Last year the Halloween decorations around Cusco were impressive. This year only a few shops, like this polleria, put up a few decorations. Throughout the pandemic, Cusco has been robbed of its usual enthusiasm for any excuse for a party.
Tourism is back! After over seven months of being shut down, Machu Picchu will open in one week! Even better, for the first two weeks, it will be free! Unfortunately, all of the free tickets for Machu Picchu are already gone. What is left are free permits to hike the Inca Trail from KM104, which does take you to Machu Picchu, but you have to walk there. There are obviously a lot more people who want to take the train to Machu Picchu than who want to walk there.
Getting permits to hike from KM104 ended up being than I thought it would, but I did manage to get train tickets and Inca Trail permits for myself and six friends, with Auqui as guide. All of them have been in lockdown in Peru for over seven months and five have never had the opportunity to visit Machu Picchu. Two of them were convinced that they would have to leave Peru before Machu Picchu would open. All of them are crazy excited that their Inca Trail permits and Machu Picchu tickets were free.
I am so happy to report that I was able to vote from Peru and that my vote was counted in Washington State! (Photo credit: Amanda Beane, 2016)
Anybody can buy a ticket for Machu Picchu, or train tickets. However, only licensed travel agencies that also have a special Inca Trail license can buy Inca Trail permits - even when theyre free. Also, any group on the Inca Trail must be by a licensed guide who also has the special Inca Trail license. It may seem like but the Inca archeological sites along the trail really are so exceptional, and vulnerable, that any harm or vandalism would significantly damage this UNESCO World Heritage site. I get why guides have to go through a special licensing process for the Inca Trail and why protections for the area are so strict.
What most to Peru for, and what the tourism industry calls the Classic Inca Trail, is a four day hike from KM82. This is not yet open. What they are going to open on November 1st is the section of the Inca Trail that you can hike in about five hours. You take the train to KM104, where you get off on the side of the train tracks. There is no train station and no platform where you get off. As long as you
On November 1st, Peruvians buy each other a very traditional kind of bread. Its kind of like a sweet challah bread and slightly similar to the Mexican pan de muertos. People buy pan wawa for women and pan caballo for men. Pan wawa is supposed to look like a swaddled baby and pan caballo is supposed to look like a horse.
have requested the stop ahead of time, the train will stop for about ten minutes for the people who are hiking what the tourism industry calls the Short Inca Trail.
Our plan for next week is to go from Cusco to Ollantaytambo Tuesday evening, which is only about an hour and a half from Cusco. Well spend the night in Ollantaytambo because the only train tickets available when we went to buy them are for the train that leaves at 5am. PeruRail wants people at the station a half an hour before departure, which is obviously a very early morning. Well start hiking around 6:30am, which will give us more than enough time to see everything along the trail on the way to Machu Picchu.
The way weve planned it, well hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, but not use the entry tickets with the Inca Trail permit. Well take a lot of photos from the trail, then either take the shuttle down to the town of Aguas Calientes, or walk down. Its a very steep downhill walk on very uneven stone stairs, but the bus is $12, which is an extravagant amount by any
Like the advertisement says at the bottom, these traditional breads are sold at the Saturday market I usually go to. Wawa means baby or small child in Quechua, the native language of the Cusco region.
