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Published: October 16th 2009
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We had an extra early start this morning, as we had to eat breakfast and leave the campsite early enough for the porters to be able to pack everything up and run it all down the hill to get to the local public train by 6am. If they missed that train, they would be stuck with having to use an expensive tourist train instead. We also wanted to get to the Winay Wayna guard post to line up to get into the Machu Picchu reserve early. We walked in the dark with many layers of clothes on due to the very cold temperature, using our tourches to lead the way to the guard post. We had to wait 30 mins before the gate would open and process our paperwork for entry, but it was good to be early as there were so many people lining up after us.
From the guard post, it took our group 1.5 hours walking through the cloudforest to reach Intipunku (or the Sun Gate). The sun was due to rise at 7:30am, but we were all keen to get going to see the prize at the end of our long trek. We walked for about
45 minutes before we reached a landing over Machu Picchu, where we could get great photos and perfect views. We were also in luck, as there were no clouds obscuring our view. We took some group and individual photos, before descending down to visit the grounds.
Our trek guide, Miguel, was also our guide around the ruins. He showed us significant rooms, architectural points, the quarry used to build the town, spritually significant rooms and a coca plant that was visible on a terrace designed to grow crops. Afterwards, we had free time to wander or for those lucky enough to have obtained tickets to climb Huana Picchu, the highest peak that towers over Machu Picchu. Dan obtained a ticket from a group member who was too tired to climb the peak. Most of us were exhausted and wandered around the ruins on our way out to the exit. I wish that I had more energy to scramble over the hills and around the ruins more. At the time I was happy with what we had seen on the tour and during our free wanderings on the way out of the grounds. I caught the bus with other tour
members down to Aguas Calientes to relax with a Pisco Sour.
Aguas Calientes is a small, very touristy town with many restaurants, markets and high prices. I wandered around the Artesan Markets with some friends from the tour, before eating lunch with the group, catching a train back to Ollantaytambo and taking a bus back to Cusco. Upon our arrival at the hotel in Cusco, everyone raced for the showers. We hadn showered for 4 days and everyone craved a nice, hot shower to warm up and get clean again. Unfortunately, the hotel hot water system wasn good enough to deal with the rush and so many of us got luke warm or cold showers with no water pressure or no shower at all that evening. We had a reservation at a restaurant for dinner that night, as most people had pre-ordered cuy (guinea pig) for dinner. Roasted guinea pig is a speciality of Cusco and our guide recommended that we try it. The little fellow gets served up on a plate with his head, teeth and claws in tact, so it isn the most appealing dish to try. Some of the group couldn eat any of it due
Housing
Reconstruction of the roof to the presentation. Dan cut up the guinea pig that he was sharing with 2 others, so it didn look so bad in meat pieces. I tried a few pieces and decided that it tasted like a strong gamey bird. I didn like it, and neither did many others, although a few of the girls didn have trouble with the presntation and quite liked the flavour. The meat is very lean and there isn much of it on one guinea pig. It was a long day and we were all grateful to sleep in the next morning.
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