reports that heavy rains and mudslides have blocked the train route that we will be taking, stranding tourists there, and causing the government to declare an emergency!! People were being airlifted out, and we are wanting to get in within the week. Oh dear!
"This year is absolutely atypical. This situation hasn't occurred in the last 15 years. ... the river has never been so high," Tourism and Foreign Commerce Minister Martin Perez said at a news conference.
What timing! More at Yahoo News here. Oh well, nothing we can do about it until we get there and see what the situation is. It has been suggested that Machu Picchu will be closed until the 8th February, and our flight out of Cuzco is on the morning of the 9th, so maybe all is not lost!
However, these pictures suggest otherwise - that railway is certainly going to be tricky to repair:-
I once read that if you are worried about something, there are two possibilities:- 1). You can do something about it - if so then get on and start doing something! 2). You can't do anything about it - then you may as well stop worrying!! I think that this certainly falls into the category of "There's not much I can do about that at the moment!"
So, in the meantime, I still plan to enjoy my last couple of days on Easter Island, and then a couple of days in Peru's capital, Lima.
Last night Andres took me on a bit of a tour, and we explored a couple of caves that I didn't know about. One was very interesting, with a tiny little crawl-hole entrance, leading to a cavern which split into two, each branch opening out in a spectacular window halfway up the seacliff, looking out over the ocean.
This morning I headed out on the scooter to the foot of Terevaka, the highest volcano peak on the island. I climbed towards the summit, and teamed up with Janet and Jose, mum and son from Santiago who were just ahead of me.
At the windy summit the horizon was a bit cloudy and hard to see, but the view on a clear day must be awesome. You can see the whole island, and then beyond in every direction, nothing but the vast Pacific Ocean. Easter Island is so incredibly isolated. The nearest populated land is Chile, 3,510 kilometres away to the east, and to the west the next populated place is Tahiti, at around 4,000 kilometres distance. It was a bit hard to make out today, but apparently the curvature of the Earth is easily discernable from the summit.
This afternoon it was back to more immediate practical matters, as I had nowhere to sleep tonight. Andres's sister and brother-in-law return home today, after a week on duty at the fire station, and the house is full once again, so I need to find alternative accomodation. At least I had the scooter for the afternoon to go searching!
My first port of call was a campsite I had spotted down by the beach, pretty close to Andres's house. I had soon managed to rent a tent for a couple of nights, and got myself settled in and connected to their wi-fi.
Machu Pichu misery. Tuesday, February 2, 2010
My goal of seeing Machu Picchu has increaced in difficulty, it would seem almost to the point of being impossible. A week or so ago the Cusco and Machu Picchu area suffered torrential downpours, resulting in mudslides and avalanches throughout the region. On the Inca Trail, the four-day trek leading to Machu Picchu, a local guide and a tourist were killed by a mudslide. Th Inca Trail has now been closed.
The railway line which connects Cusco with Aguas Calientes, the town which is the base for visiting Machu Picchu, runs along the banks of the River Urubamba, and large sections of rail have been swept away, effectively cutting off the town of Aguas Calientes. Tourists and locals had to be airlifted out of Aguas Calientes over a period of days as weather closed in again, and food and water supplies ran out.
It is now estimated that the rail line will take around two months to repair, and Machu Picchu has been closed, for an estimated similar period of time.
My visit to Machu Picchu has been planned to fit nicely between seeing Easter Island and the Carnival in Rio in mid February, with a stop off on the way for a quick visit to Iguazu falls. And so I have had my flights all booked since the end of November, from Santiago to Lima, Lima to Cusco, and then on the 9th of February, from Cusco to Lima and on to Buenos Aires.
Over the past few days I have heard nothing but words of warning, and messages of doom and gloom regarding my chances of getting to see Machu Picchu, and the realistic side of me has to agree, it does seem like an impossible task under the current circumstances.
However, as I had already paid for my tickets, and any change will incur heavy penalties, I decided to continue on to Cusco, and see how the situation looked when I got there. As always, I try to maintain a positive outlook, and hope for the best. I also tend to think that you have to look at the problem from all sides, and seek an alternative option that others may not consider. I have a couple of ideas that are worth investigating, and haven't given up on this goal yet!
