Backpackers Evacuated from Machu Picchu

Traveling is fun. Backpacking is adventurous. But what happens when Mother Nature plays a trick on you?

About 2,500 tourists were evacuated via helicopter following the mudslides that stranded backpackers on the Machu Picchu site on Thursday night. Most of them were transported to a nearby village and then hopped on buses to reach the nearest town called Cusco. An air operation was necessary because the mudslides reached the train tracks- the only method of transportation to reach the inca site.  The only alternative way to get to the site is a 4-day Inca Trail hike that only 10% of tourists actually use! And even then, some areas of the path were inaccessible because of the mudslides.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuJz0-Kx2ks]