Machu Picchu-tastic

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After nearly wasting a week of my life in Cuzco, we finally set off to go and visit Machu Picchu, one of the 'new' wonders of the world. Our day began with a short taxi ride to the local train station early in the morning with all the other day trippers. We boarded the backpacker train (a bargain at 35 dollars return) and off we went. We were a little confused when a few minutes into the journey the train started travelling in the opposite direction, towards where we had just come from. After a short pause, we set off again. Backwards and forwards we went for nearly an hour. It eventually became clear that we were not going back to the station, but this wa the method to climb the steep hill out of Cuzco. The penny finally dropped.

The train journey was amazing. We passed small mountain villages, had an amazig view of the town of Cuzco, saw huge mountains with snowy peaks and followed the path of a river along the valley. Four hours later we arrived in the town of Aguas Calientes. This is the nearest town to Machu Picchu where all visitors must pass through. Which is why it is horrendously over priced, but never mind.

We spent the afternoon in the hot springs (for those of you that are not spanish speakers, this is what the town is named after). It was a new experience to say the least. It was like a warm Deer Leap!!! Oh, and the water was brown. It was great fun relaxing in the springs looking up at the enormous mountains towering above us.

We stayed the night in a nice hotel (it had furry things on the toilet so it was one of the best hotels we have stayed in) and got a good nights sleep before a 4.30 am start the next day, so we could see the sunrise over Machu Picchu.

We stood in a queue at 5 am for the bus the next day with all the other tourists in the town, and took the 20 minute ride up the mountain, with lots of toght mountain turns. We soon arrived to watch the sun rise over the spectacular Machu Picchu. We had a tour for a couple of hours, then decided to climb the huge mountain behind the ruins. WE were two of only 400 peopl allowed to climb it each day. It was quite hard to climb due to the altitude and steep steps, which at times were not big enough for feet never mind hands. It was worth it in the end, when we were rewarded with incredible views, looking down onto surrounding mountains and of course the ruins. It took 40 mins to climb, and a hour to descend as it was a little precarios.

We then ran around the ruins trying to locate lamas for photos, but the damn things kept running off, which meant even more stair climbing. After a tiring morning we took the bus back to the town, and were kept amused by a small boy which raced the bus down the mountain road by taking a direct route through the trees. He definately earnt his tip!

We arrived back in Cuzco late at night very weary, looking forward to another early start when we took the bus to Puno where we can vist Lake Titicaca.

Enjoy the photos!

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Photos

Machu Picchu
The big one in the background is the one we climbed up!

Machu Picchu
View of the ruins, 3/4 up!

Machu Picchu
Nobody warned us about the tiny cave you had to squeeze through at the top, good job we fitted in.

Machu Picchu
An elusive lama

Machu Picchu
We did it!