Christmas in Cusco Peru

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The celebration of Christmas in Cusco begins with the dressing-up of the city with coloured lights and garlands. These can be seen everywhere, from the balconies of the Monumental mountain to the streets around the main square, and donate the city with a warm festive ambiance.

On December 24th, hundreds of artisans coming from Cusco and the surrounding towns lay their blankets on the sidewalks -a custom in traditional Andean fairs- and sell carved Nativity handicrafts.

Held in Cusco’s main square, Santuranticuy (which means “saints for sale”) is a temporary market whose origins go back to the days of the Spanish Vice-royalty. Today it’s one of the largest arts-and-crafts fairs in the country.

The central figure of the Christmas fair is the Nio Manuelito, the Andean version of the newborn Jesus. Besides the baby Manuelito, you’ll find the other Nativity figures -all with an Andean touch-, as well as saint’s images. Much appreciated are the boxed scenes, known as Retablos, whose small figurines can represent almost every aspect of live, secular or sacred, though for the occasion you’ll almost only find Nativity scenes.

Although the fair started as a Christmas specific market, over the years it expanded to include other goods like antiques, silverware, and ceramic objects brought from Pucar and Quinua. At night, street vendors sell a traditional hot and sweet rum punch called ponche, to warm up chilly visitors.

To facilitate both clients and artisans, the fair has been divided into sectors, each of which aggregates a speciality product. Among these you can find decorative ceramic, wood and bark crafts, miniatures and filigrees, silverware, stone crafts, stone sculptures, paintings from the Escuela Cusquea, and Nios Manuelitos.

Christmas in Cusco Peru

Taking the Train from Cusco to Machu Picchu

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If you are the comfortable-type, train transport is the best option for travelling from Cusco to Machu Picchu. The other common alternative to reach the Lost City of the Incas, the strenuous Inca Trail, involves 3 days of hard trekking through a beautiful yet arduous landscape. And taking a helicopter is most probably not an option, both because its unaffordable and it misses the beautiful Andean scenery that comes with the land journey.

Besides the strenuous Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, which usually takes 3 days of hard trekking through a beautiful yet arduous landscape, train transport is the best option to travel from Cusco to Machu Picchu. Ok, you can reach the Inca citadel by helicopter, but only the few can afford it besides, youll miss the beautiful Andean scenery that comes with the journey.

Train transport to Machu Picchu is indeed the best alternative for the trekking-adverse: not better nor worse, just different. Still charming and attractive, yet much more comfortable.

Rail services to Machu Picchu, Perus most important tourist site, are managed by Peru Rail, a company of the Orient Express group (which also runs the exclusive Monasterio Hotel in Cusco and Miraflores Park Plaza hotel in Lima). Trains depart from the San Pedro station in Cusco (close to the Huanchac market), and arrive at Machu Picchu city (Aguas Calientes) some 3 hours and 40 minutes later.

The spectacular journey begins at Cusco with a series of switchbacks, or zig-zags, as they are know locally, that last for half-hour: the trains ascends the Picchu mountain, up to the city’s highest point (El Arco or The Arch) and out of Cusco into the village of Poroy.

The train then descends into the Sacred Valley and the foothills of the Andes, along the Urubamba River, passing through a beautiful landscape packed with typical Andean crops and grasslands, herds of llamas, and colourful villages. Many old Inca buildings and archaeological sites can be seen along the journey, in particular the magnificent Wiay Wayna ruins and Qente (hummingbird in Quechua), amidst a lush vegetation where a nearby waterfall attracts oversize hummingbirds and colourful flowers blossom all the time.

In alternative to the Cusco departure, travellers can choose to take the train at Ollaytantambo or Urubamba, in the heart of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. This offers the possibility of staying longer in Machu Picchu -that is, without having to pass the night there-, as the first trains arrive before any other, at 7am, and depart from the Lost City of the Incas after every other train has left, at 6.10pm.

Regarding carriage qualities, you can choose among the plain Backpacker train, the more upscale VistaDome train, or the luxurious Hiram Bigham train (which departs from the village of Poroy, some 20 minutes from Cusco’s city centre).

Taking the Train from Cusco to Machu Picchu