From Nasca I took an overnight bus to Cusco where most of the interesting things are, I was relieved to see it wasn´t a dump, although beyond the old town touristy nice bits it quickly becomes dump like again. The touristy historic area is very nice, with big plazas and everything is cobbled, the only cars that are good enough to put up with the punishment of Cusco´s roads are 1997 Toyota Corollas, the best cheap car in the world.
I was staying in San Blas area, just up from the main plaza and even nicer with the best food so far in South America, my favourite restaurant was Sumaq II which did a very reasonable set menu for 15 soles that included an aperitif, tea, bread and dips, a soup, a main and a dessert.
Cusco is pretty high up, at 3400m and the historic center of the Inca empire, Machu Picchu is actually lower by about 1000m. I didn´t do the Inca trail as that requires booking months in advance but I did visit Machu Picchu, which isn´t cheap and as a foreigner you have the pleasure of paying the super inflated tourist price for everything. Connecting Cusco to Machu Picchu is an area called the Sacred Valley full of Inca temples, the last section to the town of Aguas Calientes/ Machu Picchu is only possible by train, which is expensive but a nice journey, and makes a change from buses. To reach the site itself requires another insultingly expensive bus, but there is a path so I took the bus up and walked down, which I really recommend as by the time I was leaving there was hundreds of people queuing for either the bus or the toilet, plus its a lovely path and there´s no one on it.
Machu Picchu is really big, and it was a hot day when I visited, you see the same old view of Machu Picchu is every postcard and advert so you don´really appreciate the scale of it until you see it for yourself, plus there are a number of detours and walks you can do to occupy most of a day. I didn´t take a guide as 1, its another expense, and 2, I don´t like being guided and having to move at some one else's pace whose seen it a thousand times and just wants to rush you through and get their money and 3, information overload which I´ll forget most of, I can Wikipedia it later and find out just the things I want to know. Plus I had my trusty Kindle so if I wanted information I just looked it up on that, and there were so many guided tours about I just stood next to one speaking English and then moved on when I´d heard enough or got bored. I was more interested in the construction of the stone walls which to me was the real wonder in the precision of craftsmanship in the stone cutting and shaping that really defined the Inca style. These people must of had a lot of time of their hands. After about 5 hours I´d really had enough, its an amazing place but busy and the sun was strong, to use the loo you have to go back to the entrance, I found an enormous queue and thought not to bother, so instead ran most of the way down the steps back to the base which was really fun and reminded me of the last part of Half Dome when after so much hiking it was easier to run. From the base it was another 30 min walk back to town.
Aguas Calientes is a nice little place, very touristy with the main drag filled with a hundred restaurants all offering the same thing. The most relaxing place I found was a French Boulangerie by the side of the river/ stream that runs through town with proper bakery products and nice cookies and real coffees and run by an actual French person. The day I went to Machu Picchu the kind owner lent me 20 Soles for the bus as the unhelpful bus ticket lady wouldn´t accept bigger bills only exact change, and sometimes the ATM's only give out 100 notes.
I took the train back as far as Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley as there was only availability to there, had a look around the Inca site there, and after being much templed got the bus back to Cusco for one final night until moving onto to Puno.
Notes:
Go to
La Boulangerie de Paris in Aquas Calientes for a relaxing drink and pastry.
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