A Day at Machu Picchu

Yesterday began at 4:25a

We had gone to bed at 8:30p the night before in anticipation of the early-morning race to the mountain. We both kept waking up throughout the night, irrationally thinking that our watch alarm didn't go off (the things you think of when you're half asleep.) I was ready first, Amy had to do a few things to get ready. I looked out the window at 4:30a and there was already a backpacker walking down to the bus station. We walked downstairs at about 4:45a to eat breakfast just as a hotel guest was leaving. We had scrambled eggs, coca tea, orange juice and bread with jam. We scarfed it down and headed down to the buses at 5:00a to wait for 35ish minutes for the first buses to head up to Machu Picchu (there were a half-dozen or more operating.) It was raining, miserable rain, not hard, but just enough to soak whatever you're wearing at the time (it's very humid in Aguas Calientes, it's technically in the rain forest.) We were on the second bus, but by the time we loaded I wasn't feeling well. I thought that I was suffering from Tourista (tourist diarrhea) but I also felt nauseated on the way up (it turns out that it was just a combination of eating too quickly and not getting enough sleep.) The trip to the top takes about 25 minutes and zig-zags up a mountain. I ate two of the peruvian pepto bismol tablets that we bought in Cuzco and I felt much better after we got out of the bus and queued in line to get into the citadel. It was still raining so we put our ponchos on. We got into the site at approximately 6:15a and saw what we were expecting, the city of Machu Picchu in the clouds surrounded by jungle mountains on all sides.

1st picture at MP

Amy @ MP

Mountains around MP

Some of the dozens of terraces for growing food at MP

Machu Picchu, for those of you who are wondering, is one of the new seven wonders of the world and a UNESCO world heritage site. It was built in the 1400's prior to the Spanish conquest of the Incas. It's a massive complex with over 140 structures including temples, parks, sanctuaries, houses, etc. There are dozens of theories about what it was used for, some of the most popular are these:

• It was a resort estate of the Incan emperor Pachacuti
• It was a sacred religious site due to its location and ceremonial features
• It was an agricultural station, similar to Moray, where micro-climates could be used to test crops

Despite being relatively close to Cuzco (50 miles or so) it was never found by the Spanish and so it remains mostly intact. The Peruvian government has worked to restore much of the complex into it's original state. Machu Picchu was mysteriously abandoned approximately 100 years after it was built, in the mid 1500's. No one knows why. If you want to know more about Machu Picchu, click here.

We snapped several pictures of the site with the clouds all around us and made our way to the mountain on the other side of the ruins, Wayna Picchu, because we had purchased the extra ticket to be able to climb the mountain to get pictures from well above Machu Picchu. Only 400 people are permitted up onto Wayna Picchu per day, 200 at 7a and 200 at 10a, we purchased the 7a tickets (for an extra $15). We queued up again and signed-in at 7:02a. We had read many glowing reviews of this hike, including one in Lonely planet that lists it as a medium-level hike that isn't too easy, but isn't too difficult either, and it will take you approximately an hour. What happened in the next 3 hours of our lives was unexpected, to say the least. We began walking at a fairly brisk pace, we were excited to see Machu Picchu from Wayna Picchu because we kept hearing how incredible of a view it is. The path zigged and zagged, went up and down, some of the rocks were wet since it had been raining (it had since stopped) so we slowed down a bit. The path seemed to be relatively wide, though the steps were rather uneven. We approached a fork in the path and a sign that said Wayna Picchu small and had an arrow one way and Wayna Picchu big and had an arrow another way, Amy said "go big or go home" and I agreed.

