Wine and Pisco tasting today. You may have never heard of Peru’s illustrious wine making history, but that could be because it’s not quite as memorable as France, California, New Zealand, Argentina or Chile, instead it looked like a home brewing process and the Pisco (which originated here) burns like fire on its way down.

We checked out a couple of vineyards, which were rather dusty and rough, and eventually got car sick from our crazy cabbie and his overuse of the gas/brake combo, the good news though was that before we headed back to the desert oasis he took us over to a fancy chocolate shop which helped us recover from the driving/wine/pisco mix that had ruined our bellies.

We arrived today in the middle of the desert at an oasis named Huacachina. After visiting 4 places we found somewhere to stay and spent the remainder of the day enjoying the laziness that is required by a town of 200 people (with possibly another 400 tourists).

Today was a pretty standard day when we are planning a huge bus trip in the afternoon, essentially eating a few meals and some pointless wandering (aka Oreo Buying), before loading on our ultra high class VIP seats on a Cruz del Sur bus, think first class airline seats, for an ultra windy road which made us all sick. Ed looked like he was going to die for a short while. 

Since our (primarly mine) forward planning skills are slightly lacking, today for our train ride back down the mountain to Cusco we had to take the pricier ¨Vistadome Class¨ train, complete with clear ceiling and a snack which included a very small sandwich, a cookie, a tiny cheesecake tart, and a cup of coffee. 

Overall, it was essentially a standard train ride for 4 hours, but instead of just pushing the skymall-like cart down the aisle, the poor attendents had to do an ¨Alpaca Fashioin Show¨, which much to my amazement seemed to sell piles of $150 alpaca sweaters.  I think this whole thing left me so dumbfounded that I couldn´t even take out my camera with everyone else and participate in photographing the models/attendents.

With the goal of making our Macchu Pichu day slightly different from everyone elses we have seen, Felicia got the great idea of bringing along a friend with a similar name to make it fully enjoyable.

We were up on the ruins by a little after 6am and enjoyed about 15 minutes of the standard view before the clouds rolled in and the day became a gray cloud. Of course we posed for all our standard MP pics. We we´re thrilled that we managed to see anything and decided to spend the cloudy morning climbing Wayna Pichu (the mountain directly behind all the ruins).  The climb was just as steep as yesterday, but fortunately we weren´t coming up from the valley floor, the bus had done most of the work for us.  After about an hour we made the peak and sat around eating bread and enjoying sporadic views when the clouds cleared for a moment.

Then the clouds decided to stop clearing and we all had to don our raincoats and proceed down the mountain, with its tiny, slippery, Incan steps in the driving rain.  By the time we made it to the bottom, soaking wet, the hordes of day tourists were arriving from Cusco (and would be unable to see anything), and we settled for a bus ride back down to town and a lunch of fine Peruvian-French food.

4:45 We were all awake to catch the “Backpacker Class” train to Macchu Pichu, still an obscene $48 one way for a 4 hour train ride (aka Europe Prices). When we arrived at the station we were stoked that there were only 6 people in front of us in the line where we had to pick up our tickets, unfortunately even though we are paying a premium for the service it doesn’t mean you receive quality service. Ed and I waited 40 minutes to just pick up our tickets while Felicia looked excessively bored watching all the bags.

Finally we boarded the 6:50 train and zig-zaged our way all the way to the tiny town of Agua Calientes (or Macchu Pichu Pueblo) and found a nice young woman who promised us three beds and hot water for 40 Soles a night ($13), she was true to her word, and although we had to hunt her down everytime we wanted to shower, the price was really good for the continents biggest tourist attraction. We headed off and had lunch.

After lunch Ed and I decided to hike a trail to Putucusi that was ever so briefly mentioned in the Lonely Planet as a steep climb and a great view, of course they made no mention of how long the trail was or what to expect other that where the trail begins. I guess it’s too much to ask for a guidebook to actually contain useful information.

Either way, Ed and I set off at 2:40pm and knew the sun would be coming down at 5:30ish so we decided we’d hike until just after 4pm and turn around so as not to be caught in the dense undergrowth with only my weak flashlight in the dark jungle.

The trail turned out to be a hike that essentially went straight up the side of the mountain and at times even had ladders which we hundreds of feet into the air with just steel cable to hold on to. Within in hour we had found we were near the top from some other hikers and but still had a way to go, the mountain reminded me of Hua Shan in China whih I climbed straight up last year. Also I was dying from being out of shape, and completely covered in sweat (which I decided was because South America is too cheap so you stop walking everywhere when you can get a cab for a $1). Eventually (and a few minutes after our 4pm deadline) we did make it to the top for our first view of Macchu Pichu, and even completely drenched in sweat it made for a glorious climb. We knew tomorrow we would be in the ruins themselves.

We all sat around eating, drinking and wandering around Cusco today, stalking up on snacks for the next few days in Macchu Pichu.

So, last night after we got into Cusco after the horrendiously long bus ride we decided the city felt like everyone was just trying to get your money, although it definately is the cleanest and well kept city I have been to in South America . It is after all, the most popular tourist location on this continent, with Macchu Piccu right at its doorstep.

We slept the night away and when we awoke, we found Ed had arrived a little before and was sleeping in another room upstairs where we were changing to tonight. We headed up, knocked and found him answering the door looking like shit, essentially what redeye flights do to you. We all ate breakfast together and while he went back to sleep for a while, Felicia and I hunted down some internet time and an ATM.

After a few hours we headed back to the room to find him refreshed and ready to go exploring (for food), and spent a large portion of the afternoon in a cafe drinking tea and catching up. Eventually we managed to get out acts together and wander about town for a while during the sunset.

The night was capped by another number of hours sitting in a little cafe, drinking beers and being fabulous carnivores eating the local delicacy of Cuy (aka Guinea Pig), which pretty much tasted like you imagine rat would.

Just for anyone who was interested in knowing; when buying a ¨Direct¨bus ticket in Copacabana, Bolivia to Cusco, Peru, Direct actually means share a minivan with 7 others to the border, walk across both exit and entry points with all your bags, share another minivan for 30 minutes to the side of a freeway where you proceed to sit there for 45 more minutes amidst hundreds of cows and sheep on the way to market until a bus (which is not the one in the picture which you were promised countless times) pulls over and lets you have the last two seats in the back, next to the stinky toilet for a ride that ends up taking three hours longer than you were told.

Silly me thought ¨direct¨actually meant you would get on a bus and go directly there.

Still in Copacabana enjoying the sun and the water…