Greetings from Sth America - Part 4 - Peru Riot!!

Hi - sunny greetings from Cusco Peru - capital of riots against tourists or something.

Ant and I were booked on the train to Machu Picchu - a three hour one way trip at the cost of about US$100+ per person. The scenary is absolutely spectular - heaps of big cliffs and canyons...great stuff.

However we got to kilometer 72 on the trip and the train came to a hault. Apparently - there was a riot at Aguas Calientes and locals there blocked the track in a riot. They are upset about the fact that tourists come to Machu Picchu without coming to spend lots of money at Aguas Calientes and they want more money from the train company / bus companies... So after about 3 hours of waiting around in the middle of nowhere (complete with street peddlers selling raw corn cobs and bread) - the train driver said that we were turning back to Cusco and no Machu Picchu for us... Pissed Off!

Anyhows - we are on our way to the train station (the place where you get tickets not the one you leave from to get to Machu Picchu) and try to get our money back. Ant just got off the phone from travel insurance and they said this sort of stuff isn´t covered and they have had several calls about similar incidents to Machu Picchu.

Grrrrrrr!