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Published: March 5th 2007
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After 4 days in Cuzco, enjoying some of the best food of the trip at a german haunt call Grade Heidi, Laurence and I boarded a train from the town of Ollantaytunbo for Aqua Caliente, the town adjacent to the famous Incan ruins. The atmospere at the train station was electric as hundreds of foreign toursists waited for the gates to open and their own Machu Pichu adventure to begin. Vendors lined the queue of people selling all sorts of travel goodies, like snickers bars and Coca-cola. in addition to this, it seems that HEART is also something of a street food in Peru, with numerous ladies cooking this particular meat over small fires. Alas, this time I did not partake in the foreign fair and iunstead splurged on Jalapaeno Chips, hhhhmmmmmmm.
As the gates opened and the sea of people funnled through the bottleneck, we quickly entered and found our seats on a less than luxury coach, no worries though the trip was a mere hour and half and excitement overwhelmed any discomfort. This train. riding the rails at night afforded little views, except for the veins of water snaking across the glass from the torrential rain overhead.
We arrived in Agua Calientes near 10pm and were greeted by dozens of sign and card holding locals all presuming our need for a bed that night. We chose one that was located across from the train station and was an affordable 20 nuevo soles. At first the room seemed perfect, hard bed, private bathroom and even a tiny TV, that was until we found out that in fact we were sleeping on a mushroon farm. I use this term because it is how we have described it to locals in our foreign Spanish. After settlinng into the bed, it quickly became obvious that our pillows smelled quite musty and harbored a gamut of molds and other ´shroomy things. this is fairly understandeable at this time of year when everything is damp from the high humidity of the rainy season. Unfortunatley for me, this is something I am allergic too, and the rest of the night was spent with me sneezing and my throat swelling up making life a big pain. Ahhh some of the lesser joys of travelling.
Awoke, unrested the next morning at 5am ready to catch the first bus up the steep hill to one ofthe
world´s premier archeological sites. Rain continued to fall in the morning light but our spirits were not dampened. The ride up was spectacular and our excitement seemed to grow with the passing meters. Finally after 30 minutes or so of switchbacks we arrived at a site I had been dreaming of visiting for some time. We hurridly ruched past the entrance gate and found ourselved to be the first people in the site with only a handful of other sharing this magica place for the first hour or so.
The setting of Machu Pichu is truly is striking feature. Sitting atop a spine thin ridge, the former city is surrounded by steep foresed mountains and ringed by even higher snowcapped peaks. The air is hum and birds singing fill the air, while rushing water is everywhere. Incredible! Making our way up past the gate house, we found ourselves alone at the point where all the famous shots of the site are taken, a platform that provides incredible views of the site, the adjacent Wayna Pichu which is the backdrop for the city and the surrounding hills. Taking this all in we snapped a couple pictures, enjoyed the tranquillity, solitutde
and the fact that we were actually standing in Machu Pichu and just absorbed the moment.
Carrying on, we continued on seperate but close pats admiring the quality of the runis on our own, reflecting on the incredible feat of building a city in this environment. The masonry of the Incas is famous for a reason and MP does not dissapoint. Everywhere, be it house walls, gates or aquaducts you are able to see incredible examples of precision stone masonry, a skill that has largely been lost in Peru.
My own exploration then took me up the steep stone steps of Waynapichu, the famous peak that lies behind the ruins. Clambering up slippery steps, I made my way to the top of this steep little mountain an hour later, soaked from sweat, rain and the humidity yet pretty pleased with my efforts. The peak provided excellent views of the site itself and surrounding valleys and rivers. I spent nearly 2 hours just enjoying the views until I was forced our by the growing numbers of tourists whom I did not wish to share the site with.
Making my way back down, I toured the remaining ruins and
Astronomical observatory
Wasn´t able to make it work... met up with Laurence in the coffee shop where we shared our amazement at the site and the day in the general. We couldnñt believe that we had just visited and nejoyed Machu Pichu and were so happy that we had made it up to the site early as now there were hundreds of people trying to file through the park gates.
All in all, amazing day and a site to remember. Tomorrow we head back to Cuzco on an early train and then back to our favorite German restaurant for a spectacular breakfast and a quiet day of reading and relaxing, its already planned. Next stop Lima and the Cuba.
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Mom
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Awesome.. I am so happy you made it up given the rainy season. I can hardly wait to see with my own eyes what you and Lo saw. Love to you both. Safe Journey.. Mom xo