It's only a short flight from Lima, and I arrived in Cusco at around 11am, and made my way to Ronnie's apartment. Ronnie is another couchsurfing contact that my friend Val got in touch with, and he is kindly accomodating us for our stay in Cusco. Val is scheduled to arrive a couple of days after me, so my task now is to try to find some way of resolving our Machu Picchu dilemma.
Cusco itself was also hit by flooding, but as I have wandered around town this afternoon, it is hard to tell, as all seems to have returned to normal now, apart from some obvious places where water has pulled away alot of earth, or part of a pathway.
The city is very eyecatching, with green mountains on all sides. I was surprised to find that it is much bigger than I expected, and I discovered that around 500,000 people live here. At an altitude of 3,400 metres (I think that's around 11,000 feet) it is one of the highest cities in the world.
I wandered around taking photos of the city squares and ornate cathedrals and churches, ate in a tiny cafe, and wandered some more, and then attended to practical matters, and took most of my clothes to a nearby laundry for some much needed cleaning.
I had a long chat with Ronnie about Machu Picchu possibilities, and also did some research around town. More news to follow if and when we get anything organised!
Mal de altura! Thursday, February 4, 2010
I would have had a great day in Cusco yesterday if it wasn't for the awful altitude sickess that made the day pretty miserable. At over 11,000 feet above sea level, it is a very sudden change from Lima, and on my arrival day, apart from a little dizziness and plenty of huffing and puffing walking along anything but flat ground, I thought I was going to be fine.
However, as evening approached I started to develop a bit of a headache, and went to bed fairly early. I had a very restless night, sleeping very little, and feeling somewhat feverish. Yesterday morning I felt truly dreadful, and after a quick chat with Ronnie and his brother Willy, who had booked me a tour in the afternoon, I went straight back to bed.
I felt much better when I woke again, and walked into the city centre to catch the tour bus. The tour was very interesting, taking in five Inca locations in and around town, but at the first hint of uphill walking, my head was pounding again. I hadn't eaten much, and really didn't feel like anything at all.
As the tour progressed we climbed higher into the hills around Cusco, and the views of the city were fantastic, but now at over 12,000 feet I found it hard to be very interested at all. I was simply longing for a headache tablet and my bed. It is hard to describe just how awfully debilitating altitude sickness can be.
I managed to force a sandwich down with a cup of coffee on the last stop of the tour, and I felt a little better by the time we got back down at Cusco. In the first pharmacy I found I bought some tablets for "mal de altura", and an hour later felt fine. I managed some dinner, and had an early night.
I woke at 6am, and felt absolutely marvellous. I had another altitude tablet just to be sure, and headed for the airport to meet Val, who was coming in on the early flight from Lima. I have been looking forward to joining up with Val again, as I had such a good couple of weeks with him and his friends in Colorado back in August last year.
We dropped his bags off at Ronnie's, and went for some breakfast and a quick walk around the city. Continuing our Machu Picchu research, we called into a couple of tour operators to ask about the possibility of getting there. Most responses today were very negative, and the tourist information office in the city centre gave us a very definate "No way!"
We found one agent that was a little more encouraging, but had nothing definite to offer. Back at Ronnie's he seemed much more positive about getting to Aguas Calientes, but from there says that he can make no promises, as the bridge which crosses the river there was possibly going to be demolished, as it has suffered so much damage. If the bridge is gone there is no way across to the Machu Picchu side of the river at all.
So we really have no idea how this may all pan out, but as of this moment the plan is to set off early tomorrow and try to get to Santa Maria by bus, from there by car to Santa Teresa, car again if possible to Hidro Electrica, and then trek along what remains of the rail line to Aguas Calientes. This section may involve some detours into the jungle around missing or flooded sections of line, but we hope to get to Aguas Calientes by the end of the day. It is certainly going to be a challenge and an adventure, to say the least, as we will be some of the first people to try to do this since disaster struck, and nobody knows how bad things are yet on this route.
Obviously I don't intend to take the computer with me, so if all goes according to plan, and we set off early tomorrow, this will be that last blog for a few days, until we return to civilisation!!
