MachuPicchu and beyond

It's a long way from Cusco to MachuPicchu, 4 hours by train that weaves its way down the canyon until you meet the Urubamba river, then follow the Urubamba til you get to the town of Aguas Calientes (Hot Springs).
We stayed in Aguas Calientes for a night and caught the first bus up in the morning (6am), most people don't get there til after 10.30am when the daily trains arrive.


We made it- we got to MachuPicchu
Because we didn't do the inka trail I wanted to climb the mountain that you can see at the back of the photo,Wayna Picchu(Young Mountain). But just as we were finishing our tour, I realised that I left my moneybelt in the hostel where we stayed, so we had to catch the next bus back down( 20mins). They had it there luckily, then we caught the bus back up again, by that time we didn't have time to climb the mountain so we went to the sungate instead.

Looking down on MachuPicchu from the sun gate. This is the first view you get on the final morning if you walk the Inka trail.


An Inka Chick

After MachuPicchu we caught the train back to Cusco and stayed one more night there. The next day we caught another bus to take us directly to La Paz in Bolivia, hopefully it is better than the San Martin Bus that took us to Cusco.

Waiting on the Bolivian side of the Peru/Bolivian border, waiting for the Bus to clear.
The border crossing felt like a prisoner exchange that you see in the movies. we get out of the bus on the Peruvian side go into the little shack, get exit stamp. Then we had to walk over the bridge to the Bolivian side and get our entrance visa stamp, then wait for the bus to clear.


View from the bus as we approach the highest capital city in the world(3800 m), at this altitude, walking starts to be hard work.


From the lookout over La Paz.
La Paz must also hold the record for the most street vendors in the world .I think that if you don't have a full time job in La Paz you end up opening a stall on the street, or just throw a blanket down on the pavement and sell anything you like. One woman was selling meat from a blanket of the pavement, makes you wonder.


At Chungara, the border crossing between Bolivia and Chile, this crossing wasa little easier, we still had to get out of the bus for the stamps and stuff, but at this crossing the two side are about 7km's apart, so you do your thing at the Bolivian side, get on the bus, drive to the Chilean side(where this photo was taken) and do the whole on off thing again...


After more bus trip we made it to San Pedro de Atacama .
Valle De La Luna (Moon Valley)
NASA come here to test their Mars rovers and secret stuff, its also where alot of people report sightings of Ovni's (UFO's) what a coincidence.


The next morning we got up at 3.30 to go to the Geysers of Tatio, best time is between 6 and 7 am, hence the early rise.
All I can say at first is, it was bloody cold. They told us to wrap up because it gets below freezing, but I thing the higher up you are the colder it seams, it was -7 c but felt like - 20 c until the sun came up.


After the tour of the Geysers, one of them runs into a large pool where you can swim, its a bit cool getting in and out but it was nice and hot in there.
The Geysers boil at 85 c, the pool was about 30 c.