Machu Picchu

So we arrived in Aguas Calientes yesterday morning after a scenic train journey from Cusco. AC is a small town that is only accessed by train and it serves the sole purpose of hosting thousands of tourists on their way to Machu Picchu. It took us a while to find accommodation despite every other building being a hostel (the other buildings were bars or restaurants) because almost all the hostel receptions were unmanned!

We did some much needed cycle route planning in the afternoon and then napped to recharge before the hike up Mt.Putucusi. The hour long "walk" up to the summit of Putucusi (500m altitude gain) involved multiple near vertical wooden ladders, the longest of which was about 30m high. The summit gave us our first glimpse of Machu Picchu in the distance.

We were all looking forward to a nice long shower after the sweaty hike, but the shower in our room turned out to be cold enough to make Andy scream in pain (Toby in his seemingly never ending genius tried the other tap and got a nice hot shower). Next we headed out for dinner and a well earned cerveza (beer). A 10 hour sleep now stood between us and one of the seven wonders of the world.

Food and drinks are banned from the Machu Picchu site to force tourists to cough up $35 for a nasty buffet lunch. Naturally, we stuffed our bags with contraband bread rolls, jam and crisps and boarded the bus to the entrance of Machu Picchu. The $18 ticket is definitely the most money I have ever paid to travel 8 km in a bus but it is just another example of everything at Machu Picchu being "criminally overpriced", in the words of the Lonely Planet guide.

Once within the site, we spent an hour exploring the ruins, navigating our way around the hordes of tourists and taking photos. We knew little of the history of Machu Picchu and we refused to pay for a criminally overpriced tour guide so we decided to make up our own Inca facts. Notable highlights include the fact that the Incas developed ink, and were such excellent swimmers they even invented the back stroke. The ruins were pretty impressive but we were glad that our visit included more than just wandering around the site all day since we had tickets to climb up one of the mountains overlooking the site.

We completely forgot that the entry to Mt. Machu Picchu closed at 11am and plenty of pleading in mime language was required to convince the man to let us in at 11:20. Andy, hereby referred to as 'mountain goat' shot up the hill effortlessly whilst myself and Toby, hereby referred to as 'ugly mess of sweat and tears', huffed and puffed up the hundreds of steep stone steps to the summit, some 650m above Machu Picchu. The weather was perfect at the summit and we took some great photos looking down to the ruins. It was definitely worth the pain and suffering and our visit to Machu Picchu would have been incomplete and somewhat disappointing without this climb.

We had many hours to kill before the train back to Cusco so we sat and had lunch in a bit of shade looking out to Machu Picchu. Before long, we were all almost asleep and we laughed at the irony of having spent so much time and effort in visiting this wonder of the world, only to cover our eyes and fall asleep in the grass after a few short hours of exploring.

Right now we're on the train back to Cusco and tomorrow we are having a day off to rest, finish planning our route and explore more of cusco. And then the riding begins!

Photos:
Climbing up Mt. Machu Picchu
View of Machu Picchu from summit
Asleep at the Machu Picchu
Classic Machu Picchu shot
Ugly mess of sweat and tears