Goal 75 - Machu Picchu challenges!! Sunday, February 7, 2010
On the evening before our departure our couchsurfing host and potential guide unfortunately had to pull out of our expedition to try to see Machu Picchu. He had been conducting enquiries with officials throughout the day to try to get the latest information, and had been told that the whole area is closed to tourists. Furthermore, any guide now bringing tourists into the area against official regulations may be subject to arrest, and potentially lose their guiding permit. We fully understood Ronnie's decision not to take us, but decided that we would still make the journey ourselves, and see how far we could get.
As an overview, this diagram shows the lie of the land around the Cusco and Machu Picchu area. It is not to scale, or cartographically accurate, but is a fairly good guide:-
There are only three ways to get to Machu Picchu: by train via the railway from Ollantaytambo, on foot via the railway line from Hidro Electrica, both options leading to Aguas Calientes, the town from which you would be able to climb up to Machu Pichu. The only other option is by foot via the Inca Trail. The Inca Trail has been closed since two people died in a mudslide in the recent downpours. The railway line from Ollantaytambo was destroyed by the swollen river, and so it appeared that our best option was to try to get to Hidro and walk in from there.
DAY 1
So armed with as much information as Ronnie could give us, Val and I were up early, and took a taxi in the rainy dawn to the northern bus station, and eventually got a ride in a combi-shared-minibus to Santa Maria. The journey took around five hours, over the most incredibly steep, twisting, turning mountain roads. It rained most of the way, and the road was crumbling away in some places, and huge streams washed over it in others. The drop-off over the edge was dizzying. It was quite a white-knuckle ride!
The tarmac changed to rutted gravel roads as we descended into the jungle once more, and eventually we arrived at Santa Maria, a tiny town hidden in a valley seemingly miles from anywhere. We had some lunch, and got talking to an Argentinian guy who had tried a couple of days before to get to Aguas Calientes, and had run into many problems even getting up to Hidro. His Peruvian guide suggested an alternative route to us, which we made note of.
We found a taxi prepared to take us over the next mountain, along with a couple of locals too, but we had to wait for about an hour or so while graders worked way up on the hillside trying to unblock the road, which had been buried under a huge mudslide earlier in the day. Our taxi driver eventually gave up, and we took a much longer alternate route.
On the way we ran into a mudslide across our road, but with the minimum of fuss, or driver and occupants from a following minibus set-to with picks, and before long our driver had his car up and over the road blockage.
The minibus didn't fare so well, and got well and truly stuck, taking around an hour to get him back down off the top of the muddy slope. The amazing can-do attitude of everyone involved was wonderful to be part of. However, as the minibus couldn't climb the obstacle, we had to leave them to return to Santa Maria, and our little group pressed on to Santa Teresa.
There we found a little hostel, and dropped our bags off before wandering around the town, and going to see the huge muddy-brown fast-flowing river.
I somehow managed to get chatting to the local police, and in broken Spanish managed to explain what we were trying to do, and where we wanted to go. "No chance!" was my understanding of their friendly, but firm response. I asked about the alternate route that the Argentinian guy had suggested, and one of the policemen made a phone call. Again, in no uncertain terms he told us that it was very dangerous, that there had been many mudslides in the area, and that the bridge at the end of our planned alternate route was no longer there. At least I think that's what he told me!
At dinner in a small restaurant in town we chatted to a couple of locals who had just walked out of Aguas Calientes that afternoon, and said that both the railway, and the alternate route to Hidro were fine, and quite safe to walk.
Encouraged by local knowledge, we decided to press ahead with our plan, ignoring police advice, and got an early night.
DAY 2
Rising early, we managed to avoid being spotted by the police as our taxi driver took us out of town, and an hour or so later he dropped us at a place called Lucmabamba, little more than a couple of shacks in the middle of the jungle, and pointed us to the start of an alternate part of the Inca Trail.
Our idea was to trek over the top of the mountain, passing an Inca site called Llactapata, from which if the weather was clear, it would be possible to see Machu Picchu. We had decided that this was the option that gave us the greatest possibility of actually seeing Machu Picchu, even if eventually we couldn't get there.
We climbed steeply uphill on a pretty decent path for a couple of hours, and eventually crossed to the other side of the mountain, and started down, reasonably confident that we were on the right path, but worried that we may not see anything because of low cloud cover.
