Matt!´s trip from Machu Picchu back to Cuzco

Hi folks!

Ssh! It´s a secret! There´s a way into the Machu Picchu area that doesn´t require paying for a ridiculously high train ticket or hiking for four days on the Inca Trail (which also costs around $300). Through talking with budget travelers and doing a little research, we were able to discover that you can walk the tracks that come into the Machu Picchu area from the opposite direction that most travelers come. Since we rode the train in, I tried the ¨secret¨ way out. I got up at 5am and headed down the tracks (where I had had a couple days of great birding earlier). The 11 kilometer hike was once again great for birding, with several new species and some oldies but goodies, such as Andean Cock-of-the-Rock and Highland Motmot. There is actually a train that goes this route for $8, so it would be possible to go out this way without hiking and still save quite a bit of money (the round trip train ticket from Cuzco to Machu Picchu is almost $100). Anyway, once I arrived at the hyrdoelectric project that is in place downstream from Machu Picchu, I was quickly able to catch a ride in a collectivo taxi to the nearest town, Santa Teresa. Here, I had time for a morning coffee while looking out over the valley before I caught my next collectivo to the next town, Santa Maria. The ride between these two villages was spectacular. The road hugged a cliff over the roaring Rio Urubamba as it crashed its way down into the Amazonian lowlands. Santa Maria is a crossroads village on the road from Quillabamba (though still a dirt road town), so I was able to catch a direct bus from here back to Cuzco. This particular road rises out of the high jungle (1000m) and over a 4300 meter (14,200ft) pass before dropping back down into the Sacred Valley and then back up to Cuzco. There was a lot of elevation gain and loss in my day! The habitat went from cloud forest to dry intermontane valley to subtropical forest to high tropical forest back to cloud forest to high altitude puna to sub-glacial back to dry intermontane valley and finally to subpuno grassland and scrub around Cuzco. The whole journey took me about 9 hours and was a lot of fun. I arrived back in Cuzco and found John at the hostel. He was feeling better after his round of being sick, but wasn´t quite up to doing something rough and curvy yet. He had arrived a couple hours earlier by train. Now that he´s feeling better, I´m looking forward to doing more of these kind of adventures with him!

-matt!