Climb Every Mountain...

Well... Dave´s birthday... now what can I do to make sure that he remembers it for the rest of his life?? I think that a trip to the ancient city hidden in the cloud forests of peru should just about do it!

Machu picchu (MP) for the non ancient peruvian historians amongst you, is an old Incan city... think that dave has told you who the incans were already! Anyway for some strange reason it was not "discovered" until the 1910s. Maybe that is because it is surrounded by unassailable mountainous andean cloud forests (called such because they are so high that they are constantly in the clouds!!) If you have seen pictures of south america then you would have seen pictures of mp... which is a good thing as we still cannot upload our pictures!! It is basically a ruined city at the top of a mountain! but what a city!!!

However before we get there.... they don´t call it the Gringo Trail for nothing! basically in order to get to machu picchu there are two options... firstly you can catch a four hour train from cusco which in gringo prices comes to about $US67 each, or for the real gringos... you can trek for four days which will cost $US250... however the peruvians have us really figured out... and so they have a third option which is to catch the train half way (still $67) and then trek for two days (still $250) smart peruvians...dumb gringos!!

so when we finally got there... (we took the train for those of you who were laughing at the thought of us actually walking anywhere!) we headed off from the little village of Aguas Calientes to the city itself!

Here I must depart from sarcastic comments about price and peruvian drivers! I don´t have too many things on my "must do" in life list however MP is one of them! I rounded the corner after the ticket gate and I think that dave still has the bruises where I kept pinching him (in my excitement I think I mistook his arm for my own!) to see if I was really there!

It literally is the most magical experience! set amongst these huge mountains covered in forests and clouds is a 400metre square plot of land perched on the side of a mountain which once was home to thousands of incans, as well as their farms, temples, palaces, livestock etc It is very well preserved considering that peru has an earthquake every ten minutes and they didn´t use any type of cement in their building!

Each of the walls is painstakingly put together with rocks that have been hand hewn to exactly fit the shape of the rocks around them and the walls are still standing! there is even one house with its original thatch (although I find that hard to believe!)

All around the complex where the city stands are terraces that go all the way up the mountain from the river below to the city which were hand built in order to provide level ground for the crops to be grown which would feed the city! These in themselves are pretty amazing but put together with the city and the surroundings... it is amazing that dave can still lift his arm!

so now I have waxed lyrical about the place you will have to come back to see the pictures when we get to upload them!

anyway... back to reality! as you can imagine dave and I are so excited about exploring this mountain city so off we start up the first set of stairs (set on the side of a mountain remember!) however we forgot that we were firstly at high altitude (no oxygen) and secondly that we cannot walk to our car without puffing on a good day! so we soon learnt that you can see all of MP sitting on the grass in the middle of the city!

You would think that we would learn from the stair experience but apparently not! Singing Climb Every Mountain and encouraged by several elderly people who we saw coming down from the mountain situated directly behind the site, we decided that we had to get that perfect picture!! we were thinking of you all when we set off... we had to have the perfect picture for the blog!!

So we head off up this mountain... now when I say mountain... I really mean mountain!! this is a steep climb (just because some people can do it in 30 minutes does not make it any less impressive!) up many many many many flights of stairs ...through incan cave tunnels (they were very very small people!!) and even more stairs! I think that we broke the record for the slowest climb ever... what was even more embarrasing was the little old japanese lady in the pant suit who climbed after us! (didn´t tell her about the incan caves... don´t think that she ever will wear her pant suit again!!- my one consolation!!)

anyway... I would have been fine with the climb had it been an amazing view from the summit but when we got there the view seemed the same except much smaller!

However despite the climb, (or maybe because of it) MP has left an indelible mark on both dave and I. Dave has bruises that will never go away and I have muscles in my calves that I apparently own but never used! In truth though... this has to be the highlight of my trip thus far and the pictures that I hold in my mind will be there forever! I just wish that I could share those with you!

Dave adds...
I must agree with Catherine. MP was truly truly amazing. I have never seen anything remotely like this, and don't know if I ever will. What an amazing feat to have built this town in the middle of the most hostile and unassailable territory!! (crazy incans!)

Truly we are blessed to have had the privilege of seeing this. Like Catherine, I wish that we could share this experience with you all, but for now the pics (which we will eventually upload) will have to do!!

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