But we were incredibly lucky, and the clouds parted, and through a clearing there it was - Machu Picchu clearly visible across the valley. It was a wonderful moment, as despite all claims that it was impossible to do, all suggestions that we would be better trekking elsewhere, and all of the dire warnings from the police, we had managed to do the seemingly impossible! And we hadn't seen another soul since leaving Lucmabamba! We may have been the only people to see Machu Picchu this day!
The path down was muddy and slippy, but there were no signs of the huge mudslides the police had warned us of, and in the valley the footbridge was in fine condition. Either I had mis-understood the police, or they had been somewhat untruthful to try to discourage us. I suspect the latter to be the case.
We followed the trail along to Hidro Electrica, and wandering past two security guards without a hitch, thinking all was going to be well, and we only had two more hours along the track to go!
But around the next corner we came upon a checkpoint manned by three policemen, who were very clear that we could go no further! They were soon backed up by two more armed National Policia, who were friendly, but very firm. We chatted with them for an hour or so, trying in my best Spanish to convince them that we had a friend in Aguas Calientes to stay with, and that I was a reporter. Nothing worked, even the offer of a backhander in US Dollars!!
Eventually we had to give up, and joined a group of four locals who were heading down to Santa Teresa. We were somewhat mystified when our group turned off and crossed the river, heading up a tiny trail into the jungle, instead of following the main road down. However, all became clear half an hour later as we rounded a bend in the river, and on the other side could see that the road had simply collapsed into the river and been washed away. It would have been impossible to pass the devastated area.
The route through the jungle took about two hours, and were amazed to find that the crossing back to the other side was in a tiny cart suspended on a cable high above the raging river. What a thrilling end to our journey! Once at the rough road we all piled into a taxi, and headed down once again to Santa Teresa.
This is how the rickety wire bridge looked:-
From there we discovered that the road to Santa Maria was blocked again, and took a minibus taxi to Quillabamba, in the opposite direction to where we needed to go, but at least on clear roads.
Quillabamba turned out to be an amazing place when we got there. Hidden away in the jungle, it seemed to be a busy, thriving city, teeming with people, and filled with trendy shops selling fashion clothing and expensive electrical items. How did such a place come to be there, seemingly in the middle of nowhere?
We decided to stay overnight, and went out around the town to eat, and for a couple of beers. For two days we hadn't seen a single other tourist or traveller, and in the bar we were quizzed by many of the curious and friendly locals as to what we were doing and where we had been.
DAY 3
The last day of our adventure was a long, six hour minibus journey back to Cusco, highlighted by the fact that the bridge at Ollantaytambo was now being washed away, and no vehicles were able to pass. We had to walk across the rather precarious bridge to get into another minibus at the other side, while his passengers heading the opposite way did the same.
All in all, it has been the most fantastic three days, and was exactly what Val and I had wanted, more of an expedition than a tour. We were both disappointed that we hadn't managed to get to Aguas Calientes, and ultimately to Machu Picchu, but were both extremely proud to have actually managed to see the place, which looks incredible. This way, I have managed to achieve the goal of seeing Machu Picchu, and yet have the opportunity to return one day and do the whole Inca Trail, and see the place again in a different manner, hopefully under much more favourable circumstances.
My thanks to Val for being my travelling partner on this journey, and for his incredibly positive attitude about the whole adventure. I would have been much further outside my comfort zone if I had been alone.
Also huge thanks to Ronnie and his brother Willy for kindly providing accomodation and much-needed local information and advice.
Thanks also to our lunchtime Argentinian contact, Marco, and his guide Julio, without whom we wouldn't have known about the Llactapata trail, and to Percy and his friend, who convinced us that the Llactapata trail would be fine to take.
Also I must mention all of the local Peruvians we met along the way, taxi drivers, fellow passengers, hostel owners, and friendly people in bars that made the trip so special too. Everyone is so incredibly friendly, helpful and welcoming, even the gun-toting policemen! And equally remarkable is the amazingly positive attitude of everyone in the face of all sorts of obstacles and difficulties.
Peru, what a fantastic and fascinating country. I hope to be back soon!
Cusco Peru - No specific date
machu Picchu
