Peru Travels, Part IV: Machu Picchu

3:45am-- We wake up. The Big Day has arrived.
4:15-- We get in line for the buses to go up to the ruins.  We have a while to wait, but multiple people have told us that you have to get there this early to get in the first bunch of buses going out.
5:30-- We make it onto the first bus heading up the mountain, still in the dark.  We pass groups of people who are walking up the mountain, but that takes 2 hours and we have decided that's not worth our energy and we want to be at the top in time to see the sun rise [this turns out to be wise].  It takes about 20 minutes to get up there and then we wait to be let in...

not even sleepy because we're so excited!

6:00-- They open the gates at the base of the ruins to let us stream in and we head for high ground! The sky is getting lighter but the sun has not yet broken over the mountains--we have about an hour till that happens. 

my very first view of Machu Picchu!

We do some exploring and find a spot to camp out and eat breakfast while we wait. I make my first llama friend.

everybody is waiting for the light to hit the ruins

~7:30ish-- the sunlight has finally crept its way into the valley and to the ruins, and we are incredibly glad we are here to see it! 

~8-- we set off around the left side of the mountain we are on (Machu Picchu Mountain; Waynu Picchu is the opposite peak we are looking at from here) to see the Inca Bridge, a narrow path across a sheer rock face that the Incas used to take.  Tourists can walk partway along it but the most dangerous part is blocked off, for good reason (apparently an Argentinian died there last year trying to cross it).

yeah we're happy right here, no need to go any further

We make our way back to the ruins and around the the other side of the mountain to take another, much longer, trail to the Sun Gate at the eastern-most point of the valley.

oh yeah, also I make another llama friend

~10-- we fiiiinally reach the Sun Gate, not having realized how far away it was. But it's a pretty sweet view...

We relax here for a bit to take in the sun and eat another snack. The sun is out in full force, and it is occurring to us that we're seeing a lot of people wearing hats and sunscreen but we have neither.  We keep our heads down and hope for the best but we can already tell we're getting burned. In our defense, we are drinking plenty of water and staying well-nourished (well, one of the other girls is not doing this as much and it's going to catch up with her later). 

We head back to the ruins and spend the next couple of hours exploring everything down there, being told we are not following the directed path, and posing for goofy pictures.  In order to climb either of the mountains (Machu Picchu, which we have hiked around but not up, and Waynu Picchu on the opposite side) you need special tickets which we did not buy, so those aren't options but we see just about everything else there is to see up there! 

two more llama friends!

12:45ish-- it's getting cloudy and we're getting tired, so we head back down the mountain after our 7ish hours up there.  Our compromise for having taken the bus in the morning is that we will walk down, but even heading down takes us an hour and a half!  We're exhausted and burnt but absolutely thrilled with our day.  

Getting back to Aguas Calientes, finally

~2:45--we have to gather our things from our old hostel and move them to a different hostel for the night (booking problems!) but we have a private room this time, with our own bathroom, so it's worth it. Showers, naps, etc. then we head for a bite to eat.  

sunburned beauties

We have decided in advance that this afternoon we are going to Treat Ourselves, but we are so tired that by the time it gets dark (around 6) we are actually pretty delirious and can't do much but go back to our room. We are knocked out by 8pm.

(I barely remember taking this picture, that's how out of it we were)

Ok, so *Reflections*

We were obviously expecting the ruins to wow us, but they were even more amazing than we had expected.  Unfortunately, there isn't really any way to describe or capture in a picture the experience of being up there.  The whole day I kept thinking about how much I wished my family members could have been there to see it too, because I knew they would love it just as much as I did. And in addition to just the ruins, the setting itself was enough to take my breath away. I hadn't thought about what the surrounding forest would be like, but it's a jungle! We felt like we had stepped back in time into some sort of ancient hidden wild place (Caroline kept throwing out Jurassic Park), and the wispy clouds when we first got up there only made it more surreal.  There were a lot of tourists there, especially as the day wore on, but it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. For one thing, the area is a lot bigger than it appears, so there were still plenty of spots to hike to for secluded views and quiet thinking time.  Also, there was no trash anywhere, or obnoxious signs or other modern additions (other than the occasional arrow pointing you in the right direction), which I appreciated.  As exhausted as we were, we weren't sore at all the next day (aside from our sunburns, which were pretty bad).  All in all, I don't think there's anything I would have changed or done differently about how we saw it, other than possibly getting the extra tickets for hiking up the mountains. We didn't have a tour guide, obviously, so we had to make our own guesses about various things, but we preferred having the freedom to wander wherever/whenever we wanted as opposed to being stuck with a large group.  I do wish I had read more about the ruins and the Incas beforehand, just to appreciate the specific history of it as we were up there. But it's really impossible to make any complaints about the experience; it was fantastic! I really do hope all my family members get the chance to see it some day : )   

