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  • The Titicaca Train: A Long Day of Luxury

    The Titicaca Train: A Long Day of Luxury

    The Perurail Titicaca Train, chugging its way along the Urubamba river after leaving Cusco

    I had just installed myself in my seat on board the Perurail Titicaca Train in Cusco. My carriage was elegant with wooden panels, white table cloths and plush seating. It exuded an air of elegance long gone from modern travel.

    My fellow passengers offered a compelling reminder that this was, after all, modern travel. While old-world travellers dressed to code, today’s lot believe in ‘individuality’, i.e. something like being normal without being average.

    Expressing your individuality is hard work, particularly if you do not have one. But this obstacle can be overcome; you can buy one.

    Those who trade in this commodity are known collectively as ‘the fashion industry’.

    Contrary to all evidence, the fashion industry tells us that a shirt is SO MUCH MORE than a garment. It is an expression of the inner self. Possibly not YOUR inner self – but at least someone’s inner self. Likely that someone is better looking, wealthier, and more famous than you. Buy the brand, and those properties will magically trickle down onto you.

    All you have to do is say that you bought whatever it is that you are wearing because it ‘spoke to you’. And voila, you are an individual, just like the rest of us.

    I don’t grudge people their ‘individuality’, but I lament the effect it has on my photos. Is it too much to ask to take a single image without a screaming neon-coloured garment in it? On the flip side, I ruined their pictures, as much as they did mine.

    And they were a friendly lot.

    Many of us had sold a kidney and an eyeball to afford the exorbitant rate of the ticket. Common ground is a good start when individuals come together.

    Half an hour into the journey, I took this photo along the Urubamba River. This had all the bearings of becoming a good day.

    But then the panflute players arrived. This turned out only to be an intermediate purgatory before descending into the real hell of a fashion show.

    A few passengers, such as had had their better judgement clouded by altitude-sickness or romance, made expensive purchases. This proved sufficient for the ordeal to come to an end.

    Where was I?

    Ah, yes: this had all the bearings of becoming a good day…

  • Good to know about the altitude in Cusco

    Good to know about the altitude in Cusco

    Plaza de Armas, Cusco

    I spent my childhood in the mountains.

    Well, not quite. To be painfully exact, I spent it at 29 m.a.s.l. a stone’s throw from the fjord.

    But, what I meant to say is that I grew up BETWEEN the mountains. And, as I remember it, I used to climb them quite frequently. Which amounts to the same thing, really.

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  • NOT the Rainbow Mountain

    NOT the Rainbow Mountain

    A many-coloured rock face at the Saqsayhuaman archaeological site, Cusco

    Visitors to Cusco will have been offered a day-trip to Mount Vinicunca, popularly known as the ‘Rainbow Mountain’. While technically possible, doing this in one day requires the sacrifice of significant human comfort.

    For one, you will have to be ready outside your hotel at 3:30 AM. The only circumstance when it is acceptable to be up at that time is if you haven’t yet gone to bed.

    Second, the trip was sold on the premise of a small, intimate group that offered unique access to the guide. Once in the minibus, you will find that the intimacy extends to full lateral body contact with the person next to you. You will also find that the person limit was determined by the capacity of the bus.

    Third, it is a significant hike to get to the vantage point where you can take the photo you saw on the wall at the agency. Except, when you are there, it will have twenty social media influencers with selfie-sticks right in front of you. Weather matters – and only the combination of blue sky, sunshine and Photoshop can produce the photos from the brochure.

    Fourth, the elevation of the Rainbow Mountain is about 5 200 m.a.s.l. Anyone feeling ‘under the weather’ in Cusco’s is unlikely to feel better up here.

    The reasons not to go are many but had I had a day to spare, I would have ignored them all for the chance to go.

    Sadly I hadn’t, and therefore didn’t.

    Instead, I went to Saqsaywaman, an archaeological site within walking distance of Plaza de Armas in Cusco. Or, in my case, within Uber distance.

