The train actually dropped us off at a town just outside of Machu Picchu called Aguas Calientes. It's definitely an up and coming tourist town. A lot of new lodges were on the verge of being finished, but we decided not to stay in town because we heard that it sometimes loses power, and as a result the refrigeration (and thus the food) was a little suspect. From Aguas Calientes, it's a windy 20 minute bus ride up the mountain to the ruins.
Just entering the park is spectacular. We set out with the mission of getting tickets to the Waynapicchu trail, which leads to the peak in the back of this shot:
It's the most popular hike in Machu Picchu, because the climb is relatively short and the peak overlooking the ruins. We were somehow under the impression Waynapicchu tickets were sold in the park, just outside of the trail entrance. We jetted across the park, barely even stopping to take pictures...
Ok, I was lagging behind a little bit, because I couldn't resist.
When we got there, though, someone informed us that the Wanyapicchu tickets were actually sold at the entrance. Whoops.
We high-tailed it back to the entrance, but the tickets were sold out. We later found out that the tickets were sold out long before we even got to the ruins. You actually HAVE to stay the night in Aguas Calientes be at the park gates around 4:30am to get tickets.
I have to admit. I was a little downhearted after that. I was a little mopey as we headed up towards the sun-gate, another spot with a supposedly decent view of the ruins. We never made it though, since we got distracted by a little detour marked by this sign:
Maybe we could get a better view if we hiked up a little ways along this trail. After about 15 minutes, we finally caught a glimpse of the ruins over the foliage.
The trail kept going, so I figured, there'd probably be a better view even farther up. I saw some lizards along the way, so I was entertained despite the hard work of hiking at high altitudes.
We saw an inch-worm that was making the climb with us. We figured, if he could do it, so could we.
After a while, we decided the inch-worm was just holding us back, so we hiked on. Finally, we got a clear short of the ruins from afar.
But alas, there was nobody else on the trail, and no good spot for the camera's self-timer feature, so we couldn't get a shot of us together. We were forced to hike on. A little while later we caught up with an American tour group that was slowly trudging up the same trail. As we passed them, we asked how far they were going along the trail. They said “You see that flag up there? That's where.” You can't really see the flag in this shot... we could barely see it standing there:
It was then we realized that we were on the trail to the highest of the three peaks surrounding Machu Picchu, the namesake of the area in fact. We should have realized at the base, when the sign said English equivalent of Machu Picchu mountain. We just couldn't believe that a trail went up that far. Not without a cable car anyway. We moved on and finally found a spot with a view to set the camera down.
By that point, though, we were already half way up the mountain. Oh well, there was no turning back at this point. We were starting to wrap around the mountain so we saw a different valley.
The views of the ruins kept getting better, so we kept climbing.
The flag was slowly getting closer. Boy, I was really starting to feel it though. Each step seemed to take twice the effort it should have. Finally, after about 2 hours of hiking, we made it to the top.
From there we got a full 360 view of the surrounding valleys.
We figure we were the second and third people on the peak that day, since we met only one other person on the way up (aside from the tour group we left in the dust). We stayed up there for quite a while,and eventually some fellow hikers joined us.
When noon rolled around we realized we were getting hungry, so we started the decent.
Ming would like fans of Chinese historical soap operas to note the skillfully tied pack she's wearing on her back in that last shot (she learned it from Huanzhugege).
It took about an hour to make the decent, but as I would find out in a few days, that was the portion that really killed my calves. I finally see the up-side of Ming's step class addiction: Machu Picchu hike training. Once we got to the bottom, we stepped out of the park to enjoy an expensive, but tasty buffet at the Machu Picchu sanctuary lodge.
We took over an hour for lunch, mainly because we were so beat from our hike. Since we still hadn't really seen the ruins up close, we hired a guide outside the gate to take us around the ruins.
It's pretty amazing what the Incan's were able to accomplish with rudimentary tools. They split enormous stones by pounding holes in hairline fissures, inserting wood, and using water to expand the wood until the stone broke apart. Pretty clever. Then, just imagine all the chipping and polishing that would have to go into making these seamless walls of stone.
They even went so far as to carve miniature versions of the surrounding mountains out of stone.
It's mind-boggling when you stop and realize that Machu Picchu survived relatively intact from the Spanish conquests because of its relative unimportance and lack of grandeur/treasure. If this tiny, young, "unimportant" town was this glorious, just imagine what the real cities and throne-rooms and palaces of the Incas would have been like if they weren't destroyed by the Spanish!We decided to splurge and get a guided tour for the rest of the day.
We had to take rest stops every now and then, these "thrones" worked well for us.
Of course, what's a day without more animal shots -- here's Ian's shot of the Machu Picchu bunnies.
After the sun starts to set, it's time to head back to the train station to catch our ride home. We had taken the "backpacker" train out in the morning since it was the first to leave, but we were on the "vistadome" train for the ride back. Apparently the extra $15 buys you a sandwich and a visit from the Peruvian ghost dancer.
The train stopped and they played music while this guy ran up and down the airs spinning in circles and waving his stuffed lamb. It was definitely interesting.
What a neat narrative, and pictures. How high was that peak you climbed? It looked like a pretty decent descent...:)
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