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Published: September 11th 2005
alright, I did the one thing that everyone does - machu picchu yesterday. i must admit, it was a nice place, unbelievable views. though i think tikal in Guatemala is more grand. well maybe, ah who knows. ok here is how it went. machu picchu is expensive, no and or buts about it. the train from cusco is $69, so we took a bus from cusco to orubamba (sp) for $2 and then took the train from there to agua calientes, the starting point for machu picchu. you cant get to auga calientes by bus. ok, there were seven of us - me, 3 ausies (Australians for you gringos), a Brit, Italian and one Irish guy. i will use names later on - if i remember. anyway the train got into agua calientes a little after 10pm and we headed to find a hostal to crash at for the night. the alarm went off at 4:30am and three of us headed out to hike up to machu picchu. We wanted to be there for the sun rise.
me, Andres and rich started walking at about 4:45AM, the others were going to take a bus later in the morning. It took
about an hour and 15 maybe 20 minutes to make it to the entrance. it was an uphill hike, somewhat strenuous and i must admit, i am out of shape - need to hit the gym when i get back. we got to the entrance before the park opened and waited in line to get our tickets ($25). We made it in to get pictures of the sun rising over the mountains which was quite spectacular, if you were there you know why this location was chosen to build machu picchu. we had good weather, though the skies were hazy due to fires (farmers burning to get ready for the spring plant). We walked around for a few hours and then climbed up to waynapicchu - that is the big "hill" in most of the fotos. Then we climbed back down to machu picchu which by now was full of tourists - a lot of Americans and europeans in tour buses. i havent seen so many american for the total five months that i have traveling.
The bus ride back down to agua caliantes was $6 so we walked back to town. We had to find a new hostal
because the one we stayed at last night was full. The new place had water issues which affected the toilet and coupled with the smelly feet, the room was, hmmm ripe?¿
later on we went next door to have drinks, food and to be bitten by little flies. they were bad - not to mention quick also. i went to bed early and some of the guys stayed out for a few drinks. we got up at 5am to catch the train back to urumbamba. we were lucky that we went to machu picchu yesterday because it was cloudy and drizzly this morning. people were tired and hung over on the train ride, but Andres managed to amuse us by trying to chew some coca leaves with an activator and then cracking us up with, "oh man this shit is terrible, ohhh....."
ok, it has been a few days since i wrote this and three of us, me, andres, and chris are off to lima tonight. i will add a blog later to fill in for the time gap. chau for now
alright, i thought i published this the other day but i guess i didnt. a
quick uptade, after a 21 hour bus ride we made it to lima. for the first 10 hours it was nothing but tight curves after tight curves. i swear we spent half the trip on the opposite side of the road. like most bus drivers here our driver liked to pass on blind curves and drive fast. he did slow down for a few seconds when we passed two demolished cars on the side of the road. the police left one car on each side of the road, looked like a head on collision.
speaking of head on, andres left this morning at about 4am. time to plan his tuttuk asia tour - sponsered by?????
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Susie Irwin
non-member comment
Wow
Your one lucky guy.... Have fun in your travels..I'm impressed!