Machu Picchu

To get to Machu Pichu, we took an hour and a half bus to Ollantaytambo and then bought train tickets to Peru Rail. They wouldn’t let us take our luggage on the train with us. Instead, we had to pack a small bag and then keep our luggage in storage. The train ride through the green mountains were beautiful, and after an hour and a half we arrived in the town of Aguas Calientes. The location of the town is beautiful; it’s a small valley surrounded by tall mountains with a river running through the center of it. The actual town itself was not too lovely. It is now completely a tourist destination for people going to Machu Pichu. The few streets are tightly packed with hostels and restaurants, and every few feet some one is trying to get you to eat at their restaurant. All the restaurants are the same, selling a wide variety of horrible food. We ended up eating at a little Chinese place that was all right. Now one tried to get us to go in and we only saw locals there.

The next morning we woke up at 430 am to catch the first bus to Machu Pichu. It was definitely hard waking up so early. There were no places open for breakfast, so we grabbed a couple of granola bars and a banana. We got to the bus stop at around five, behind a few other people, and quickly a long lined formed behind us. AT 530 we were off, and we made it to the entrance 30 minutes later at opening time. Silently, everyone walked up the steep trail to the hill over looking Machu Pichu, and it was absolutely breath taking. Since we arrived at opening time, there was no one walking through the ruins, so we got a really mesmerizing view. It was a cloudy day, so there were always clouds rolling through the ruins and around the mountains, which made it even more beautiful. At the top of the hill there were a bunch of llamas! Being in Peru has given me a newfound love for llamas and alpacas. We went up to pet them, but I was a little scared of being bitten because they seemed to be giving me the evil eye. We spent the next few hours walking through the majestic ruins. After getting our fill of the ruins, we went on a 20 minute walk through the woods to the Inca bridge. This bridge is now closed because a few years ago a tourist slipped off to their death. Seeing the bridge, I could definitely understand why people were not allowed to walk across it any longer. It was a narrow bridge built along the side of the mountain, leading to an even narrower trail on the other side. The trail was barely visible, and looked just like tuffs of grass growing on the side of the mountain. I can’t believe anyone would walk across it!

That night, it was hard to sleep because everything in our room seemed wet due to the rain and the humidity. We had thick blankets, but they just felt damp. Plus our room lacked windows and had a moldy smell. At least it was cheap and we had cable! I had a hard time falling asleep that night, so I ended up getting only about 5 hours of sleep. No bueno.

Walking up steep, scary steps

Climbing through a narrow passageway

Nate looking into the abyss and scaring me

The next day we woke early again to catch the first bus. This time we arrived at about 515, so we were behind around 50 people in line for the bus. We bought tickets to hike up Waynapichu, the tall mountain visible in the background of the Machu Pichu pictures. They only allow 400 people to do the hike each day, and it had sold out the day before so we had to turn Machu Pichu into a two day excursion, which I think worked out for the best since the hike was pretty tiring. When we arrived at Machu Pichu it was pouring down rain, which made us grateful for the great weather we had the previous day. Luckily by the time we walked to the entrance of the hike the rain had stopped, but Machu Pichu was so packed with clouds that nothing was visible. The hour long hike up the mountain was quite steep, luckily there were hand rails at the steeper areas. There were ruins built right on the top and sides of the steep mountains, and narrow stairways going everywhere, which just seemed terrifying to have to walk along, I can’t even imagine how they were able to build them. Besides building them, I can’t imagine having to walk up and down the mountain all the time. When we got close to the top of the mountain, we could not see Machu Pichu because of all the clouds, which gave an eery feeling of being on the edge of an abyss. To get to the very top, we had to walk through an extremely narrow passageway through a boulder. I used both hands when I walked along the stairs and the ruins when we were up here because we were so high up and I was a little freaked out at some parts. 

 

Finally, the clouds parted and we got an amazing view of Machu Pichu.

After walking up Waynapicchu, we took a second shorter hike up a closer, smaller hill. This gave us more great views of Machu Picchu from a closer viewpoint. On the top of this hill was insect heaven! There were tons of beautiful butterflies, but there were also tons of tiny black bugs flying around. We didn’t stay up there for long. After hiking around mountains for four hours, we were definitely worn out and glad that we had been able to explore the ruins the day before. We headed out in hopes to make our way back to Cusco. 

Angry llama