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After arriving in Cusco after a 22 hr bus journey covering probably 300km, from the small one horse town in the Andes that I decided we should go to, we were exhausted to say the least. We were slightly anxious about our trip to Cuzco as it is the ´gringo´capital of South America and ever since the beginning of this trip we had never considered that we would be able to do Machu Picchu due to the extortionate prices they charge. We had envisaged a town where we would be hassled every single moment and where we would meet only the rich, self important traveller who came because they just had to experience Machu Picchu because anybody who is cool ticks that box.
We can now say that at the very least we were pleasantly surpised, the town is a lot prettier than we had imagined and we were hassled slightly, but not much more than elsewhere. It was more the shock of being one of many tourists, which is a feeling we have not had for at least the last month, in fact quite the opposite as the locals up north had been more content wathcing us, the strange
tourists, than the television. We found a nice hostel that wasn´t too ´party´as many are in Cusco and on our first day met a really nice group of English lads, which immediately had our expectations exceeded.
So having had our first 2 preconceptions disproved, we thought there was no way that all 3 would come good and we would get to do Machu Picchu, but we figured seeing as we were in Cusco it seemed stupid not to at least find out some details. To give you an idea of costs the proper Inka Trail will normally cost you anywhere from 450 to 700 dollars for 3 nights and 4 days, there are alternatives out there like the train but to do a 1 night, 2 day trip on the train will cost you roughly 250 to 300 dollars, our budget in mind we were convinced there was no way we could get a price we would ne happy to pay. So off we went with credit card in hand and haggling on our minds, and success so within an hour much to our surprise we had booked a trip and we were off to Machu Picchu.
An
early start and in the car we got for a full days drive (the price we paid was for the cheaters), towards Aguas Calientes the town near Machu Picchu and then when everyone else got on the train to the town where we would be spending the night, Ben and I got ready for a 2 hour walk. Off we went walking down the train tracks ´Stand By Me´style with a spring in our step and feeling a little smug for not having taken the lazy route the whole way. An hour and a half in and the happiness waned when it started to get dark, we realised we didn´t have a torch and the road we hit had a choice of 2 directions we hadn´t anticipated. It´s fine we decided we will just keep asking people and walking as fast as possible and it won´t be a problem, until I realised that I had lost the address for the hostel that everyone was staying in and we had absolutely no idea where to go when we hit town. Hit the town we eventually did and wandered with no clue where to go, luck must have been on our side
as after 10 minutes walking around town we bumped in to 3 Argentinians from our tour who walked us to the hostel, which we reached gratefully.
Day 2 was a 4am start for an hour an half walk up steps to the entrance of Machu Picchu, which was very very very hard. Our newly found Argentinian friends by our side, all of us disgustingly unfit and one of the lads still smoking during the assent, we crawled our way to the top on the steps and to the entrance to Machu Picchu. We had talked with the Argentinians the evening before about many topics, The Malvinas conflict (embarrassing), the state of our respective national football teams (embarrassing again), and bizzarely when they were asking us about England and its things to see and do, they brought up Stonehenge and compared it with Machu Picchu.
Now I can categorically state that I have seen Stonehenge, and frankly its rubbish. People can say, wow! How amazing. How did those Druids get those (not that large) stones all the way from Wales. Well, compared with the Inca civilisation, those Druids were just lazy, Wales is so close in comparison to the
distance the stones for Machu Picchu were dragged or cut out of existing mountain!! All this and considering here you are about 3000 metres higher making lugging them stones that little harder. Plus those Incas always suckers for punishment constantly built these structures at the highest point they could reach. So it was with great shame and embarrassment again that I had to tell our new friends that in fact Stonehenge was not and never could be mentioned in the same sentence as Machu Picchu, and even though our pictures ( on the trusty but cheap point and click digital) will not show the true vastness and (it kills me to say this....) breathtaking grandeur of Machu Picchu, it will always kick the arse of Stonehenge.
Upon arrival up the steps of woe, we made it into the city at 6 am for a wander round. Sadly the height of the city combined with the early morning mist, conspired against us and the views were not that impressive. However, when we returned for our guided tour that yielded very interesting and astonishing facts about the length of time and manpower needed to build such a place, ( 20,000 people
and 40 years) the clouds had lifted, the sun was beaming down and the true brilliance of the construction could be seen. A lot bigger than we had expected it to be and built extremely well considering it was built about 600 years ago. Having seen Kuelap and enjoyed the fact that it had been left as it is today, it was slightly unfortunate that Machu Picchu is under construction ( see Inca builder ) and not all of the buildings are 100% as they would have been, although this is only very obvious up close, and it does allow the landscape photos to be even more impressive. It must also be said that they need to be doing something with the $40 per person that is charged for entrance, and with up to 1000 people a day allowed in (and many more turned away in high season), plenty of money is being made of this place, and it is only fair that it is kept well.
After a few hours wandering round and competing with many annoying ´traveller´ type people for photos ( many of whom it must be said were stupidly dressed Americans trying to gain energy off any rock that looked like it would give them any) we sauntered and stumbled back down the steps which was nearly as tough as the assent, and collapsed back at our base for a lunch of chocolate ( Twix´s no less) and slept on the long drive back to Cusco.
All in all well worth the money even though it is pricey, and well worth putting up with the people who are ´experiencing something incredible´ whilst rubbing their hands over stone, and far far far better than Stonehenge.
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James
non-member comment
Lovely scenes
Hi James here. Lovely scenes I can see, however you cant diss stonehenge. I bet they dont put on a mean summer solstice party at Machu. Do the incas do Special Brew? I dont think so. Ser'us. Hope alls well, come here! You know.