mighty machu picchu

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"The more I see the less I know for sure" John Lennon

The words amazing, incredible, fabulous, mind blowing, beautiful, inspiring, magical and all words similar, have featured heavily in my blogs and for good reason. For this blog you will again see many of these words over used and sometimes in the same sentence. However for every new adventure I embark upon I simply cannot find the words to describe my feelings of what I've seen or experienced and so these words have become my friends...the easy way out...the way I write my blogs without coming across as someone who's trying to write a crazy detailed novel. I would if I could but as you know with travel, time is of the essence and speaking of time it's time I started typing....onwards and upwards!

Machu Picchu- the pinnacle for many travellers. Something to write home about, share with your grandchildren in years to come. Machu PIcchu really is something that blows you away, fascinates you. The sheer size of this lost city of the Inca's is enough to make you take a deep breath and stop for a minute to think how amazingly hard they must have worked to create such a stunning piece of historical architecture, one that tens of thousands of tourists visit every year.
Now I opted against the very popular gringo trail and after much deleberation decided against one of the worlds best treks; the salkantay...I think the 'oxygen tank is provided' was a bit of a warning sign that maybe I wasn't fit enough this time around!! and then finally I decided not to sign up for the 4 day jungle trek even though I'd heard some great feedback from everyone who'd taken the more adventurous journey.
I decided to do Machu Picchu myself, although stupidly enough ended up doing it the more expensive way....being alone is great most of the time but when it comes to things like this having a friend alongside you would be great if not to share the taxi costs but to walk with you and share in that feeling of amazement. Never mind the fact that I failed to wake up and go with Mick and Simmo (silly me!) Instead I left bright and early Friday morning and made my way to Ollantaytambo by way of a super cheap public bus and even cheaper collectivo with big native lady squished up in my grill, now you just can't beat that!!!
After arriving in Ollantay and failing to find anyone to walk with (it was a 7 hour hike along the railroad tracks) I reluctantly bought a very over-priced train ticket and by 1 o'clock I was indeed on my way to Aguas Calientes.
OK so I'm going to try and condense things a little bit; I ran into Mick and Simmo after spending a nice hour relaxing in the famous hot springs where the town's name is derived from and enjoyed a very cheap, very small portioned meal for about 15 soles...not bad. The boys were making their way back to Cusco and after sneaking them into my hostel for a shower they were off and it was past my bed time. 3.45am was the time I had planned to wake up and so sweet dreams it was....
You'll be happy to know I did wake up on time, that I did drag myself out of bed, wash my face and pack up ready to tackle the hour long walk up to the ruins with the hundreds of other keen backpackers. As most of you would have figured out its pretty dark at 4am in the morning and nope I didn't have with me the very handy thing some people call a torch, instead I used my special night vision haha and managed to make my way to the first gate where about 80-100 excitedly delerious backpackers awaited. After 15minutes of wriggling around waiting for the guards to let us in a huge cheer swept through the crowd and we were off, literally. It was almost like a race; so much energy, so much anticipation and yes I followed suit, at first passing people,feeling good, but slowly and very surely the steps grew steeper and the sky darker (if at all possible) and before long I was heaving my way through the crowds egging myself on. It wasn't before long that I was standing, hands on hips, guzzling water and wondering to myself if the bus would stop for me?!
However I pushed on, talking to myself like a crazy person, willing my eyes to see through the swish of others' flash lights and the familiar sounds of people struggling just as I was. As I'm sure those who take the Inca Trail know, it's fairly important to find your own rhythm and stick with it and so thats what I did, I climbed and I rested, climbed and rested all in amongst trying to think of encouraging songs to sing to myself. A few beatles songs may have popped into my head, hence the John Lennon quote! Finally after an hour and a half of climbing (I know not all that much!) I made it to the top, about 5 minutes before the first bus....perfect! A ticket up to Huanya Picchu and an extremely embarrassing red face and I'd made it. I was at Machu Picchu (not that I could see it yet) but the idea itself was pretty unreal...for as mentioned above, it is the pinical for most travellers I've met....that or something most people find very necessary to tick of their list (me).
