Machu Picchu!

---

Well I finally made it to the main tourist attraction in Peru- Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas. Many backpackers choose to arrive there on foot after spending 4 days trekking the infamous ´Inca Trail´. However, the idea of spending 4 days walking did not appeal to me at all (and luckily, was booked up until August anyway!) so I chose to get the train there instead. In my opinion, the sensible (although maybe lazy!) option!

Before getting to MP, I spent a few days in the lovely town of Cuzco. Here I had probably the most uncultural days of my trip so far. I visited no museums, no churches, no ruins, but I did visit the English pub 4 times (once for pie & chips, once for pie & mash, once for marmite on toast and finally for Banoffee pie!!!!!) They also had Heat magazine there, so I spent a blissful few hours catching up on Celebrity gossip (albeit 2 month old gossip!)

Anyway, the train I got left at 6.30am from Cuzco and arrived at the nearest town to MP (Aguas Calientes- the only place I´ve ever seen with a 4 for 1 drink promotion!) about 11.30. If I´d gone straight to MP from here it would have been teeming with people, so I booked into a little hotel, visited the hot springs and got an early night ready to hit MP first thing the next morning.

Waking up the next morning at 4am to check out and have brekkie before the first bus at 5:30am bus was pretty painful! Even though I arrived at Machu Picchu at 6am, I was by no means alone at the sight. There was at least another 100 people there, but compared to the thousands of people who arrive each day, it was relatively empty. At that time of the morning it is really misty and it's quite exciting waiting for the clouds to clear and reveal the ruins.

There is one particular place that you can go to get the 'classic postcard shot' but after 40 minutes or so I got a bit bored of waiting around for the clouds to lift, so I decided to explore a bit.

If you look at most pictures of MP, in the background you´ll see a big hill/mountain called Wayna Picchu. Only 400 people are allowed to climb up it each day, so I registered (number 36!) and up I went! It was a pretty tough climb (considering that I´m quite unfit!!) but the views at the top were worth it! It took me about an hour to get up (with many stops along the way!) and I stayed up there just chilling out for another hour and a half.

The whole site is amazing and it was wonderful just to wander about there for a few hours. About 11am it started to get busy with tour groups and I got the bus back to Aguas Calientes at 12. It is crazily expensive to visit and get there (by Peruvian standards) but was definitely money well spent.

---

Photos

Here it is, Machu Picchu at last!
See that big mountain- that's Wayna Picchu- I climbed it!

Jumping for joy at the view!
Where are my legs?

Misty morning!
This was taken about 6:30am

Wayna Picchu
It takes an hour to climb to the top. Just call me ´mountain goat Dyas´!

Comments

[Charlotte]

You so did the sensible thing by getting the train there but what is this craziness about climbing mountains!?! Lucy and I only made it to 10 mins in and gave up - well done you:)