With Machu Picchu still cut off, Peru lures tourists with hotel/air sales

LIMA, Peru — Peru's government is cutting airfares and hotel rates to draw tourists to the Incan city of Cuzco even though the country's top tourist destination, the nearby Machu Picchu citadel, remains inaccessible.

Tourism Minister Martin Perez says the promotion begins Thursday and will first be extended to domestic tourists before being offered to international visitors. Perez said the offer will include 50 percent price cuts for airfares to Cuzco and rooms at the city's main hotels.

Officials are trying to restore a rail line to Machu Picchu, the only access to the 15th-century ruins. Tracks were washed out and bridges destroyed by rain-fueled landslides and floods in late January. Some 4,000 tourists were stranded for up five days near Machu Picchu and evacuated by helicopter.

PeruRail estimates that the rail line from the town of Ollantaytambo (in the Sacred Valley) to Aguas Calientes (a town near Machu Picchu from which buses take visitors on day trips to the ruins) should be repaired by the beginning of April.

Train service to Aguas Calientes from the station at Piscacucho, where a trailhead to the Inca Trail is located, is expected to be back up and running before the end of March.

An alternative but longer road/rail route to Machu Picchu could open in about three weeks, reported the Peruvian Times newspaper.

The alternate route would take tourists overland northwest of Ollantaytambo up the Malaga Pass, and then down past the towns of Santa Rosa and Santa Teresa to the train station at the Hydroelectric Plant. From there, it's about a six-mile train ride to Machu Picchu. That route includes a bumpy drive and would take upward of 12 hours from Cusco, requiring travelers to take two to three days to get to and from and see Machu Picchu.