The Lost City of the Incas

---

I woke up on Saturday feeling horrible, my stomach had been killing me all night and I had a fever as well. Clearly the dodgy sandwich plus all the dirt I had swallowed ATVing the previous day had messed me up. I survived on Imodium, Paracetemol and soup for the next day and a half.

I slept most of the day until evening when we got our bus to Ollataytambo, a small town from where we were going to get a train to Aguas Calliente, the station for Machu Picchu. The bus journey was horrible, since it was a tiny old crap bus, and the roads were shit, which meant my stomach kept jumping up and down - not a nice feeling. To finish it off, there was an irritating dude who talked for the entire 2 hour journey, trying to sell some stupid products to people on the bus. Basically a door-to-door salesman on a bumper day, with victims who couldnt slam the door in his face.

Anyway we got to Aguas Calliente and spent the night there, planning to wake up and walk to Machu Picchu next morning at 4:30 AM so as to miss the tourists and not miss the sunrise. Obviously we woke up late. So we took the bus up and didnt miss the tourists, while we did miss the sunrise because it was really cloudy. Bit complicated eh?

Anyway the day was spent at Machu Picchu, a marvel of masonry and architecture. The lost citadel is placed in the "saddle" of two mountains, a sort of low area between them, that is still much much higher than the valleys and rivers that snake below. One of the mountains has another Inca site known as Huayna Picchu on it, but it involves a climb that would have taken too long for us.

We also walked to the famous Inca bridge, a 30 min walk away, and the loveliest part was that there was no one else there. We sat there for over an hour, ate some food and marvelled at the views, before heading back to explore the site.

After spending the day there it was back to Aguas Calliente for a few hours of sleep before getting the 530AM train back to Ollantaytambo. Obviously we almost missed the train, but not because we overslept - we were waiting at the wrong point for it.

At Ollantaytambo we climbed up the ruins of an old fort which was pretty cool, and after a couple of hours headed back to Cusco where I was to catch a bus to La Paz, Boliva. Charlie´s friend Jess is also coming along with me which is nice, since Liam and Molly dont want to go, and it would be nice to not be with a couple for a bit!

---

Photos

First view of the site
Sorry about the cloudy pic, was pretty dark and misty when we got there

A tree
This is the only tree in the site, in the middle of the ruins. It is a bit strange as well, since if its been there since Incan times, it must be a few hundred years old but it looks like a sapling almost

Drainage
Remarkable drain systems

Terraces
Perfectly structured, these terraces will probably last a few hundred years more

More stones
In royal dwellings Incans never used mortar between stones, instead they chiselleled them down till they fit perfectly.

Brown hair, ginger beard...
...its Liam!

The Inca Bridge
It took a while to get there but it was pretty cool. A landslide in 2003 meant you cant get closer to it, but it is still a sight. We presumed the logs were a way of cutting off the path, when the enemy approached, kind of like a drawbrdige

Mountain
Looks like one, until you see my backpack...

Overcrowded with tourists
Later in the day the site gets a bit crap