A group of us will be taking our first trip to South America in 2007 and your report is going to make a great blue print for our us. Yes, we are even nutty enough to want to hike the Inca trails to Machu Picchu. It’s one of those alluring things in life that one just has to do.
I found your tips about transportation, tipping, food, altitude sickness remedies, other cities and locations to visit, etc. very helpful. I will have to refer back to your report as we get closer to our dates.
Thank you for taking the time to write such a great report! You have saved us hours of research on the internet.
Kathy
Posts: 668 | Location: California | Registered: 19 September 2004
Great report Matt! I want to coroborate the "starred" Backpacker trains from Ollantay that you noted--they do indeed exist, and we took them--but import to note, you cannot reserve these in advance from outside of the country (as you can with the ones' posted on the PeruRail site.) In fact, you can only buy them at the PeruRail station once you arrive. And you should buy them as soon as arriving in Cuzco. We could not get the train we wanted as it was already sold out two days ahead, and had to do some juggling of our schedule.
Also I have to say I disagree with you about Cuzco--we loved Cuzco and only wish we could have spent more time there then the two half days we had. There is really much to see and do there and the melding of cultures is fascinating. Yes, even the tourist culture!
Thanks for writing this. I don't know, as much as I want to see Machu Picchu, it sounds like getting there is too much work...
Its not really! In fact, now that I've done it once, I see how easy it really is. There's just a few tricks you need to know, like how to buy the train tickets--after that its really simple. Don't be discouraged, its an awe-inspiring place. We plan to go back as soon as we can swing it, and spend more time...Peru is fantastic.
Originally posted by Rar: Thanks guys, it was a fun guide to write
Rar, I just went through you photos and extremely useful text.
Fantastic! photos and some sights most of us will never see unless we're as hardy and robust as you (which won't happen).
When I went it was not the hiker's route ! :-) Great to see some views from the hikes. You took some really interesting shots.
Like Janet, I disagree a bit re Cusco. I loved the town but at night it's a more European cool and modern crowd. Not the colorful past some might be looking for.
Re being made sick over children sent out in costumes for staged photos, tourists go for color and flavor of other countries. The kids are still Peruvian and half of that country is in dire poverty, which I must add I forgot too often when trying to flee those wanting us to buy their wares.
This is their "living" (while we are able to travel around free of care, seeing the sights).
I saw some children who are daily 'color' at Ollantaytambo, a place you enjoyed.
A wonderful piece was written by Miranda France for the Miami Herald and I asked permission to use it. It's about the straw people of the Uros, and this is often looked down on as posed and staged which, in a sense it is, except that some actually live that life so that it can still be observed and somewhat understood.
That is a tourist attraction, perpetuated for us, but the reality of their lives and how important the revenue from sales of rugs, sweaters, for education, just plain living, etc. is still key. As I said, the country is very very poor, and tourists are a main source of revenue, especially in some of the areas we usually will visit.
I feel we are sort of blessed to be able to visit places in a leisurely fashion as we do, something poorer people can't.
I also encountered a family like this at Pisac. I've seen them in other tourists' shots too. I feel I'll be able to see them grow up in a way.
Anyway, thanks for an excellent resource! Beautifully done. And thanks to Pauline.
There obviously is no perfect answer. The Uros people really have no other option, so touring their islands I have no problem with. The scenario is different with children living in towns. It sort of harkens to the sweatshop argument: the families need the income generated by the children to survive, so how can you critique them personally? I don't think anyone could or should critique these kids or their families, they may have no other choice. But I will critique the tourist "consumers" who buy these products and then pass the product (the photo) off as some sort of authentic/artistic reality of Peru, when in fact the entire scene is staged. I'd also critique the political economic system that places these kids in such a situation, but that would get too political.
----------------------------------- Pekorino, my food blog On The Road, Again [travel stories from 2005-2006]
Rar - great guide!!!!! I'm with you on the Cusco debate!
One thing to mention - as of the beginning of this year you can no longer buy entrance tickets at the site - they must be purchased in Aguas Calientes......a lot of people didn't know this and had to go back down the mountain. It's a dreadful practice that appears to serve no practical purpose.....but people should be forewarned (actually they should announce it on the bus....)
We took a great book I got from Amazon (link follows) that's a self guided tour - very helpful - we didn't see the book for sale anywhere at the site or in the Sacred Valley so highly recommend ordering it before hand.
I just read on another board that they reversed the decision and are now once again selling tickets at the Machu Picchu gates - however apparently the lines are very long and it is best to buy in Aguas Calientes.
