Hard pass. Total tourist trap.

Government beauracracy at its finest. To appease tourists, the Peruvian government introduced llamas and alpacas to Macchu Picchu, two problems. Alpacas cannot live at this altitude, they died (presumed cause of death: asphyxiation). PETA must've been pissed. Secondly these particular llamas were humorless and haughty. In addition to interfering with pictures, they take turds wherever they please. Locals say their poop is good fertilizer but I saw several mounds that hadn't broken down. I prefer more domesticated llamas, like the ones walking the streets of Cusco adorned by leashes and colorful clothing.

Whoever modernized Macchu Picchu displayed gross negligence for human safety. Rather than hefty guardrails to prevent falling, they installed tiny ankle high ropes - not only ineffective but a tripping hazard as well.

Macchu Picchu is the gringo name, the Quechan name for this ruin is called Patallaqta meaning "city over the clouds." Well, we visited on one of the only days of the year when no clouds were present which meant we had to face a quite uncomfortable heat. Apparently on the other 363-364 days when  it is cloudy you can wait hours at crowded locations for the clouds to clear just to take a picture you can surely find on Google or Instagram. No good outcome in this weather predicament.

Dumb overall.

1 Star.

This place is a silly pile of rocks. There is grass there too, which in its defense was agreeably soft to walk on. Not like pillows under my feet but better than the rocks. Speaking of which, you couldn't even walk on many of the ruble piles - they were roped off.

Was it cool a few hundred years ago? Unlikely, but perhaps cooler than it was the day I visited. The best thing was the view of the city of Cusco and that wasn't even there when this structure was built. Poor design flaws all around.

1 Star.

Ughhh. You know that noise you make when you puke? Well, if you've never heard a violin,  it sounds like that. Now imagine having to listen to 20 of them for a whole 2.5 hours! The performance we went to was Danny Elfman's musical compositions from the 16 movies he did with Tim Burton. Honestly, I'd never heard of the dude and I obviously was not alone. The symphony neglected to mention that he was actually part of the performance, a fact I didn't learn until after the performance. Needless to say if I had known there was true talent on the stage at the time, maybe I would have enjoyed the show more.

3 friends agree:

1 Star.