Advertisement
“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson
There was knocking at my door
"Ya son las cuatro!" It's 4:00! It was Marta giving me my wake up call (or knock). I got out of bed, get ready and outside my door are some table one of them already set. There was hot coffee, juice, jelly, butter and above me I could hear Marta cooking up some ham and eggs. How nice! Everything is quiet and I think I am the only one staying at this little hotel. Marta brings me my food and it's delicious. After I finish my breakfast it is about 5:15 a.m. and I am ready to get my bus ticket to Machu Picchu.
"Hasta luego amigo." says Marta.
And off I go.
There is already a long line waiting for the first buses to MP. Unbelievable! Oh well. We do what we need to do. My bus finally takes off at around 5:40 and we reach MP at 6:00. What a crowd. Entry was quick and easy and now it is time
to find a place to watch the sun come up.
I am in awe of the whole place. All of the clouds or fog add to the mysteriousness. Everyone there was commenting on that. The weather is nice and cool and everyone is pretty quiet. Some have already started exploring below, but I chose to climb up further to get a good view. Good view is an understatement! This is truly an amazing place and I have not experienced anything like this before. Everyone is taking it their own way. Some are praying, others are doing yoga or meditating or something. A woman with a baby spreads out a blanket sets out a few toys, and sits down with her baby to watch the sun come up. All you can really hear is the water from the river down below and just...nature. I hear tour guide tell the group that after the sun rise they have plenty of time to explore before the tourists come in from Cuzco on the train which would be around 10:00 or 10:30. That's when it gets crowded.
After the awesome sunrise and watching the clouds change, I decide to hike up to
the Inca bridge. I really don't know what this is since I did very little reading about MP. This is not unusual for me.
The hike was kind of difficult, but beautiful. There are nothing but majestic views everywhere. I encounter people along the way and everyone says hello. Two women from India who I encounter tell me "The Inca bridge is closed!" What does this mean? They don't know either. I talk to them for a while, Narmada and Uma are their names. We look out and comment on the view and then we part ways. I approach the Inca bridge and I see what they are talking about. The bridge is always closed. There is a wooden barricade at the end of the trail.
I take a few photos and take turns taking photos of others with their cameras and them of me.
An 18 year old kid from Lima named Cristian talks to me and has all kinds of questions about my country. He is more interested in futbol (soccer) which as a typical US American I did not know much about. I did tell him about the Dallas Mavericks, but he only seemed
to know about the Lakers. (Boo).
Anyway, we walk back down the trail to the place where I started. He wanted to know if I wanted to explore MP with him and I said "OK". This was kind of a mistake because this 51 year old has a hard time keeping up with the 18 year old kid. Hey, I did it, but I felt he was going too fast. I was kind of dying (LOL). Oh well, after a couple of hours of hanging around he was going to climb up Huayna Picchu. This is a roughly two hour hike up the mountain that you usually see in the background of MP photos. This was something that I was not going to do. We said our goodbyes and "nice to meet yous" and then I was off on my own. the sun was getting pretty strong, and more people were arriving. I explored a little more and took a seat on a big rock and just sat there listening to music (MP3 player) and just looked. It was so peaceful. After a while it was beginning to get very hot and a lot of people were there. It
was 11:00 and I feel my time at Machu Picchu is coming to an end. The magic is over for another day.
I take the bus back and return to Aguas Calientes exhausted, hungry and happy. Before anything I just want to sit in the shade and have a refreshing beverage. My train back to Cuzco leaves at around 3:15 and it is about noon now. I have time to relax. I run into a few people that I have met, and I have a Pisco sour and a sandwich at the same restaurant as before.
I say good bye to some of the locals I met and even exchanged emails with Ruben from the restaurant. I only knew him for about 24 hours and he aced like we were long life friends. No kidding!
There were others who wished me a safe trip back some of them were the ones who tried to help me as soon as I arrived. What a bunch of good people!
On the train ride back, I am seated with a couple from Sweden and a Japanese tour leader. We have a good time. This time I am on the
next higher class train (only because the other one was sold out. It didn't cost very much though). We order Pisco Sours and talk and laugh. Every conversation is the same. Language, culture, etc. The Swedish guy was very interested in US politics and I gave him my opinion. Let's just say that I stood up for my President and he seemed to agree about how ridiculous Obama is being treated (referring to his nationality). He was also interested in Japanese stuff and asked the girl about the earthquake, Tsunami, and nuclear threat.
I know very little about Sweden, so I told him that I like ABBA (LOL) and IKEA. They had a good laugh and are also amazed that after 30 years, you can still hear ABBA anywhere in the world. They said they just heard ABBA in some small town in Peru. I can relate.
It get back to Cuzco around 7:00 and I am tired. I find a place to eat and get back to my hotel (the same one as before) and sleep in heavenly peace.
Oh, before that I run into those two Indian women (Actually, they don't live in India. One
lives in Cincinnati and the other in Washington DC. They were very happy to see me in Cuzco. We chatted a little and i gave them some recommendations etc. and we parted ways again.
This was all in one day.
Good night.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0296s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb