Machu Picchu and a lot of steps!!!

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Day 3

Day 3 was all downhill and so a lot easier and led us through some fantastic landscape and villages. After a hell of a walk we were meant to be getting a bus back to town to head over to Machu Picchu but after 20 minutes waiting we realized that we’d be quicker walking down the mountain. Peruvian timekeeping seems to be similar to girls getting ready….8 o’clock generally means 9 if you’re lucky!!

After this it was just a short train over to Agua Calientes, the town at the bottom of Machu Picchu! The place we were staying looked great from the outside, but once we got in the back half looked like a construction site and two of the rooms were actually flooded! (oh yeah…it was pouring down!) On a brighter note I did have a great view of a tree trunk from my window so not all bad!

That night we all had a few drinks at the hotel and then went to a local restaurant which served some of the best lamb and barbequed meats I have tasted. Luckily for me, not many people were hungry so I got to try a LOT of meat.

Machu Picchu

The next day we caught the bus up to Machu Picchu. At first I wasn’t too happy about how early we were leaving, but after getting up there and being near enough the only people there it was amazing. It’s hard to describe just how impressive the views are and the work that would have gone into building something like that, but to summarise….WOW!

Mary Lou who’d been with us since the Larez Trail…told us loads about how each part was constructed and the religious beliefs of the Inca’s. Bit of a shame really that the Spanish came over and killed them all or made them Catholic, but at least it wasn’t the English!

As well as the ruins there is a second mountain you can climb called Wayapicchu which is about 2,500m high. We were told that there were steps the whole way up so decided to give it a go. Now, apparently Inca’s were between 4 and 5 ft tall in their times….so why the hell are each of their steps so high??? It ended up taking almost 45 minutes to reach the top, which I think possibly killed Nadine and then about the same down. Often the paths were so narrow that only one person could go at a time and you’d literally be climbing down on your bum to stop yourself slipping off the edge!!!

After that, I never wanted to see another set of stairs again and we grabbed the bus back to town.

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