Peru is Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is one of the reasons people visit this great country and here I was, an Aussie girl ready to explore; bring it!
My decision to climb Machu Picchu mountain was made the previous day after speaking to some lovely girls from Maine; they told me it was absolutely worth the climb just to be up there with well just you...and so the decision for me was easy, yes Huayna Picchu is oh so famous but you're up there with 200 others and well for a long time I've always said tourists can spoil that feeling/reason we're in a place, so M.P it was.
By 6.30 I had regained a little bit of colour to my face and although my hair was now plastered by sweat to my cheeks I wandered on, took a few deep breaths and began the rather steep incline to Machu Picchu. There were 5 people before me who after only 5 minutes of walking and finding out how long it took to climb, turned around, so indeed I was the only one climbing this mountain, how awesome is that?!!
By about 7.45 I had a wonderful Canadian family of four join me whilst I was eating some chocolate (for energy not cravings?! weird huh!!) and continued to accent with them. It was lovely to have some company with people of similar ideas about the whole Machu Picchu hype and I was so glad they joined me. By 8am we had made it to the top, legs felt like jelly, arse burning, heart pumping, sweat dripping, tick, tick, tick and tick but was it worth it.
At first I couldn't see anything, actually for about an hour I couldn't see anything it was just me and the clouds, as was the entire accent up...kind of great not being able to see whats coming, and it was incredible.
After devouring my a freshly made avocado sandwhich I ventured over to the edge and something along the lines of wow! swept over me. The river was just poking through the mist and the tips of mountains oh so slightly visible, totally eery and yet totally amazing. Standing here on this huge mountain waiting to see what was to be revealed.
I stayed up there for a total of two hours, just sitting and enjoying how peaceful this place was. In the time I was up there I had 6 people join me, now this is travel. To be in such a popular place and yet to be standing on one of the highest look outs looking over to the hoards of tourist on Huayna PIcchu was pretty incredible and when the ruins decided to rear its head, I was quite honestly speechless.
Unfortunately the fog and mist hung around for the entire time I was up there, rising and falling and so the photos I have aren't reminiscent of what I saw but i guess this is the best thing; being able to see things through your own eyes not that of a camera lens, and for this reason I will forever remember the two hours spent atop of Machu Picchu mountain and the incredible views that came with it.
Descending down was quite tough on the old knees and I passed about ten people going up; red faced and puffing! and by the time I arrived at the bottom I was blown away but for a very different reason....QUE TOURISTS.....EVERYWHERE!! yellow, red, blue and orange rain poncho's were literally everywhere the eye could see and this is still considered low season! I could only imagine what it would be like to be here in peak season! After a few deep breaths I meandered my way through the crowds to the quiestest spot I could find and took the ultimate tourist photo; me and machu picchu; which I admit was super impressive now I could actually see its grandeur.
I spent a good two and a half hours walking in and out of the ruins, staring in awe at the craftmens ship of the Inca's, listening in on some good and some not so good tour guides, taking awkward selfie's, looking, wondering and looking some more and finally my legs had had enough, my camera battery was about to die and I was well, spent! It had been a long day, ten hours of walking and looking and concentrating and breathing really heavily. It was time for lunch and then ultimately a very nice bus ride back into town followed by an even nicer super cheap 'massage for you lady' massage and a reasonably priced pizza. A long wait followed before I could board the train with the hundreds of other very weary looking backpackers and make my way back to Cusco. After a very bumpy, very fast collectivo ride I was in bed fast asleep by about 2am. What a day!!
My experience at Machu picchu was great and whilst I would have loved to do a tour I still felt like doing it alone was a great experience, I wasn't bring bombarded with information from a guide, bumping into tourists walking up Huayna Picchu, instead I went at my own pace, saw what i wanted to see. A very spiritual place is found on the top of Machu Picchu and I will never forget this great experience.
Obviously It is a must see if you're in Peru and I think any way you choose to see this impressive icon you will walk away being well blown away!

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