Macchu Picchu 13.01.16

• How to get there: There are several tours to get to Macchu Picchu from Cusco, you can book a complete tour or just transport. You can take a train or a bus to get there. The cheapest and quickest way is taking a bus to Hidroelectrica, walking for 2 hours to reach Aguascalientes and spending the night there, to leave early the next morning to Macchu Picchu. From Aguascalientes you can take a bus (USD12) to the site, or walk for over 1.5 hours up steps.
• Getting to Macchu Picchu: It receives thousands of tourists every day, so getting there as early as possible is imperative, to avoid queues. There is only one hotel just outside Macchu Picchu.

At the top of Machu Picchu!

We left Cusco at 7:30 in the morning on a small bus, and drove 6 hours including two stops, one for the toilet and one for lunch, through tall mountains and irregular roads. When we arrived to Aguascalientes we were shown our hostel room and we had dinner with the group. At dinner we were told the details for the next day. The following morning we had breakfast at 4:20 and left Aguascalientes at 4:40. We walked up to Machu Picchu and arrived at 6:35 am. We queued for 10 minutes and we were through.

The tour guide told us several theories about the story of the Inkas, however we didn't think the tour was not necessary since you can find the information yourself. He left us after two hours and then we climbed up to the viewpoint where we took the picture everyone takes of Machu Picchu. It was a bit cloudy but when the clouds started clearing up the view was magical.

There isn't much we can say about Machu Picchu that you don't already imagine. There are many hypothesis about the place but what's certain is that it leaves you breathless and feeling small to the enormity that surrounds you.

We took the bus down, as we were really tired and walked from Aguascalientes to Hidroelectrica to get the bus that would take us back to Cusco. At Hidroelectrica we had to go around all the guides looking for our bus, it was messy and a bit stressful. I do not recommend you to do the tour with a mainstream tour you find in the square of Cusco. Do your research for the best price and for the tour that seems the most organised, even if you're only booking the transport. Most tours, like ours, cost USD100 per person including the entry, the transport, tour guide, hostel and food but there are cheaper tours and cheaper packages. We booked with Machupichu express.

The walk to Aguascalientes

The walk to Aguascalientes

The walk to Aguascalientes

The walk to Aguascalientes

Rainy day at Machu Picchu

How to llama

Thoughtful Yuuki and our new Taiwanese friends

Arica. Chile. 06.01.15

• How to get there: Arica is the city that borders with Peru, you can get to Arica from many places on a single bus journey. We had to break it into two because there was no space on the buses leaving from Caldera, so we did Caldera - Antofagasta. In Antofagasta there are lots of buses going to Arica.
• Arriving to Arica: The national bus station and the international one are right next to each other, but locals don't recommend staying in that area since it could be a little dangerous. Taxis shouldn't charge you over 2.500 CLP to go into the centre.

Arica is a big city, though at first it might not look like one. However, there is not much to do in Arica apart from great places for shopping cheap clothes and artisan goods and delicious street food. There is a small mountain (or big hill) with a flag at the top of it that people keep on "trekking" to see a panoramic view of the city. It isn't really much of a trek, exhausting 15 really steep minutes, that's all. The view at the top is a quite impressive view of the city. Arica is not an ugly city, and it has a unique feeling that makes it different from the rest of Chile. At the top there's not only a proud Chilean flag, there's also a statue of Jesus and a museum dedicated to the army which has an entry fee of 1.000 CLP for adults.

After walking back down we had a stroll around the city, having a look at the narrow shopping centres and at the street stands. We entered a market that had lots of bars that exclusively sold fruit juices. We sat in one to have a couple of them and received two jugs of juice (yes, jugs) for 3.000CLP the milk one and 2.500CLP the water one.

We had lunch at a street stand when we went back to the bus station to get tickets to go to Peru. The food was simply amazing: chicken, chips (fries) and salad with spicy sauce for 1.500 CLP each. Oh, and we are going to Bolivia.