Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [227]
There are outstanding multisport opportunities between Cuzco and Machu Picchu via Santa Teresa, and savvy Cuzco operators have set up all sorts of ways to bike, hike and raft your way here over three to five days. The number of days and activities vary, but the backbone of tours on offer is the same.
The trip starts with a long, four- to five-hour drive from Cuzco to Abra Málaga – the high (4350m) pass between Ollantaytambo and the Amazon Basin. Somewhere on the Amazon side you’ll board mountain bikes for the long ride down to Santa María. Descending from the glacial to the tropical, it’s an incredibly scenic ride of up to 71km, and almost entirely downhill. It starts on paved road, but after about 20km turns to dirt.
Some operators walk the 23km from Santa María to Santa Teresa; others send you by vehicle (one hour), arguing that it’s not a particularly interesting hike, though there is a short section of preconquest camino de hierro (iron road) – the Inca version of a superhighway.
Either way you’ll arrive in Santa Teresa to the welcome spectacle of the Cocalmayo hot springs – the perfect ending to an active day. (Some companies include rafting near Santa Teresa; Click here for important information about this.)
From Santa Teresa, you can walk the 20km to Machu Picchu, 12km of it along train tracks. There’s nice river scenery but no particular attraction except extreme cheapness. Alternatively, you can catch a bus and a train. You may reverse this route to get back to Cuzco, but it’s much quicker to catch the train via the Sacred Valley.
The trip costs between US$160 and US$250, and usually includes a guided tour of Machu Picchu and accommodation in Aguas Calientes. Whether you stay in a tent or a hostel, key factors in the trip price are bike quality and whether you walk or catch the train to Aguas Calientes.
This trip was pioneered by the recommended Lorenzo Expeditions (984-85-1385; www.lorenzoexpeditions.com; Plateros 348B). Gravity Peru (22-8032; www.gravityperu.com; Santa Catalina Ancha 398) offers the best-quality bikes. Other respected operators include Reserv Cusco (26-1548; www.reserv-cusco-peru.com; Plateros 326) and X-treme Tourbulencia (22-4362; www.x-tremetourbulencia.com; Plateros 358).
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PORTER WELFARE KATY SHORTHOUSE
The substandard treatment of workers is a major issue in Cuzco. It is by no means uncommon for porters to sleep on the ground, with no blankets to keep them warm, after a dinner of your leftovers if they’re lucky, or the water your rice was cooked in if they’re not. As a guide and tour operator working in the Cuzco region, I have witnessed porters begging for food, carrying packs on infected holes gouged in their backs by impossibly shaped loads, and fainting from hunger and exhaustion on the Inca Trail. Many other travelers have told me similar stories.
Things are a lot better than they used to be, thanks to the recent introduction of laws specifying the following minimum requirements:
Minimum payment of S170.40 for the Inca trail
Blankets or sleeping bags must be provided
Food must be provided specifically for porters, not just leftovers
Treatment for on-the-job injuries must be covered by the employer
Some kind of footwear (sandals are acceptable) and something warm must be provided
Porters must carry no more than 20kg of group gear and 5kg of their own gear
Some of these rules are being obeyed – clothing and bedding are easy to verify, and the authorities do check. Weight, however, is trickier. The law has certainly helped, but abuse still happens. Weight checks also do not distinguish between group gear and porter’s gear, so there’s a risk that some operators will leave porters little room for their own food and clothing.
Payment is where the most notorious abuses occur. The Peruvian Ministerio de Trabajo (Department of Labor), which monitors working conditions, has received many complaints of operators paying porters as little as S90 – little more than half than the government-mandated minimum.