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Published: December 15th 2008
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Machu Picchu morning
The mist that threatened to spoil the day How come everytime you want to do something incredible around these parts, you have to get up at silly o clock to do it? Already tired from a 4 day hike, having your alarm go off at 4am is a bit of an inconvenience to say the least. Nevertheless, our group successfully convened at our designated meeting spot at 4:30am to drop off bags and pick up our packed breakfasts. Except there was a slight problem, noone was there to open up and let us in. After much running around, we eventually left our bags elsewhere, and set off late towards Machu Picchu with empty stomachs. It was later decided that the cook, and possibly Pio, had probably been at the all night party below our hostel, hence the tardiness.
The last thing you need when you're tired, and have an empty stomach is to have to climb a mountain. However, that is what faced us, the small matter of 1703 steps from Aguas Caliente to Machu Picchu (yes, we actually counted!) It was a weary group that finally entered the city, and for some reason most of us decided that later in the day we wanted to climb another
mountain, so we made a beeline to get one of the 400 tickets to ascend Huayna Picchu.
Luckily, Pio then appeared with our breakfasts in hand, and after a good scoff we set off on his tour of the site. I've got to be honest, although he did take us round all the main parts of Machu Picchu, it didn't really seem like his heart was in it, and he seemed far more interested in telling us that he had to be gone for his train by 2pm. This just gave more credence to the all night party theory mentioned earlier. Despite this, we did get to see the famous Temples of the Sun (with added tarpaulin), Three Windows and more, and some of us even got to get rid of our bad energy at the solar clock. Well thats the theory anyway.
Pio's tour soon came to a close, and we bade him farewell, leaving us with the rest of the day to explore the site for ourselves. For me, although actually wandering around the city is pretty interesting, I much preferred going upto the viewpoints where you can take in the entire city as a whole.
It's from here that you can truly appreciate how incredible the achievement of building this city perched on top of a mountain, with a vast (1703 step deep) valley snaking around. Then for as far as the eye can see all around, just more and more mountains. Truly superb.
Climbing Huayna Potosi is also something I can heartily recommend, although once again it was blinking steep. There were sections where it did almost feel like we were climbing vertically, although again, the views from the top make it all worthwhile. As it's slightly higher than the traditional postcard shot, from here you can clearly make out the agricultural and living sections of the city.
We lunched upon Huayna Potosi, and by the time we descended swarms of tourists had arrived from the Cusco train (although still not as many as I'd anticipated). So after a final wander around, and taken the opportunity to take the obligitary cheesy photos from the postcard view, it was time to collect our Machu Picchu passport stamps (woo!) and make our way back down the steps. It was actually on the way down where the count of 1703 was made, and we managed
to greatly confuse a couple of Perivian girls, who asked us how far it was to the top, and were amazed when we told them exactly 1000 steps. I wonder if they checked to see if we were lying (we weren't).
And so back to Aguas Caliente, where all there was left to do was to grab a bite to eat before the combined train/bus trip back to Cusco. Upon which naturally I fell asleep. Machu Picchu overrated? No way!
Stewart
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