The road to Machu Picchu

After spending 15 hours on a bus ride from Nazca watching some dreadful films, we arrived in Cuzco and headed straight to a hostal. Afterwards, a spot of lunch was in order, where we started to get the ´Cuzco gringo experience´, which involves the constant offering of hats, puppets, massages and drugs. We declined all except the hat. The morning of the next day consisted of getting a full english breakfast from the only Real McCoy restaurant in Peru, looking for a decent tour to take us to Machu Picchu, and going to internet cafes. After uploading some pictures on Flickr (a link for which you can find on the webpage) we met up with two Australian travellers, Zane and Emma, Who we met in Vilcabamba, in Ecuador (during the night of free alcohol - see one of the previous blog posts). We then went for an all-you-can-eat indan buffet, for about 4 quid each. Also at dinner was Todd, who worked as the ´director of Cinematography´ in the adult entertainment industry. Didn´t really ask him about his work, but apperently he intends to name one of his future movies with the lead characters called Zane and Emma. We wern´t sure what to make of the either. The next day, I went quadbiking with Zane and Todd while Max and Franklin went to one of the massive markets in this area. After this, it was time to prepare for our 3 day tour to Machu Picchu, which would consist of biking, rafting and hiking.

The tour started at 6 am Peruvian time (so about 6:45 am), when a minibus took us and some fellow travellers to the top of a nearby mountain. We got our helmets and gloves wrapped up warm and headed off down the mountain, firstly on tarmac roads and then on dirtroads. By far the best bit was cycling on the dirtroad, due paticually to the heavy rain fall that started as soon as we got on to the dirtroad, which made things all the more exciting. During the biking, both Max and myself fell off, grazing our left knees. Max fell whilst high-fiving peruvian schoolchildren, whilst I fell after trying to simultaneously take a photo and steer a bike. Fortuantly, we are now both ok (relativly), but my camera has seen better days. With the biking over, we thought we would do a little white water rafting, but with only one place available, the others kindly let me do it whilst they drank 1.1 litre bottles of lager. After this is was an hours drive to the next town, then bed. The next day was taken up by a rather long hike through the highlands of Peru, which mainly consisted of climbing up one big hill, seeing some ruins (and Machu Picchu from a distance) and walking back down. This left us quite hot and sweaty, so the guide suggested a dip in the river at the bottom of the valley. However, this is where Max decided to get rid of pair number 3 of his sunglasses, for when he went under the water he was with sunglasses, and when he emerged he was without. He then had to borrow my ´Genuine´raybans for the rest of the walk, but I believe he has now bought his own, for the pricey sum of 5 pounds. After a decent lunch we headed up to the town of Aguas Calientes, following the river. On the way we learnt a quechua word ´apucontititriksiillawericochapachayacachik´. This means God. Just God. Why not just say God. Its not hard to learn, but much quicker. Ridiculous. In Aguas Calientes we trated ourselves to warm showers, ate dinner and went to bed, unaware of how long the next day was going to be...

We woke up at 3.30am and started to walk to Machu Picchu at 4. To get to Machu Picchu, one can either catch a bus, or climb 3600 stone steps built by the Incas. Naturally we chose the latter, and 45 minutes later we were waiting at the entance, about 50th in line. At 6am the gates opened, and we started our tour of Machu Picchu. The first place you go to is the ledge just behind the city, which is where all the stereotypical pictures of Machu Picchu are taken. After getting our pictures of the sunrise over the Incan city, we learnt about the various temples and houses that make up most of the city. A little bit of history: Machu Picchu was an Incan stronghold for about 70 years after the Spanish invasion, after which there is little evidence of where they went next. Some believe they may have fought and killed eachother, but some believe they retreated to the jungle, where they formed the city of ´El Dorado´. After the tour, we hiked up Huayna Picchu, the mountain behind Machu Picchu in all the photos. A gruelling 30 minutes hike and we were at the top, savouring the grandeur of the occasion (or for Max, having a little nap). After getting our customary photo at the top, we headed back down, where Max and Franklin headed to the Sun gate (another part of the ruins) whilst I went up Machu Picchu mountain, a trek that was exhausting but totally worth it. By the time I got back down, it was time to leave. Being the skint students that we are, we walked back down to Aguas Calientes instead of getting a bus, where we killed time until the train by eating dinner and listening to ipods. 1 train ride, 1 minibus ride and 1 coach ride later, we arrived in Cuzco at 2 am this morning, exhausted but amazed by what we had done. A big shout out to Hugo, our guide for the trip, who was full of facinating stories, useful information and ´interesting´ jokes.