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Published: September 8th 2016
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After spending a couple of nights in Cusco waiting to arrange the Machu Picchu trip we finally got tickets. If you know when you are coming we suggest you to book it in advance as prices get out of control and availability for the trains gets to a minimum. We travelled to Machu Picchu on a Sunday, spend the night there and started our day early in the morning.
Arriving at the station in Machu Picchu town the little fellow was waiting for us to take us to the hotel, which the only thing we knew about it was that it was the same company as the hotel we stayed in Cusco.
We walked 20 meters along the rail track, crossed it and voilá, we had arrived.
Checking us in most have been one of the receptionists funniest moments as we requested to have a " quiet" room after our experience in Cusco. With a big smile Pablo gave us the keys and his assistant brought us to the room, this being right at the front, facing the -yep - tracks.
Okay, we settled, were chilling on our bed, thinking of our trip up the mountain the day after.
At 4:30
- to be precise - it felt as if the train had entered our room, passed our bed, drove through the whole room and left, thank God the driver didn't blow the horn otherwise the Sordo last name ( Sordo = deaf for those who do not speak Spanish :-) )could have become a reality.
Wow!
We could see Pablo peeing in his pants of laughter, picturing our faces after the train had just passed.
Nadine called the reception and said, "I have two questions, since we just have experienced a train coming through our room, how often do the trains pass and when is the first and last train arriving?"
10:30 pm and 5:00am and they pass every 35 mins, was the answer...
Since this is a blog that is read also by a couple of kids we will censure our thoughts of that moment and will just say, bummer!
The plan was to wake up at 05:30 anyway, but that is still a bit too positive, not?
What we didn't know was that there are some backpackers that walk towards the bus station ( to go up to the sacred city) already at 04:00 am to catch the
first bus at 06:00 and avoid the cues.
We arrived ( protesting) to the cue at 06:10 and it took us one hour and twenty minutes to reach the bus, the line was like the one of the space mountain in Disneyland, where did all these people come from???
There are 24 buses carrying 28 pax at the time on a 25 minute trip up the mountain ( you can walk too, up hill, on stone stairs, time? About 2 hrs, and not because I have short legs, which I do) and we knew we would have to cue upstairs as well...good thing was that this went a lot quicker, 10 mins, which is quicker than the bathroom cue - especially the ladie's one.
Once up we followed Hubert our guide, no, not Uber, Hubert.
In there he brought us back to the times when the city was built, how and why.
We were both surprised to hear that it was built in the 1430's !
Coming from a pyramid building country I, for starters, had expected something in the BC period, I guess I skipped the class when we spoke about it, or did we just focus on the
Aztecs and Mayans?
Anyway, Hubert took us to the terraces, the fields, the botanic gardens, to the temple of the Sun and the Earth, to the 2 story houses, to the " polaroid moment " places and all the way up to the highest point of the city where the temple of the sacred stone is.
One thing's for sure, these guys knew how to build! The arches of the doors, the windows, an hydraulic system that allowed the water to be filtered. Up to one point around 800-1000 people lived in here according to some studies, also, it was never conquered by the Spaniards, not only until a Yale professor kind of accidentally discovered it in the beginning of the 1900's when the world got to know about this incredible city.
Just as in many of the big wonders ( Pyramids, Great wall of China, Colosseum, Parthenon in Athens) a big energy, a big vibe was felt, it is always amazing to be able to feel it, to live it. You can also let your imagination fly and picture how it was during that time or absorb the energy, the wisdom, the care they had. By 10:00 AM the
place had turned into Disneyworld and there were people armed with selfie sticks, cameras, video cameras and the 3 euro baseball caps were all over the place. Suddenly the fact that we woke up very early and had been able to enjoy and take pictures without too many people around, became less painful. A couple of people were victims to the height and the heat - we had become better at it after Bolivia - and were well prepared with pills, water, food and the 3 euro caps.
After we had seen it all we got comfy in a little -balcony like place-that had shade and a bench.
From here the whole city can be admired together with the mountain behind it. You know, the one from the famous pictures, only closer - if you want THE famous picture you have to go 45 mins up into the Inca Trail, you will then be able to see it all from far.
We decided this was good enough and just enjoyed the view, the shade and the breeze before heading back to the buses that would bring us down to catch our 13:50 train to Ollantaytambo and then the bus
to Cusco.
In order to be able to go to Machu Picchu, we have had to change our flights and dates at our destination, it was all very much worth to have done it, nevertheless we were ready for Playa del Carmen, only one night to go.....
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