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Peru: Machu Picchu and mucho poopoo, getting off, big birds and big holes

Machu Pichu & Mucho Poopoo

Rhymer1
2005-03-28 21:21:55

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We went to see Machu Pichu. Well you have to really don't you? Not going is like visiting Egypt and not seeing the Pyramids or going to Hitchin, Hertfordhire and not not watching a pub fight on a Friday night. To get to Machu Pichu, unless you are going to hike the Inca Trail - and we had done plenty of hiking (see Oct 26th entry), you take the train. I've heard a lot of people say that this train journey is a fine and romantic thing. But while it's OK and goes through a nice gorge, the train and track are antiquated and not pleasantly so. I would certainly have been pretty pissed off if I'd paid to go 'Inca Class', because all the rails and rolling stock are the same, and no number of cutely traditional alpaca blankets on the seats can disguise the fact that the MP express is as on a par with the kind of service you'd expect to find on the London commuter lines.

Before you get to Machu Pichu you itself have to go through Aguas Calientas - which means hot waters - and is named after the nearby springs. Sounds charming, doesn't it? In fact it is an absolute sphincter of a town that you have to pass through (as it were) on your way to MP. Every single guidebook I´ve read does its readers a disservice when it comes to this place, either by being all mealy mouthed and equivocal or just not saying much at all. Why can't they actually offer some bloody guidance and just say it's a hole? For not only does AC look like one of the worst traveller dumps in SE Asia, it's prices are rather more aligned to the spending budget of wealthy tourists. So not only is it an excreable, it's really expensive too.

After checking out several dumps and meeting an amusingly stereotypical German (Us: 'Is your hotel good' Him: 'Of course it is good - it is recommended in the guidebook. I got here early to make sure I got a good room) we checked into somewhere which was OK and headed up to ...