Advertisement
We had said goodbye at Arequipa and went out to catch the bus half an hour early. Luckily we asked a nearby bus driver where we were supposed to wait and he pointed to our bus which was just driving out the gate. Well Steven sprinted pretty dam fast and i was close behind. It was the last train of the night, it was already paid for and our luggage was on it already. We made it. Just. Our adrenalin rush for the day.
After our all night bus ride we were met at the terminal by the tour agent that Marlon had organized for us. She ushered us off round the city to get our tickets for things. Will just say that we were pretty disappointed in the service, we could have rushed around and got our own tickets, she was supposed to have done it for us, but maybe we were just spoilt from the great service we had in Arequipa. We then had the morning to look around Cuzco. It was the centre of the Inca Empire ( they called it the tummy button of the world) so there is a lot of surviving Inca construction. After
a relaxing breakfast and finally getting to brush our teeth in the restaurant bathroom we wandered around the city center. We came out the end of an alley way with Inca walls on both sides to see a colonial cathedral, strangely perched atop huge perfectly constructed Inca walls. Inside there is a mixture of Inca and colonial architecture including Inca built rooms and some drains that the guide book said were either for sacrificial blood, sacrificial chicha (an alcoholic drink) or rain water.
Our bus for the fist part of the journey to Macchu Picchu was packed with locals and the roof was piled high with goods including some live chickens in a bag. When we passed a police check point all the locals standing in the isles crouched down until they had gone. We arrived at Ollyantaytambo in the Urabamba valley at dusk. We found a cool restaurant with great service and we rushed back to the train station 45 mins early because they had told us to be half an early and we didn't want a repeat of last night.
Well the train left an hour later than scheduled so we had plenty of time to
take in the ambiance of the bustling train station. People carrying luggage around, confused travelers and women selling buttered corn on the cob. It was also interesting to watch the way women carry things, and kids, in bright colorful blankets swung over their back. I watched a lady pick up a toddler by wrapping the blanket under her arms and swinging her onto her back. The little girl seemed totally used to it as I guess she would be. The train engineers looked like they were having fun. First they had one train and six or seven free tracks. They proceeded to bring the carriages back wards and forward until they had split this train up and there were carriages on every track, then they stuck some back together and finally let us get on.
Two hours later we were met by our hostel and our guide. We gave them the well sealed envelope our tour agent had asked us to pass on because she didn't buy our accommodation early enough before the office had close. Yip organized. But it worked out fine in the end anyway.
At 5:30 in the morning alarm goes off. Time to go.
MP natural lawn mowers
These llamas just wander freely around, they have called MP home since Icna Times Initial panic at the bus stop as the buses start to leave and our tour guide hasn't met us but all was well in the end. We got on one of the constant stream of buses at about 6:10 and began the steep zigzag up to the sacred city. The jungle grew up on either side, not any more lush than the west coast but full of huge orchids and pink begonias. We passed some hardy souls that were walking up, we had thought about it but very glad we didn't, apart from the effort in the early morning we ended up getting there before them anyway. Past a fancy hotel, through the ticket check point and up into the ruins.
Our guide took us up to the top where the view was just like every post card, and then onto the main entrance door which is also well photographed and showed us around the major sites. It was good but there was more info in out guide book and I only really started to appreciate it when the tour was over. We wandered around these houses some perfectly fitted together and polished for royal family and high sacred
More pics of the Llama
You can also see the terracing in the background where the Incas grew their crops. sites and others rough with mortar between the stones for the urban population. The temples were amazing to look at with sacrificial tables where archaeologists had found he blood of llamas and humans, and the royal bedroom with a toilet that has a drain going into the centre of the mountain. But for me the most amazing part was wandering off the beaten path. Down where the ruins began to be covered in jungle again. It was still early morning, most of he tourist buses hadn't arrived and the mist that clung to the mountain made it eerie. We got lost in the maze of houses, took way to many photos and tried to imagine what it would have been like when the Incas lived here. One of my favourite things which didn't photograph well was a series ceremonial baths cascading down the hill between the houses. They were like carved drains that then spouted into square pools and had drains leading out to the next pool. Many of the drains were under ground or covered as they would appear off to the other side somewhere to drop into another pool. There are sixteen of these pools and the water
Casey looking down on MP
This view is from Huayna Picchu, which is the steep hill behind Macchu Picchu in the postcard pic still flows in from the spring it was designed to.
We did a 45 minute walk up Huayna Picchu (the steep hill in the typical postcard picture). The view from the top was so amazing, felt very high, and perched on top are Inca buildings and terraces. We squeezed through a cave with carved steps and up onto the top, shimmied down a rock onto part of an Inca trail that led down the mountain. The way down was pretty steep. The Inca built steps were too narrow for your whole foot in some places. Thinking about the Incas who would have surely hauled food an other supplies up and down here. We got lost a few more times this time in the richer area where there were big houses with open kitchens and benches made of huge carved stones.We walked out to the Inca draw bridge, a construction of stones that spans a vertical cliff with a gap in the middle bridged some wood so that they could lift it up and stop enemies attacking.We where among last people to leave and it was peaceful up here as the sun got low. I had expected it to be
Huayna Picchu
View from Huayna Picchu looking down to the valley floor over rated and touristy but It really was an amazing day
Next day we were up early again to catch the train at 5:30am and on to Ollyantaytambo where we spent the morning. We shared a taxi with two local women to another town in the valley and then on to Cuzco with them as well. One woman sells souvenirs including rocks and had so many questions to ask Steven when she found out he studied geology. We listened to a local radio station on the way which was all in Quechua, very cool.
We spent an hour or two in Cuzco avoiding all the people selling hats and little dolls, and got our bus on to Puno at 3:00. We got seats up stairs right at the front of the bus, all good except the scary looking crack in the wind screen. It was cool passing through towns and seeing people working in the fields and doing everyday stuff. The last past of the journey looked like the Lindis pass, and when it got dark there was a huge lighting storm out to the south over Puno. When we got there it had passed and we got
More Llamas
In the background, you can see a stone house with a re constructed roof as they all would have been a taxi to our hostel.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.041s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0222s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Dave and Ngaire
non-member comment
What amazing history you have been walking over. I suppose you would get over being afraid of heights living up there! Love the Llamas! My dream is to have some Alpachas. Could you squeeze a llama into your bag for me!!! You are writing such an awesome over view of what you are doing, it feels like we could be there with you. Keep it up.