    The Inca built many impressive structures. Machu Picchu holds a disproportionate place in our consciousness, making it easy to overlook the rest. Saqsaywaman, a massive fortress structure on a hill above Cusco.
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    Here, I came across a rock face that, albeit less impressive than the sales photo of Rainbow mountain, nonetheless had a distinctive colour pattern. And that pattern is what I am sharing with you today: the poor planner’s Rainbow Mountain.

  • Thoughts on what Mountain to Climb at Machu Picchu

    Thoughts on what Mountain to Climb at Machu Picchu

    Quite steep enough for me

    While booking my ticket for Machu Picchu, I faced the unexpected question of whether I wished to climb Huayna Picchu, Machu Picchu Mountain, both or neither – and at what times.

    For 44 years, I had lived in the blissful ignorance that such places existed, and I found myself at a loss.

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  • A Contemplative Walk in the Clouds

    A Contemplative Walk in the Clouds

    View from Machu Picchu Mountain

    The view from the top of Machu Picchu mountain justifies the 700-meter climb, that is when there is a view to be had.

    The clouds were not just sitting there idle, though. The view constantly shifted from complete whiteout via blurry mists to sudden openings in the cloud-cover that permitted photos like this one.

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  • Useful Notes on Getting to Machu Picchu

    Useful Notes on Getting to Machu Picchu

    There it was. Machu Picchu, a photographic cliché, if ever there was one.

    And still, cliché or no cliché, it was one of those views imprinted in my mind since childhood from countless travel magazines and innumerable travel documentaries.

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  • Ollantaytambo: The Perfect Stopover in the Sacred Valley

    Ollantaytambo: The Perfect Stopover in the Sacred Valley

    I had booked myself into a small hotel in a village called Ollantaytambo (Ollanta), of which I had no knowledge and few expectations.
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    Low expectations constitute a favourable starting point for any village hoping to exceed them but are entirely wasted on Ollantaytambo. This village, and its surroundings, are brimming with Inca fortifications and constructions that rival nearby Machu Picchu.
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    To others who might find themselves similarly lacking in knowledge, I willingly stake my reputation (albeit of modest value) that it would take a hard soul not to find Ollantaytambo a worthwhile stop on the itinerary to Machu Picchu – and it would take a sad one to regret it afterwards.

  • A Unique Taste of Salt and History at Salineras de Maras

    A Unique Taste of Salt and History at Salineras de Maras

    It must have started something like this: Salty water came out of a small spring on the hillside. The flow rose and fell with the seasons. Some surfaces that were submerged when the flow was high dried out when the flow lessened. Left behind, was a white substance.

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  • The Hidden Purpose of the Inca Ruins at Moray

    The Hidden Purpose of the Inca Ruins at Moray

    Historians and scientists agree unanimously – and with absolute certainty – that the concentric circular terraces of Moray were made for an important purpose.

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  • The Urubamba River

    The Urubamba River

    Within an hour of landing in Cusco, I found myself standing at a bridge near Ollantaytambo, taking in this most pleasing scenery.
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    “This isn’t how Peru is supposed to look”, I thought to myself. “This is how Alaska is supposed to look. Where are the colourful, pipe-smoking ladies with bowler hats, where are the pan flute players, where are the llamas, why are there tall conifers here?”
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    None of the expected stereotypes was satisfied. And yet Peru it was.
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    I knew shamefully little about the Sacred Valley upon my arrival. I thought of it as nought but an unavoidable transit leg from Cusco en route to Machu Picchu.

    This assumption proved wrong on two counts :
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    1. One does not travel up from Cusco (3,399 m.a.s.l.) to Macchu Picchu (2430 m.a.s.l.). One does, in fact, travel down by nearly one thousand meters of altitude
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    2. The Sacred Valley is a great destination. There are weeks worth of things to see here, and its only misfortune is its proximity to Machu Picchu.

    The Urubamba River