Welcome to part 2 of our Machu Picchu story.
From Ollantaytambo we caught a bus to the train station. Its all still a bit messed up from the severe land slides earlier in the year. Eventually we got to Aguas Calientes, the town at the bottom of the mountain Machu Picchu sits on. Our Trek package included accommodation and a restaurant dinner, so we expected the worst, but both were tolerable. The trouble started when we were told by some random that our tour guide would meet us at 10:30 so as to tell us what the plan was for the morning. Bearing in mind that we intended to walk up and leave at 3:00am, when he didn’t show up until 11:45pm we were fairly livid. I told him, amongst other less savory things, that we just wanted our entrance tickets and we didn’t want his tour. He was a total cock after all. Anyway, after getting to bed at midnight we were up 3 short hours later and set off into the darkness to climb our way to Machu Pichu.
The walk up was hard, especially as it is pitch black, but I was very pleased to discover on reaching the top that we were in fact the first up. This meant we were guaranteed entry to to view Machu Picchu from the second mountain, Huayna Picchu, as only the first 400 up are allowed everyday. It also meant, that for an extremely brief moment, we were the only 2 people in the grounds:
Unfortunately at 6:00am the light is pretty terrible, and my hair is inexplicable, but you get the idea.
The ruins at Machu Picchu really do live up to their reputation. I got a far better shot much later in the day:
What I didn’t realise before was that there are loads of treks to be done within the ruins themselves. The first one takes you to an Incan Bridge:
They must have really wanted to get round that mountain as it seems a fantastically difficult place to build a bridge.
The second trek was the Huayna Picchu trek. This is the mountain in the middle of the overview shot from before. It is incredibly steep, but the view from halfway up is great:
And even better from the summit:
You can see the road that that the buses (for lazy people) take, the walking route is slightly more direct, but a lot steeper and goes almost straight up the middle of the white tracks.
At the very very summit you get to an area that would almost certainly be roped off to tourists in Europe, but in South America it was access all areas:
We are sitting down because it is a sheer drop behind and either side of us. This guy didn’t mind though:
After the Huayna Picchu Trek, we explored the ruins up close for a bit. They really are incredible:
It was then time for the final and most daunting trek of the day. Mt Machu Picchu. Its the one we are not quite pointing at below:
(yes, the tallest mountain in the middle)
The guy I’m with is William, an Alabaman we had met on the bus the day before, and an excellent hiking partner. we only had 3 hours to get up and down. I really did think at one point I couldn’t go on but we made it. Of the 3500 tourists that day only 41 people climbed it. (I know this as you have to sign in and I was the last that day).
Again, the views from up there are outstanding.
If you are wondering how they maintain the grass they have a very willing grounds team:
The day was so much better than I could have anticipated. It was a real highlight of the trip. After walking back down, shattered and broken we had dinner and a few drinks with William, then made the long and painful journey back to Cuzco, arriving at 3:00am.
We stayed in Cuzco recovering from 4 days intense trekking then made a move to Nasca, so I could see something I have wanted to for about 20 years, the Nasca Lines:
Again, these were more incredible than I could have imagined. The 4 seater plane ride only lasted 35 minutes which is a shame as there is so much out there. Many of them are just geometric shapes, but the animals,which are over 500 metres in length, are amazing. I can also see why the priest/astronaut has spawned so an conspiracy theories. It is amazing that nothing can be seen from the ground, and it wasn’t until the invention of modern aviation that these were rediscovered. They are thought to be about 2000 years old.
After all of these amazing things we have had to step back into reality and just sit around saving money so that we can continue in Mexico and the US in style. So in Lima we ate noodles and cereal, went for walks along the coast and that was about it. Other than a bird and a crab we didn’t see much of any interest
In fact being from sunny Worthing myself I felt quite at home there:
We had 5 nights in Lima on the noodle £2 a day diet and are now in San Jose, Costa Rica where we have been doing it for 7 days. I have also put down my camera for a week as San Jose is fairly non-descript and to date I have already kept 4525 photos of the many times that which I have taken. Its been a dull 12 days but tomorrow we are off to Orlando and have saved so much off the daily budget we should have enough to have a pretty good time.
Until next time, always remember, a balanced diet is the way forward.