An adventurous tour - ride and hike to Machu Picchu

Welcome to our Radltour!

Participants:

Iris, age 68, retired adventurist

Ride, hike to the Machu Picchu ruins (Peru)

Review of the Tour

The author of this review: Iris from Austria - now retired

The tour starts at Cusco. The major capital city of the Incas.

At Cusco you may find at least, if not thousands of travel agents who are offering the Inca trail tour and others.

I have planned my tour in advance and... was cheated by an agent 'info@mapitrekperu.com'... Just $ 150,- which I have been asked to send via Western Union to Jenny Maribel Machacho Quispe at the address of Calle Hatun Rumiyonc Nr. 487, Cusco Peru. Emails bounce back, Telephone cannot be 'completed as dialed', their web-page does not exist anymore. But at Cusco I contacted the tourist police and they told me, this lady has many cases and is already ordered to court.

I have therefore purchased a new tour at Coca travel agency at Cusco. Reliable! A 4days/3nights tour which has been a combination of biking and hiking to the Machu Picchu.

Some comments about tourists I need to make: I found youngsters at the jungle trail playing loud their bad music at heir cell phones...; Asking one guy that way 'I think you are doing this, that jungle animals 'enjoy' your shit music'. Other youngsters went through the ruins of Machu Picchu using earphones and checking their faceshit account...

One young guy has been fully dressed in a jogging dress all over with logos of FC Barcelona. His Alpaca hut, he was wearing turned on his head, that way as one of the 'pom-pom' of his Inca replica hat has been dancing just before one of his eyes. But; 'goal', other youngsters found this cool. Success!

In my group has been youngsters with 'little money'. O.k., everyone is on a budget. Just to report about his youngsters...: The day we arrived at Aqua Calientes, based on foot of Machu Picchu, I said, it is time to talk about the tip to our tour guide. Their reply: '...we do not have so much money....' Needles to say, I have seen this yougsters on each and every costy extra. They have ordered drinks at the pool at the hot springs, they have been seen at the costly zip-line and others. And now? 'Not so much money'? Our guide, Rene, was perfect! He did his job and ignored stupid behavior of tourists.

Without a tour guide, it wouldn't be wise to take the trail. For many reasons. Security is one, food and drink supply another. Check out the correct route another (not to found in a Coca jungle laboratory, whereas the 'shining path' protects the business).

Mass tourism is destroying a lot. I will consider to more careful After the hike, which starts on the second day, I have quickly understood, about the why's that the Inca trail is definitely not for mountain bikes. It comprises so many places with stairs on hanging cliffs. Some of them look rather dangerous. Even for hikers. You may see on the pictures below. On the other hand, this are not just some stairs...; on some locations the count of stairs can exceed thousands...

The hike up to the Machu Picchu ruins is not for mountain bikers as well. The path is so steep, that even young people give up and walk on the winding road up. But there the conflict with the never ending line of tourist buses start. The road is ruled by the bus drivers. Man, they can be rude. The road is narrow and they drive their way, no matter if a tourist is in their way... Sometimes scary. I wonder, that there are no major accidents are reported.

The lower entrance of the road is checked by a guard anyway. In case a mountain biker may slip through, believe me, this wouldn't be his day.

But mass tourism leaves reflections at the local people as well.

May I leave a short example here:

I purchased stamps. 6 for my postcards... Each 6 Peruvian Soles. At the shop cash a teenage lady quick grabbed the calculator and came back with result '35 Soles please'. My reply 'no, this is not correct'. She did it again '32 Soles please'. My reply again 'No, this is not correct'. She starts yelling 'Mama, come help...'. Mama came and did her job at the calculator: '34 Soles please'. A 'No, this is not correct was my reply'. She gave me the calculator and wanted me doing the calculation. I tried on a piece of paper first. No way, she didn't trust the paper work. 'Do it on the calculator'! I did, and by luck, I came to the correct result of 36 Soles...

And from this somehow example, I will except our guide, who was really trying to give detailed historical explanations.

One was about Hiram Bingham an US archeologist who re-discovered the Machu Picchu ruins at 1911. Accidentally, as he was looking for another Inca place. Please check the Internet, as it will go too far here to tell all about Hiram Bingham and the Incas. It will end up in a controversy discussion anyway...

See impressions from the ride at the pages below!

Enjoy the pictures. Good luck to our followers!

Trail map:

day 1:

Our tour started at Cusco. A tourist bus gave us a lift to Ollantytambo at the sacred valley and further up to a pass, elevated on 4.300 meters.

A scenic downhill to the Urubamba river followed. Our fist night at Santa Maria.

day 2:

Now it will become serious. Bicycling is over... . From now on we will hick.

On this day, we entered the classical Inca trail and made good about 16 kilometers over thousand of hanging stairs.

Not possible to ride a bike there!

We head for Santa Theresa.

Enjoy the scenic pictures below:

day 3:

hike from Santa Theresa to Aqua Calientes. Another 16 kilometers. But in Aqua Calientes the hot springs wait on us. We start the day at the local Zip-line

Enjoy the report and pictures below:

Finally we climb up the Machu Picchu ruins. As it is a very steep climb and my power has gone, I decided to take the bus..

day 4:

Enjoy the scenic pictures below:

my travel back to Cusco..

still day 4:

Enjoy the scenic pictures below:

An extreme power consuming travel has come to an end...

THANK YOU !

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