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Published: June 12th 2008
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Machu Pichu
The postcard picture. Up again early in the morning, 5 a.m. but for a good reason! We really had to try and beat the rest of the tourists to the top of the mountain, well most of them anyway. We were really determined to get the "Postcard picture" of the ruins without anyonewaiting around the ruins and thus appearing in our photograph !
So Breakfast early and a quick walk to the edge of town to get the bus to Machu Picchu. The drive up was really interesting, lots of beautiful scenery while ascending the mountain going side to side very slowly. And
you can't go to the top of Machu Picchu without some 80's songs being sung in the background, especially with our crazy-cuban-guide a.k.a. lover-of-80s-music!! And I'm sure our sining made the rest of the passengers happy..... after all they were getting some free entertainment along the way!
Off the bus at the top and up to the entrance gate of Machu Picchu. This is where we received one of the most important things on the Machu Picchu trip - the tacky passport stamp! (Karen was very excited about this).
After the gate we walked up some steps to
The group pic
On top of the ruins the top of the mountain looking down over the beautiful city. It was a pretty hard climb but it was really worth it when you got to the top, the view over the ruins was amazing. I didn't realise it was so big and it is only when you walk through it that you realise the actual size! It is an absolutely beautiful place and it feels very surreal standing there looking down on the famous ruins.
At the top was where we met up with the rest of the group that walked the Inca trail. They were a bit tired and dying for a long, hot shower, but extremely pleased to have completed the famous trek and to have finally arrived at the spectacular ruins. This is also where we met our guide who show us around the ruins and gave us all the information and background about Machu Picchu.
We started up at the top looking down on the ruins, had a few group photos and made our way slowly down into the ruins. As we walked around I was in awe at the way the Inca people managed to build a city like it. The
In the city
It was a lot bigger than I expected architecture is amazing. All the materials they needed were found at the top i thesurrounding areas but there are some blocks that are so enormous it is hard imagine how they built a wall using them. And some of these blocks where placed at the top of the wall too!!!
We walked through the city to the other side where some of our group left us to climb Wayna Picchu. This is a huge mountain at the rear of the city that is supposed to be an extremely difficult climb, but the guys said the views were spectacular. We stayed behind and explored the rest of the ruins. We were going to do a hike up the the sun gate that is about 45 minutes walk but i didn't feel up to it, i had been a bit under the weather for the past couple of days. So we finished of our amazing tour around Machu Picchu and jumped back on the bus down to Aguas Calientes.
Aguas Calientes is a nice enough town, but a little bit touristy for our liking. All the touts outside the restaurants scream at you to come in for some food. Most
The sun Gods
The sun rises up over the mountains on the city of the time you walk aroundsaying "no gracias" continually!!!
So we had some lunch with Natalie and met up with Manny who was a bit panicked to say the least because of an issue with our return trip on the train! We were originally supposed to get the second train back to Ollantaytambo at about 4 o'clock.... but when Manny received our tickets (by train in the morning) they had moved our carriage to the earlier train at 3pm! Not too bad you say! but the problem was that everyone was still up in Machu Picchu and had no idea of the time change. So for the rest of the afternoon we sat in a bar beside the area where the buses for Machu Picchu dropped people off, waiting to spot some of our group members.
We had eventually spotted everyone apart from Sam, Steve and Karl who where still enjoying the scenery in the ruins. So Manny had to do something he had never done before... leave members of the group behind!!!!!! He did leave a letter at the restaurant where we were to meet explaining the situation. All that was left to do was to hope
that there was room on the later train for the guys.
But as luck would have it, everything worked out perfectly and the guys arrived in Ollantaytambo safe and sound at around 5:30pm. I think it was a big weight off Manny's shoulders when they arrived.
So when the group was a whole again we all jumped on the bus and headed back to Cuzco for a well deserved meal and a drink or ten! What a great day we had in Machu Picchu. We would definitely recommend to anyone to experience the magical city for themselves some day!
P.S. I was really unwell when we got back to Cuzco so we ended up staying in our hotel room and ordering a really crappy pizza that we couldn't eat so we finally ordered from the hotel menu...... exciting or what!!!!
-- By Paul
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