Machu Picchu

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The day to leave for Machu Picchu finally arrived. I had been looking forward for this since I booked the trip.

To get to Machu Picchu my group took a train from Ollantaytambo. THe train was quite nice. We even were served a snack (small sandwich and dessert roll) as well as a small beverage.
The train followed the river (which I cannot remember the name of at the moment) to Machu Picchu. On the way were were able to see part of the Inca Trail, and some ruins. THe train slowed down a bit by each ruin, but unfortunately I was on the wrong side of the train to take any good pictures of these ruins. Our local guide was able to tell us a bit about each location though so that was nice.

The train ride was about 1 hr 45 min, but it seemed much faster. I think we were all so excited we didn´t notice the time passing. We arrived in the town just after dark so it was difficult to see anything.
After debarking the train, you immediately are in a market filled with different things from necklaces, and ponchos to wooden carvings. It looked like it would have been fun to explore, but we had all of our luggage, and no time to shop. We continued our walk up to our hotel. THe entire town of Machu Picchu is built on a hill, and has almost no vehicle traffic.

After checking into the hotel, we were told about a hot springs a the top of the town. A few of us quickly grabbed our bathing suits and headed up to the top. THe hot springs were really nice, but not steamy hot. THe water also looked a bit murky so we were all glad it was dark, and couldn´t tell if it was just really dirty or full of minerals.

After a quick dinner we went to bed. Most of us decided we wanted to hike Wayna Picchu so that meant waking up at 4am.
Getting out of bed the next morning was acutally not too bad. AFter breakfast at 4:30 our group headed towards the bus station to catch a bus up to the mountain. THe buses do not leave until 5:30, but at 5 am there was already a long line forming. After a wait that seemed to take forever, the buses began to arrive in about 5 seconds a part. We caught the 5th bus up. The ride is about 30 minutes, and on our ride the sun began to rise.

After leaving the bus the line for the park entrance was already long, but moved a lot faster than I thought it would. Immediately after arriving into the park we had to run over to the Wayna Picchu enterance to get our passes for the hike. Wayna Picchu is the smaller mountain in most of the famous pictures of Machu Picchu. The hike was recently opened up, but only 400 people are allowed on it a day.

Jose, our Gap leader, lead us over to they Wayna Picchu enterance. IT was on the other side of Machu Picchu. He was walking very fast, and it was so hard to keep up because all we wanted to do was take in the view of Machu Picchu itself. We eventually arrived, and got our tickets for the hike. I was number 319 out of 400. After we had our tickets I realized the line had gotten so long that many of the people wouldn´t be able to get tickets. I didn´t realize this mountain had such competition.

We headed back towards the entrance and hiked up in the direction of the sun gate (entrance of Machu Picchu from the Inca Trail). We rested on the hill, and began taking a million pictures of Machu Picchu. We also met up with the rest of our group who weren´t doing Wayna Picchu, and our Machu Picchu tour guide.

At about 8 am we began our tour around the park. Our tour guide was able to tell us so much about the different ruins. A lot of the ruins had a spiritual or religious puprose, which I didn´t know when I first arrived.
Machu picchu was deserted after only being inhabited a short period of time. People believe the Incas wanted to preserve the site, and not have the Spanish find it and destroy it.
Machu Picchu in the local languange means ´Old Mountain´ and Wayna Picchu (small mountain near it) means ´New Mountain´.

Machu Picchu is so amazing it is hard to describe. It´s so much more impressive than the pictures can truly capture.

At 10:00 we all went over to Wyna Picchu to hike to the top. I thought it looked really high up so I was scared, but our tour leader kept saying he does it in less than 40 minutes.
The hike was definately difficult Some of the steps were really high, but to my surprise I was able to do it in just over 35 minutes. THe view from the top is incredible. We took many pictures from the top as well.
Heading down turned out to be just as hard as going up. Several of the steps were so narrow that it was hard to step down, and not feel as if you were going to fall.

AFter the hike we all returned to Machu Picchu town to catch our train back to Ollantaytambo, and then our bus back to Cusco. 2 of our group members really wanted to try the night life, but the rest of us were just too exhasted from the day, and went to bed at 9 or 10.

I´m definately sad that Machu Picchu is over, but I´m hoping I´ll get to go back another time to see it again. I think everyone should go.

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