Well worth the effort, I think

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We were all somewhat sceptical when our 'guide'promised that we'd be on the first bus in the morning up to Machu Picchu (decided not to walk as we'd heard there was a big enough climb at the top to Mayna Picchu for views over the main site).

True enough, we crawled out of bed at 4am, had a typically dull trail breakfast and wandered along to the bus stop in town, where we discovered we were the first there. Naturally, Kike the guide had yet to purchase the bus tickets (though he'd told us he had), but we held our places in the queue long enough to get the best seats on the first bus.

After 40 long minutes on a winding road up the hill to the ruins, we arrived. The bus stopped beside the >$900/night luxuryu hotel and we queued to get in. Laura & I managed to get near the front of the queue and thus had the chance to see the amazing ruins without the annoying sight of hundreds of other tourists.


Coming round the first bend (see above) was a breathtaking sight, once which everyone's seen in many tour books and posters, but still amazing to see first hand. Years of wanting to see the beautiful ruins and here we were.


Inside, we had one last bit of information from our guide on the history of the place, accompanied by some lovely llama sneaking up on us looking for their photos to be taken, before having time to explore the huge site ourselves.

First stop was the other climb behind the site, to the ruins on Mayna Picchu - the famous rock you see in all the photos. Having walked for 5 days straight, we were not to be undone by this last climb. For some 40mins, we trudged up the thousands of steps (rocks in most cases), hanging on for dear life at points where the drop was particularly scary. At the top, a quick (and for the claustrophobic amongst us frightening) scramble through a small tunnel led to some fantastic views (when the clouds cleared) of the entire Machu Picchu site. Awesome!




All of the group managed to complete the climb, and we had a nice half hour or so eating chocolate and taking silly pictures of toy hamburgers, etc for the folks back home.



The climb back down was somewhat daunting...going up it was fairly easy to avoid looking down...


Myself and a Swiss girl from our group decided on the way back to see the cave signposted on the trail up to the top...a mistake if ever I made one. 45mins each way along a winding trail at least as long (and difficult) as the climb I´d just done just to see a few tables carved into rock under a large slab of stone...not good. The German spiritual group we saw there, huddled cross-legged in a circle chanting some nonsense seemed to enjoy it, however.


Back at the main site, I managed to lose Laura for an hour or so, during which I wandered the ruins aimlessly, killing my knees even further. Got some nice photos, though. Once together with the gang again, I decided to follow our Swedish friend CJ in running (yes) down the few thousand steps back to the town of Aguas Calientes below..didn't take long, and I got a few strange looks from the gringos stupidly making the climb uphill at midday. My knees may take a few years to recover, however.

The tour was finished with a quick taste of the local delicacy cuy (guinea pig to you & I). More of a dish for the tourists, I think, for there is so little meat that you'd need to eat 20 of them to sate the hunger of the trip we'd just completed.



Our train back was fairly sedate in comparison to the days just past, probably due to the lack of collective energy remaining, particularly for those of us who'd had the guinea pig. Just enough left to enjoy a night out in the dodgy clubs of Cusco (and for some of our company to sample the locals!)

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Comments

[Patrick]

The guinea pig looks revolting.
Congtatulations on getting there. I feel tired even reading about these climbs! Great photos, we are all enjoying your stories.