inca trail, sort of

machu picchu is the number one toursist destination in south america, and cuzco is the epi-center of south american traveler culture. that is: if you were to simultaneously be at the internation airpors of quito, ecuador and santiago, chile on a given date, greeting everybody who stepped off of the planes wearing a backpack, two or three months later, you would probably meet 90% of those people again in cuzco. the rest of the people you met in cuzco would have flown directly into lima and gotten as quick as possible to cuzco, either to see machu picchu and leave, or to start spanish classes, a volunteer project, or some such thing. you would see these people walking around the plaza de armas during the day, eating dinner around a table of other travelers at a hostel discussing the best and cheapest route to such and such ruin, or enjoying one of the many identical dance clubs at night. its all very easy and nice here in cuzco.

our first night here, we cooked (anna cooked) vegetable stir-fry and lots of people said it looked good. we sat around the table in the outdoor common area of our hostel that looks out over all of cuzco, and ate and listened to people talking, and talked to them too. at the table was a polish guy who was either an archeologist or studying to be an archeologist, or just liked to talk a lot about archeology, or just liked to talk a lot about himself, or some combination of the above. there was a quebecoise who was leaving in the morning for arequipa. and, there was a german girl who had arrived the same day we had. at some point during the speaking of the polish guy, he managed to identify a viable route to machu picchu. you see, the route to machu picchu that everyone would like to do deep down is teh inca trail. however, since everyone would like to do it, only those with lots of money and forsight wind up doing it. generally inca trail tours are around $300-$400 and need to be reserved 3 or 4 months in advance. such riches and forsight aggravate the jealousy of more hardened backpackers and the expression of this jealously is the discovery of a variety of cheaper and more uncomfortable backroutes to machu picchu. the obvious one is the train from cuzco to macchu picchu and back. however, this too is an intermediary between true hardened backpacker-dom and rich, well planned, tourism. admitting to having a train ticket to and from machu picchu does not identify you as a true outsider to backpacker culture, but yet will most likely exclude you from 98% of the conversation amongst other backpackers in cuzco, which focuses on the best and cheapest, often complicated routes to machu picchu.

the polish guy/archeologist/expert on every single thing in the entire world, woke up early one day, took a 6 hour bus to a place called santa maria, then a 2 hour van to a place called santa teresa. from there, he walked 5 hours along the train tracks to a place called aguas calientes, in the dark. aguas calientes is the last town before machu picchu, and features, of all things: hot water. there are hotels to stay in there, but the polish guy recommended bringing a tent and that if you dont have a tent, that it is ok and safe to sleep outside just on the ground, in your clothes because it is quite warm and also a waste of money to get a hotel room since you will be arriving at night and leaving in the morning, before the crack of dawn to get to machu picchu at sunrise, as you must. there is a bus from aguas calientes to machu picchu, but it costs $6 each way, so it is therefore recommended to wake up even earlier and climb the steep staircase for 2 hours. it is more rewarding that way, apparantly, and when you return from machu picchu to aguas calientes, you will have earned your dip in the hot water. also, of extreme importance was to buy jugs and jugs of water because the water at aguas calientes was a full $.50 more than what it costs in cuzco. as well, tuna fish and granola bars were the way to go for food, as aguas calientes seemed to know that they had you trapped there. this is how the polish guy did it, and then he did the same on the way back, though he cheated a bit, having hitched a ride on the back of a truck from a hydroelectric plant midway between aguas calientes and santa teresa, to santa teresa. other than that hiccup, he represents, of course, the cheapest and most harcore way to arrive at machu picchu. and, upon hearing his story, anna, myself, and the german girl agreed to emulate together, except that we agreed to stay in a hotel in aguas calientes.

we were to leave the next morning after the next, and as anna and i were going to visit some other ruins the next morning, the german girl offered to go and buy the bus tickets for us, since she was going to be hanging out in cuzco all day. that evening, i was cooking beans and in the kitchen was one of the owners of the hostel. i decided to verify the story of the polish guy and practice my spanish all at once. in her opinion, it wasnt terrifically safe to walk along those tracks at night. the polish guy said it was fine because it was warm, the train didnt run at night, and we are in a ful moon period, so there was plenty of light. the hostel lady said it wasnt terrifically safe, although she didnt know of any particular bad stories. we considered her advice, but then there was the aspect of teh german girl having already bought our ticket thus sealing our fate. the advice of the hostel lady concerning that was that we could always just re-sell the tickets and get ones for the night time. it seemed a good plan, and we waited to tell the german girl of the change. however, she never arrived. in her not arriving, anna and i devised a modified harcore plan that may actually have saved more money than the polish guy:
we would leave on the bus for santa maria at night, the next night, on the last bus, which was at 8. get to santa maria around 3am and catch the van to santa teresa to get there at around 5 or 6am to commence our walk to aguas calientes, at which we would arrive at mid-day or so. we would spend the rest of the day relaxing in the hot water. also, whereas bringing tuna and granola bars was probably wise, with all the money we were saving on having take a night bus rather than paid for a night in a hostel and left in the morning, we decided that we could in fact splurge on water in aguas calientes, as jugs of water may get heavy to carry during the 5 hour walk along the tracks. the only loose string was on how to get back. getting back the same way we came would mean that machu picchu would have become an uncomfortable 4 night affair for a morning worth of ruin viewing. in the absence of the influence of hardcore travelers, anna and i decided that taking the train back would not be so bad.

still, the german girl did not show up and we did not see her until the next morning when she announced that she had spent the previous day in bed and on the toilet with stomach diffiulties, and therefore could not have bought our ticket as she had prmised. this would have been supremely annoying had we maintained our original plan. but since we didnt, we informed her of the new plan, to which she agreed whole-heartedly except that she would not take the train back with us. however, she begged that we leave not that night, but the following night, as she was stil a bit weak from her episodes the previous day - this as she sat reading and smoking a cigarette. however, we agreed, as it gave us some more time to see sights in cuzco. and, since she was so weak, it then became our responsibility to buy the tickets, which we agreed to as well because we had to get them anyway.

buying the bus tickets was a breeze, as we were able to get the front seats of the bus (with the most leg room), and for a cheap price. the train tickets proved a bit more difficult, as all of the seats in "backpacker class" were taken, so we had to buy 1st class tickets which were, of course, more expensive. however, to cut down the cost, we bought tickets from aguas calientes to a town about 2 hours from cuzco, from which it is possible to take a bus back to cuzco for less than $1. so in the end, the train ride halfway back to cuzco, including the bus from the town (hard to pronounce - something like, ollyatabambo) will cost us about the same price as a ticket all the way back to cuzco in "backpacker class." still more than what the german girl wil pay.

we are currently awaiting 8pm and bus ride no.1.
so, where do we rank?