Machu Picchu
5:28 pm Sunday, 16 November, 2008
Okay so, Machu Picchu.
So we’ve arrived around 7am and we are waiting for the checkpoint to open at 07.30. We gather without realising we are already inside the city and we are at the “classic spot for photos” but of course it’s cloudy. There are many unhappy people but as I may have mentioned I don’t care! The city drifts in and out of view through the clouds and it’s huge. Piece by piece it appears and you start to get a sense of the scale. It’s awesome, it’s beyond awesome.
We head down to the checkpoint and we are in! Now the peak above the city is called Waynapicchu and only a limited number of people are allowed climb it each day. A few of us want to do it and so we rush, at times running, across the entire site to the base of the mountain to get our tickets. It’s awesome, it’s maybe 15 minutes to get over to there and the city is just breathtaking. We get our tickets and then head back to the other side to meet up with our guide (more on him in a bit) and then we have our tour of the city. It’s excellent, the whole thing is just. It’s beyond words and to be honest the photos don’t do it justice either. We spent so much to get there over the past few days and to be rewarded like this is everything you could hope for. Can you tell that I really really loved it?
So we go through the tour for about 2 hours and by then the weather is all over the place. We have moments of sunshine and more moments of mist and of rain. As our slot to climb Waynapicchu comes around, most have decided not to bother and it’s left to just Maree and myself. And so we climb…again. More steps and more steps and more steps and more steps and of course it’s uphill. We start to get rewarded about halfway up with little glimpses of the city below. We also start to get wet as the sky opens up. It’s back to ponchos and to full weather gear. This makes the climb tougher, the steps are bad, there’s a safety rope (which should give you an idea of bad it is, there is no such thing as health and safety in Peru!) and there are times that it’s scrabbling up with your hands. Anyway we make it to the top and we can’t see a thing, it’s cloudy and it’s lashing. So there’s only one thing for it…we finish the scotch!
Then it’s a slow climb down in pouring rain with slippery steps and flowing mud in places. A quick run around the site again for a few more photos and that’s it, the adventure is over and it’s off to Aguas Calientes for some food, some drink and some hot springs. Well I say hot springs but we’ll go with slightly warm springs but if you wave your hands they bring you beer.
Then it’s the train back to Cusco where again if you wave your hand they bring you beer. It was a most excellent train journey and just what we needed. It’s into the hotel and sleep sleep sleep.
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