Those who are thinking of going to Machu Picchu may find my trip report Machu Picchu worth checking out--for both info and pictures of Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley and the fascinating Inti Raymi festival help every June.
gorgeous pictures Jane. I was at machu pichu back in 1998; took the train from Cuzco; it was memorable. Went with some Peruvian friends from Lima. Its an experience worth recommending.
Originally posted by pedmar: gorgeous pictures Jane. I was at machu pichu back in 1998; took the train from Cuzco; it was memorable. Went with some Peruvian friends from Lima. Its an experience worth recommending.
You went one year after I did. The train from Puno to Cuzco was memorable in more ways than one (including a rock through the window -- See bottom description at, apologetically an old-fashioned layout from 1997, at http://andrys.com/peru17.html
Originally posted by Jane: Those who are thinking of going to Machu Picchu may find my trip report Machu Picchu worth checking out--for both info and pictures of Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley and the fascinating Inti Raymi festival help every June.
You packed a lot of quality stuff in that page, Jane. Love the MP and Ollantaytambo shots.
Andrys and Pedmar--Thanks! But, Andrys-- you said "page" did you click the NEXT link at the bottom? It actually goes on for several pages. Maybe I need to make the link clearer.
Originally posted by Rar: There obviously is no perfect answer. The Uros people really have no other option, so touring their islands I have no problem with.
The people on Uros have the option to live in Puno (though I must say I might choose with them! after Puno). It's a strictly tourist industry, to show people what that WAS like in the past. It's very much "looked down" upon. It's the ultimate staging, but they live their own real Peruvian lives as much as those in "towns" (as if the poverty in Peru did not affect the towns).
quote:
The scenario is different with children living in towns. It sort of harkens to the sweatshop argument: the families need the income generated by the children to survive, so how can you critique them personally? I don't think anyone could or should critique these kids or their families, they may have no other choice. But I will critique the tourist "consumers" who buy these products and then pass the product (the photo) off as some sort of authentic/artistic reality of Peru,
So that's what makes you sick? The products that help them get an education, that help them eat? The tourists who "pass off the photos" as 'authentic/artistic reality" of Peru?
How did you decide who or what is actually authentic there? It IS their life -- it IS their reality that they're sent out to do that. Much as you may not like it, it's very real for them.
Are we to just decide they're not worth our camera space? Sure, if the faces don't interest. But, inherently, they're not worthwhile faces of REAL children in Peru who have THIS particular life ? You've made a value judgment on it as not being "real" or "authentic" and in fact that is a quite authentic reality of Peru right now.
It's just not interesting in the same way, certainly.
quote:
when in fact the entire scene is staged.
Their reality is, in fact, that "staging" -- tourists do not take those pics "passing them off" as you say as authentic or artistic. They are just pictures of real people who have chosen to do this as a way of making money.
I can understand your indifference and disinterest in taking pictures of such things but the sickness it induces in you might be more explored. It's as if you want only what you consider an 'authentic' Peruvian existence. As a matter of fact, you just reject that one.
quote:
I'd also critique the political economic system that places these kids in such a situation, but that would get too political.
But the kids ARE in that 'situation' as is true in most places we travel in our plentiful leisure time. I was in Turkey recently and the children know that they can make money if they pose for a picture. Now, I don't take a picture unless something in that child or children interests me (as people), since I don't like to encourage aggressiveness toward tourists. But I was definitely treating a lot of children as things I should avoid so that my travel time would be more pure. I rethought some of that later.
It's a complex area, but to me it's something very real that doesn't meet our own luxurious expectations for what we -want- to find.
Karl Grobl is a fine photographer and photojournalist who takes the kind of authentic experience in faces you might like, but he also found these people's faces and colors in Pisac WORTH taking and not sick-making. I loved seeing them a bit older and doing their work (as others do their work in other ways that may please better).
I treasure shots of peoples from anywhere, doing whatever they do to make a living -- and we've seen the ones of prostitutes or people just eating what they can off the street. Somehow this is "more authentic" but there are so many ways of making a living.
Rar, I wanted to add an example of a more subtle but quite elaborate 'staging' of a way of life in Peru.
The people on Taquile Island decided they'd run their own tourist industry, and very effectively too. The clothes, the work ...
Electricity, except for the minimal needed, is not allowed there. Even bicycles are discouraged.
It's a placekeeper, for insight into a way of life that would no longer exist but for the income from tourist $.
While the oldtimers will like it that way, there is a conscious effort to keep the clothing old (and colorful) and not modern.
I think the modern world will eventually claim its young though.
Most of us loved being there. It took 4 hours on a motor boat, each way, with no restroom. And I'm glad they decided to keep the island 'old' as long as possible.
Slow Travel Talk 
