Advertisement
Published: August 9th 2009
Edit Blog Post
In an effort not to sound ungrateful. Machu Picchu is beautiful. Better than beautiful, impossible. But, here´s my story. I took this seminar through Wanamey and Associates, and included in the seminar was a trip to Machu Picchu, so I didn´t think much about it and haven´t made plans to go to Machu Picchu otherwise. Maybe as a Spanish teacher I have read Neruda´s ¨Heights of Macchu Picchu¨ one too many times, maybe the seminar coordinators should try to get there and back in a day, maybe I should have tried to take a more active role in my planning, and maybe I just had a bad day. Regardless, the combination of a million factors led to this:
I got up early, got picked up by my travel guy and was taken to a bus full (partially) of people like me. Then, we headed to Ollantaytambo, where the train departs for Aguas Calientes (the town at the foot of Machu Picchu). That was 2 hours, then I got on the train for 1.5 hours and got into Aguas Calientes at about 10 am. The train was the backpacker class and the seats are set up so that four seats face
each other. That would be great if my knees didn´t hit the seat of the seat across from me and would have been even better if the family across from me (and all around me) hadn´t been a large number of young children. The travel agent told me that we would be at the ruins by 11 so it seemed as though all was good. The guide met us and took us to a restaurant and told us to wait there for her. AN HOUR LATER, we were all gathered up and getting on the bus to go up to the famous, beautiful, amazing, incredible Machu Picchu. Well, when you think of a place in that way you are almost always setting yourself up for dissapointment.
We arrived at the top and there was a hoard of people at the entrance. There are no bathrooms inside, so the guide told us to go and also told us to check our lunches if we brought them because there is no food allowed in Machu Picchu, so I did so. Of course, there was a charge of 3 soles, which is only a dollar, but I waited in line for 10 minutes and then the guy didn´t have change for my 100 soles bill. I was frustrated becuase the travel agent the day before INSISTED that I bring a lunch. After another 20 minutes of waiting for people in line for the bathrooms, we finally went into the ruins. There was no one checking bags for food, so as it turns out, my lunch would have been fine.
Upon entering the ruins (which you still can´t see from the entrance) we started to walk up to the first overlook that gave great views of the valley and things were starting to look up. Then a couple of tourists (like me) realized that they had to be back down at the train station for a three pm train. This made them unhappy (the lady repeating- ¨we didn´t fly 20 *exclamative* hours to spend two hours at Machu Picchu). They yelled at the guide until they were convinced that she really couldn´t help them and then snatched the cell phone out of the hand of the guide as she was speaking with the travel agency to scream at the poor victim on the other end of the line. We kept walking and at the next overlook, shortly thereafter, the guide appeared sans angry tourists.
After that overlook, there were stairs... that went up. Welcome to Machu Picchu! Up we went and it was great, we came out at the top of the stairs and there it was... the motherload, the grand poobah, and the most awesome view that I have ever seen. I was somehow dissapointed that my pictures looked just like all of the postcards that you see! After over a month of touring ruins, I have to admit that Machu Picchu is similar to much of what I have seen, the perfect stones, the terraces, the impossible angles cut into rock transported an impossible distance by a society with no wheel. However, the scenery around the ruins in combination with the impossibility of constructing something of that magnitude in a place like that makes them seem unreal. It was great and that view from the top looking down really was the absolute highlight of the day.
After that we did the tour and wandered the ruins for about two hours. There are trails that lead to the top of Wayna Picchu (the mountain that you see in the background of the postcard photos), Macchu Picchu Mountain that looks down at the classic postcard view and the Puerta del Sol which was the guarded entry to the city during Inca times. In order to climb Wayna Picchu I would have had to be there at 5am because they only let the first 400 people into the ruins do it. In order to climb to the top of the mountain looking over the ruins I would have needed two hours each way and in order to get to the sun gate, I would have needed an hour one way (according to the guide). I looked at my watch and decided that I didn´t have enough time to do a single one of the hikes and wandered around alone for about an hour before I realized that I had to take my meds and that my lunch was outside and I can´t fill my belly with Flagyl without at least a bologna sammie. So I headed out. By the time I got out of the ruins, retrieved my lunch, waited for the guy who still didn´t have change for my 100 soles bill, ate, took my meds, waited in line to have my passport stamped and started back into the ruins, it was time to go. At the exit I had watched hiker after hiker come out sunburned, bugbitten, sweaty, exhausted and high fiving one another. I was pissed that I didn´t get to do that.
As I rode in the bus on the way back down to Aguas Calientes and the train home, it was all I could do to fight back the tears. It was the dream of my whole life to come to this place and see the famous ruins and I didn´t even have enough time to hike a single trail, I think that homesickness after two days of traveling completely alone played a serious role as well. As the bus snaked its way down one switchback after another, I overheard a couple of North American girls talking about their day. It was such a different experience than my own that I was engrossed in their conversation as if they had been to a totally different place than I.
I was about to enter the waiting area at the train station and I heard ¨Trish!¨ This is not the first time that I swear that I heard someone call my name when I am six thousand miles from my closest friend only to turn around foolishly and look into a crowd of strangers. I turned around foolishly and there was Chrissy, a girl from Washington that I had met the day before. She gave me a huge hug and was so happy to see me. It made me feel better and they invited me to stay another day with them and hike again the next day, but I had a meeting in Cusco and would have missed my train waiting in line to see if I could change my ticket. I said my goodbyes to them and hit the waiting area. I got on the train and again was faced with sitting with a group of strangers in incredibly close quarters. This time I was lucky and a nice guy also traveling alone sat with me. He told me about his day and his hikes and I developed a plan. I´m going back to Machu Picchu before I leave this country and I´m going overnight with my roommate Jasmine. We are going to go on a Friday, stay the night and get up early to hike our butts off in the most beautiful setting I have ever seen. This trip, as it turns out, was a reconissance tour for MY trip to Machu Picchu on August 21st and 22nd. I am thrilled to have had the chance to see it and talk to the hikers while everything was fresh in their minds. I know the route, the road, the train and the trails and I can´t wait to go back, this time on my own terms.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0366s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Geniene Willette-Burman
non-member comment
Wow! Sounds like a day!
I am really enjoying reading your blog. I have been keeping up with your blog since you sent us the link and it seems like you are seeing and experiencing amazing things. Very, very cool! I have to say that your photo REALLY does look like all the postcard photos. I often find photos I take to be disappointing...they serve to bring back my memories, but never truly show the grandeur of a place that I am trying to show others (often students). I suspect that this is the case with these photos...just doesn't do it justice. Like you said, I too have always dreamed of visiting Machu Picchu. If my experience with photos combined with your descriptions can even conjure a quarter of what that place must be like...then I am soooo jealous! I have had days like this where you are locked into a timetable and a lack of prior information results in an inability to take advantage of everything you want to do during a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can totally relate to that feeling you were having when you were on your way back and it is horrible. That makes it all the more fantastic that you are going to take the opportunity to go back and see it and experience it in your own time and way. I am so glad for you and I truly hope that nothing unexpected comes up to interfere with that. I can't wait to hear about your return trip! Keep writing and enjoying...I for one will keep reading.