To get to Nacho Picchu you can bus or taxi to ?Ollanatumbes from Cuzco. Its usually from there that you can train to Aguas Calientes beneath Nacho Picchu. Due to major floods earlier this year you now have to travel further to get to the train. PeruRail reminded me of a Disneyland ride. The announcer spoke in American-English and when the train arrived it seemed like it was going to take me to Space Mountain. When you get on the train they give you a PeruRail box full of mysterious food. Unfortunately, the box wouldn´t fit into my all ready bloated bag.
In Aguas Calientes you are bombarded by restaurant workers among the streets. They all want you to go to the best restaurant. If you are tactful enough you can play them off eachother for a better price. The main lure for these restaurants is their nachos. If you are undecided they will offer free nachos to sweeten the deal. Or, if you walk away they will offer nachos. You pretty much have to do little to nothing to be offered free nachos. Nacho frenzy.
If you choose to go to Nacho Picchu with a tour guide they want to get up there as early as possible. If you want to walk up Huayna Picchu (an adjacent hill with a different view of Nacho Picchu) you have to wake up at 4am to get a ticket. I couldn´t be bothered to wake up at such an ungodly hour so I decided to wing it. I figured that, if I wanted, I would find a way up Huayna Picchu.
When we arrived at the top, Nacho Picchu was completely socked in. Nacho Picchu wasn´t going to give itself up so easily. I had talked with another traveler who told me that when he went up that it was socked in during the whole day and that he couldn´t see anything.
Eventually the clouds relaxed and dissipated revealing the essence of Nacho Picchu. From there, we walked amongst the ruins and resident llamas. Later, I somehow managed to talk my way into being able to go up Huayna Picchu without a ticket.
In all, it was a pretty neat spot. But, if you have seen your fair share of Mayan, Aztec or Incan ruins it may not be as impressive. There are also tons of tourists stumbling around. I enjoyed the llamas and the history of Nacho Picchu. Briefly, Nacho Picchu was built by the Incans close to their jungle enemies. It was partly a strategic spot where they could expand their empire into the Amazon. It was abandoned when the conquistadors arrived but was never found by them. The Incan emperor at the time requested a last stand in Vilcabamba (another ruins a few hours away) to fend off the conquistadors led by the nasty Spanish pig farmer Francisco Pizarro.
(some sort of reptile I found hiding in a rock)
Person in crowd of people ¨oh look they are playing!¨
Person again ¨what kind of playing is...¨
¨Oh¨
GOOD LLAMA PICS!!
ReplyDeleteI think Mr.Pepe would like the Llamas if he could not find mules or girls. The story of Nacho Pichu is intriguing, in particular the story of Nachos. For those who do not know the history let me be brief. 'Nacho libre' was the original cry of the Inca people, expressed due to their desire to free the essential essence of the nacho chip. This rallying cry was created by the great Inca warrier Pichu. Pichu is pinch you in Inca language, as the great warrier Pichu was known to pinch Llamas. He was later famous for his state of the nation address, which started with 'give me nachos or give me death'. He died later that day choking on Llama turd, which he mistook for guacomole dip. He is a distant relative to Mr.Pepe.
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