Advertisement
We got up around 7.00am, had a quick wash and checked out of our hostel. We made our way to what we were told was a bus station. We turned the corner and were immediately being waved, screamed and shouted at "Ollantaytambo!!!!!!!!!" "15 Soles!!!!!!". One of the quieter guys who was already taking two local women selling fruit and vegetables offered to take us for 10 Soles so we decided to go with him.
Once we arrived we had about 1 hour and 30 minutes to kill so had a musli breakfast. After eating we made our way into the station to wait for our Inca Rail train. After some goofing around and Jon doing little dances in his walking boots that he was secretly growing to like the train arrived. The train was really nice inside albeit a little cramped. The colour scheme was cream and brown with pine tables. From the train you could see groups of tourists trekking along the official Inca Trail. Also we got a feel for just how isolated Machu Picchu was; the train tracks were flanked by steep, imposing mountains and there was a river winding alongside us. During the journey, we were
sat opposite a really friendly Colombian guy called Manuel who we ended up seeing everywhere we went in Aguas Calientes and he kept wanting pictures with us.
When we arrived in Aguas Calientes it was chucking down with rain. Thankfully we were met by a member of staff who showed us the way and checked us into our five bed dorm at Pirwa Hostel. Afterwards we went for a walk around the town and bought our bus tickets and entrance to Machu Picchu. For lunch we feasted on fresh trout and found the view of mountains around us fascinating. I kept thinking 'how did they ever find this place?' The landscape is so steep and covered in dense forest. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the hot springs even though it was still raining a bit. They were nice but we noticed after a while they were pretty dirty and my blue and white bikini was now blue and brown. We spent a couple of hours there and in the hot jets of water and made our way back to the hostel to shower. In the evening we went to one of the cheapest restaurants we could
find (Aguas Calientes is just for tourists and so are there prices). We had 3 courses, a wine and a Pisco sour for about £10.
We got back about 8.30pm, packed our bag for the next day and went straight to bed as we wanted to see the sunrise at Machu Picchu. I could tell Jon was pretty excited as I got woken up in the middle of the night by a pillow in the face from the top bunk "Is it time to get up yet?" It wasn't time to get up it was 1.30am so he went back to sleep! At 4.30am the alarm went off and Jon darted out of bed for the hostel breakfast. By 5am we had got to the bus station to queue for the first bus at 5.30am. We arrived at the entrance to Machu Picchu around 6am and got in line to make our way through the gates. As we waited more and more people were arriving having walked all the way from the bottom of Aguas Calientes . They looked exhausted so we were pretty glad to of gotten on the bus!
Once stepping through the gates Jon said
we needed to get to Inkipunku (Sun Gate) at the top of Machu Picchu as fast as we could to see the sun rise over the city. First though we took a few pictures of the Ancient City as it was so quiet and peaceful there due to it being so early. Jon had me sitting on the edge of the cliff whilst my bum was clenching to the ground hoping I didn't slip off the edge for photos. We didn't quite make it to the Sun Gate for the sun rise as the views, the higher you got were breathtaking and we had to keep stopping to take pictures. It was great seeing Jon so excited! When we finally got to the Sun Gate the view was just amazing and we were both just silent for about 10 minutes taking it all in. Not long after that two French girls started doing handstands and cartwheels on the very edge of the cliff which made my heart go in to my mouth and it seemed a lot less peaceful all of a sudden!
It took a while to get back down as I could see how high we were
and was hanging onto the sides of the walls with my knees trembling. After a while though Jon was super keen to get going and see the rest of Machu Picchu so just dragged me the rest of the way down! We then made our way up to the Hut of the Caretaker of the Funerary Rock to take some pictures of the views of the Sacred Plaza below. This is where you get the picture postcard photos of Machu Picchu so we spent ages taking lots of snaps and sitting gazing at the incredible site below. Once we had finished admiring the views there we made our way down to the Central Plaza where all the Alpacas seemed to be hanging out.
Towards the end we began to feel a little tired after our early rise so decided to have a few snacks and take a nap on this bit of grass we found. It was a great spot away from all the crowds and right underneath the sun so fell straight to sleep. About half an hour later we were awoken by the sounds of grass being pulled out of the ground. I opened my eyes cautiously
to see we were surrounded by Alpacas eating the grass all around us. We both darted up and were a bit shocked where they had come from. I decided to open up our bag of snacks which was a bad idea as they started to hound us down for them. After quickly putting away our goods and taking a few pictures we made our way to the last part of Machu Picchu.
We noticed there were a lot of guides around speaking English so as we were too stingy ourselves to pay, we decided to try and follow them around as much and as sneakily as possible. We viewed the Temple of the Condor and the Royal Tomb where we learnt that Inca Stonemasons carefully crafted these sites with just their hands. At the Temple of the Condor there is a rock that was skilfully crafted into a Condor and made to look like a bird.
After leaving Machu Picchu we made our way by bus back to Aguas Calientes to get our stuff together and get our "first class" train back to Cusco for another couple of days. The train was no different to the one we
had got there apart from we got the option of having a snack. We were so shattered on the way back and could barely keep our eyes open. It was totally worth every minute though. We never thought that Machu Picchu would actually live up to the hype but it did and has definitely been a highlight of our trip so far.
We spent our last two days relaxing and on our last night met up with good old kiwi Devon for our last meal together where him and Jon shared a guinea pig. It came out whole with its teeth still in - it looked diseased! I tried some and it didn't taste like any meat I've had before. Jon said it didn't have enough meat on it and that he wouldn't be eating guinea pig again - this was after demolishing bits of its brain. Eeeeeeeeek! We had a great time in Cusco overall and got to meet up with some cool people again along the way. After seeing a lot of cities the past few months though and not seeing a beach since Rio we were so ready for some sand and sunbathing so off to
Mancora we go for the 30c heat. Yes pleassssse!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0309s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1mb