Probably one of the better portions of the trail

Fairly typical, sometimes worse

Hands & Knees Tunnel

so many tired people

We proceeded through the trail, which started to head steeply up and then down again, with the path getting more and more narrow, slippery, difficult and dangerous. We could see the top of the mountain, and it didn't look too far. We also saw the people ahead of us, who seemed to be doing just fine. The path got worse and worse. Thirty minutes into the "hike" we expected to make it to the top at any moment. An hour into the "hike" we had resorted to hiking 10 uneven, slippery steps and then resting for a minute or so before we took the next 10 steps. By the time we got to the top, we were taking 5-6 steps and resting for a few minutes. Several of the sections required using your hands to pull yourself up the tiny wet notches in the rock in order to prevent from slipping and falling several thousand feet to your death, there were no fences, barriers, etc. to prevent anyone from plummeting a thousand or so feet at any time. We tried no to focus too much on the death aspect, despite finding out later this a few travelers and even guides die each year on this path. We proceeded at a snails pace to the top, occasionally the path had metal cables drilled into the side of the mountain that you could grab onto, but really this was rare and only in instances where absolutely necessary to climb up. We were passed several times by younger, more in-shape persons. We really had no idea at any point in the climb how far we had gone or how much further the top would be. We honestly kept telling ourselves that the top must not be further than 15 minutes away. It was extremely difficult to see the path in front of you, more than one landing at a time, 10 steps or so, so we really had no idea how close we were at any given time and signage was basically non-existant. We finally reached the ruins at the top of the mountain at about 8:20 and it took another 20 or so minutes before we got to the "top of the top" because we had to climb (hands and knees, literally) through a "tunnel/cave" and climb up a ladder through a hole in rocks and then climb about 60-80 more uneven steps to get to the top. Once we finally go there, there wasn't really a flat landing to stop and have a snack, so we perched ourselves on a ledge about 40 feet above another ledge that was about a thousand or so feet from the bottom and had a little snack of water, peanuts, slim jims, cheese and fruit rollups. It was delightful. We weren't even facing Macchu Picchu, but all of the mountains around the site are simply spectacular. I got a picture of Amy after we had eaten. The way down was almost just as difficult. Going up, we didn't really realize that some of these steps had a depth of only a few inches, we used the sideways step method to get most of the way down, but while we were still close to the top, we got some great pictures of the ruins and we were both able to pee on the side of the mountain. We also wrote our names in the dirt and took some pictures. Walking down took us probably 45 minutes. Our legs were jello the entire trip down, which made it pretty scary. We must have looked pretty pathetic, we had to take several breaks on the way down to catch our breath and strength. The view and the pictures were incredible, but neither of us would "go big" again, if we could do it over. I'm so impressed with Amy, she is like super-woman... 7 months pregnant, doing probably one of the most difficult hikes of her life. 

From the top of WP

Wild Strawberries on one of the upper terraces on WP

That's the road to MP we took yesterday morning

We "logged out" at 10:10a, feeling like we had just been rolled over by mac truck. We were the 6th or 7th back from the 7:00a group on the sign-out sheet. We wandered around aimlessly for a while until we found a remote place on a terrace where we spread out our poncho and sat for about 20 minutes, catching our breath and drinking water. It was nice to not use our legs. Apparently we picked a good remote spot because two men came down and peed across from where we were sitting, not knowing that anyone was within view. Anyway, our legs were basically numb when we got up, by then it was almost time for our buffet lunch at 11:30, so we tried to walk the most direct path to get to the restaurant run by the Sanctuary Lodge (a $900+/nt hotel next to the gate) but we got whistled at by the "site monitors" for going the wrong direction, despite the utter lack of signage indicating such a thing (annoying.) So we back-track and make our way through the ruins the "right way" and take several pictures while doing this. We finally get out of the ruins with about 15 minutes to spare and wait for the buffet to start with about a dozen other people.

Amy at the top, after a snack

View of Machu Picchu from Wayna Picchu 

AEM + Baby K Love LEM - MP Peru 2001

Finally back down, look at all the tourists!

Inner Courtyard

Terraces

Rain in the BG

Wayna Picchu in the back

Calendar Stone

a Llama & a Momma ;)

Say Whaaat?

The Buffet was expensive, but a nice break from walking. We bought it with our PeruRail tickets for $33/person (yeah, I know), but the alternative was either bringing a lunch and eating outside the park or taking the 25 minute ride back to Aguas Calientes to get food, then come back to finish our exploring and we had pre-bought the tickets months ago. The food was good. I tried the trout (excellent), chicken al horno (wood-fire grilled, excellent), lamb (also excellent), suckling pork (not that great), ceviche (good), meat pies with aijole sauce (good), and other stuff. We also had several Cokes with Ice! It was nice to sit on padded chairs and not stand up. Worth $33? no, but good none-the-less. It gave us some recuperation time and what we needed to visit the sun temple and a few other points at the site (see the pictures.) We walked around for another hour or two and headed for the bus down. I had kept the bus tickets in my pocket and I had sweated so much that one of the tickets was drenched and sorta rubbed off. The lady stopped me and had someone go reprint the ticket, which delayed us 5 minutes or so and frustrated us a bit. We were last on the bus so Amy and I had to sit apart. I chatted with an Australian guy who was at Machu Picchu with his parents who were divorced and had both lost their partners, they were there together as sort of a friendship ceremony, which sounded really touching. He lamented about their PM and we talked about travel a bit, which made the trip down seem fast. 

When we got back, Amy and I headed for our room and slept for about 2 hours. We woke up for just long enough to eat dinner, an unimpressive ham pizza and one of the many "cookie-cutter" pizza/mexican joints in Aguas Calientes. We were in bed immediately after that.