Machu Picchu

As I have been told by almost everyone - if you´re in Peru you have to see Machu Picchu. Especially as this year is the 100th anniversary of it´s rediscovery.

After going through the fairly long process of buying a ticket in Cusco (the system had crashed) we were going to visit Machu Picchu and Machu Picchu Mountain on the 21st August. The traditional way of getting to Aqua Callientes (the village nearest to the ruins) is by a very overpriced train. However, there is an increasingly used cheaper, if longer, route to get there.

From Cusco to Santa Maria and from there to Santa Teresa and then a short (2 hour) walk to Aqua Callienetes. The views to Santa Maria were absolutely spectacular and definetely made the longer trip worth it. I´ve seen many mountains but these were different - they were so green! After the dryness of the Colca Canyon it was quite nice to see some rain and with the clouds were also low around the mountain tops it looked gorgeous.

The walk to Aqua Callientes was very easy but Aqua Callinetes is not my favourite place to visit. It is just a huge tourist trap, like many parts of Cusco. The tourism has taken over the main part of the town and it is just full of over-priced restaurants all claiming to sell ´Peruvian Style Food´. Howver, the boy at the hostal showed us to his mum´s restaurant and we got some proper Peruvian food.

The next day we set off very early for Machu Picchu - at 5am. The walk up isn´t easy either - it´s about an hour and a half of stairs straight up. You arrive at the queue sweating and cursing the lazy people who got the bus. You can immediately tell who´s who by who is wearing their hats and scarves!

We entered and then we had our first sight of Machu Picchu - you can´t see it at all when climbing up. As the guide said it´s the picture that National Geographic took and I have to admit it was stunning. It´s huge and well preserved and very intricately built. We got a guide as otherwise you understand nothing.

He showed us the temples - Temple del Sol, Temple of the 3 Windows (originally named), Temple del Condor. It´s all built based around the sun and on 21st June the shadows line up and many of the sights become clearer than if you just see it on a random day. It was still very impressive and strange to think that so many people used to live here when now it´s so full of tourists!

There was also a rock that was meant to be a llama, one that was meant to be a guinea pig and one that´s a condor. The guinea pig looked more like a whale, you could see the condor with a little imagination and the llama was a square rock. They also grew hallocinogenic plants in the grounds. I don´t know if this is a conincidence.

After our tour we had a nap in the sunshine and watched some Peruvian school kids playing a game in the grounds - it´s amazing how much fun kids can have with nothing. And then there was our assault on Machu Picchu mountain.

Most people climb Huyna Picchu mountain but there were no tickets avaliable so to get the views of the ruins from higher up we climbed Machu Picchu mountain. It was not the climb I had anticipated. It was the most difficult walk I have done so far.

Again, it´s just stairs straight up and, wisely, we decided to try this around midday and so the sun was very strong. It is also much more humid than we were used to and so I have never sweated so much in my life. It wasn´t a very long climb - I think it took us less than an hour - but it felt like much longer. The workers maintaining the stairs seemed to find us entertaining. Although at that point I just wanted to get to the top!

And it was worth it. The views of Machu Picchu were amazing, let alone the surrounding landscape, it was absolutely stunning. There were snow-capped mountains and the cloud hung low, just reaching the mountains and you could see into the valley and were we had walked. It was also my favourite view of Machu Picchu. From 600m higher you really get an idea of how big it is and how long it must have taken them to build it. It´s an amazing construction.

Cusco and Machu Picchu were the last stops in Peru and next is Bolivia. I have only heard good things about it and so am looking forward to getting there although with such a short time left I think it will be quick visit to very few places!