By telling us your country of residence we are able to provide you with the most relevant travel insurance information.
Please note that not all content is translated or available to residents of all countries. Contact us for full details.
Shares
I arrived in Cusco on a Friday morning. I got out of the airport took a cab to the closest tour shop venue downtown. There were no people in the streets except dogs, all of them looking at something behind us, I turned around and saw a beautiful radiant sunshine coloring the Peruvian Andes, I felt chills through my body and interpreted such a moment as a sign of good omen. We arrived to a street where the driver pointed at some closed shops and told me the tour shops would open soon. Near by I saw a colonial plaza with a little fountain and wooden benches around it, I sat on one of them and waited. I heard a noise and as I turned I noticed someone sleeping by the side of the bench. The person raised his face and babbled something I could not understand. Scared I apologized for waking him up with my noise. He lifted his head again and with a rusty drunk voice hardly gestured in Spanish "You must remember who you are!". Without giving it much importance I gave him a friendly smile and turned back to realize some of the shops were open already. I approached one of them and asked to book an Inca trail tour. The tour seller replied that the next available tours were in 3 months from now! I insisted on any possibilities to see the Inca trail, but they said it was impossible. I asked in other shops but the results were the same. I gave up and grabbed a taxi to go have breakfast in the central market. The driver politely asked me how my day was and I told him about my morning. He explained to me that to preserve the Inca trail the authorities have restricted the access to it so now you must book the tour months in advance. As he noticed my expression of disappointment he tried to cheer me up telling me about an unusual alternative option to go to Machu Picchu, an 8 hour road trip through the Peruvian Andes. The idea got my attention, he said that if I wanted to make that route we had to go now as the last vehicles for this option were about to leave. I cancelled my breakfast and told him to please take me where I had to go to. We parked in a street close by and approached someone who seemed to be a friend of his, and also, my new driver. He introduced us and I jumped in a cab shared with 4 other Peruvians passengers. After 2 hours of driving through a landscape filled by snow-white summits surrounded by Condors exhibiting their calmed and majestic flight, we stopped to have some coca leaf tea and bread with scrambled eggs. I finished my meal and appreciated the impressive Andes. One of the Peruvian passengers came and said to me, "I worship this mountains, I feel they connect me to my ancestors and my connection to the Pachamama". I smiled and agreed to how breathtaking the landscape was. We arrived to Santa María and I took the bus to Santa Teresa. I sat next to a lovely Peruvian girl who was also traveling alone to Machu Picchu, her name was Anthu. We got along really well so we sticked together. We made it to Santa Teresa and from there we took a cab to a place where we walked for 3 hours until the town of Aguas Calientes were we spent the night. Next morning we finally made it to the ruins of Machu Picchu. As we walked around impressed by the unique view, the cute llamas and the fresh mountain air, we were lured to the sound of a Peruvian flute. Behind a hill we found a local elder wearing a poncho playing the instrument. Anthu sat next to him and I followed. She asked him to look into my eyes and tell what he saw. I opened to full eye contact with the elder, there was a silent pause, he then said with a rusty familiar voice, "you are a free bird, never forget it how to fly".