Peru Travels, Part III: Getting to Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes)

So, as I said, we took a van/bus out of Cuzco. The whole surrounding area is beautiful hilly farmland, with high peaks in the distance. We saw someone paragliding!

That van took us to Ollantaytambo, which is a town in the Sacred Valley, which just means there are a lot of Inca ruins in the area. Because of scheduling things we didn't have time to look around there, just went directly to catch our train to Aguas Calientes.  I'd never actually travelled by train before! It was a real, chuggachuggachoochoo, steam train and it went pretty damn slowly but I realized that was because it was winding around mountains.  We followed the path of the Urubamba River through the valley, and there were ceiling windows so that we could enjoy the views along the way. It got pretty hot in there with the afternoon sun and those ceiling windows.  Still, I thought it was very nice. Here it is, plus a video so you can get a feel for it, and an example of the gorgeous scenery along the way:

It's like you were right there with me! We made it to Aguas Calientes, which is not even really a functioning town so much as just the overnight point for tourists going to or coming from Machu Picchu. It's nestled in the valley straddling a river and built around the railroad tracks.  Every direction up is huge rock, and it would be a charming little place if not for the near-constant stream of Peruvians shoving menus in your face trying to get you to come eat at their restaurant.  We were accosted to sit down and eat dinner while we were very visibly lugging all our bags and things up the hill to our hostel. No thanks, sir, we're a little busy, if you can't tell. 

Plaza Mayor

restaurant row

We got to bed early that night and were quite pleased to discover our hostel had the most comfortable beds we had felt so far in Peru.  Which was a good thing, because the next day was The Big Day... 

p.s. If anyone is interested in getting a better grasp on the various ways to reach Machu Picchu, this was the best website we found that explained everything adequately for us: http://www.leaplocal.org/goinglocal/how-to-go-local-in-peru/how-to-get-to-machu-picchu/ 

Peru Travels, Part II: Cuzco

We landed in Cuzco/Cusco and immediately sensed a huge difference from Lima. Woah, it's SUNNY here. Like REALLY sunny.  That was the case for our entire stay in Cuzco, and apparently for every day in Cuzco, because even the local children's school uniforms include safari hats to keep the sun off their faces.  We had also been bracing ourselves for the altitude in Cuzco.  It is advised to spend at least a day there before trying to do Machu Picchu, so that your body can adjust to the altitude (over 11,000 ft above sea level), and boy did we need those two days.  Luckily, none of us got altitude sickness (which apparently feels something like a bad hangover) because we were careful to hydrate, hydrate, and hydrate as we had been warned to do.  But the thin air affected us for sure.  We were huffing and puffing just walking up one flight of stairs, and my out-of-shape self was literally out of breath after taking a long drink of water.  Not my proudest moment.

But Cuzco was beautiful!  It wasn't really what we expected, only because we had no idea what to expect other than the image I had in my head of a wall of Incan stones.  Our first night there we walked around the Plaza Mayor and saw more tourists than locals.  In the historic city center everything is catered to tourists, from the lodging and food to the ladies offering their massage services (not figuratively speaking, I mean like actual massages--which was very tempting to me) to the local police force doing a little choreographed trick show on their motorcycles (this is not a joke). There are little markets tucked into every block, and the locals will do anything to exploit themselves for your money, including dressing up in traditional Incan dress and carrying llamas and baby lambs around to pose for pictures with you (I caved. Only once).

SO MANY THINGS TO BUY

tourists will pay for anything, including a photo with this man and his shaggy dog

Cuzco has spread out up the surrounding hills, which makes for some really amazing views at night

see? this really happened

The next day was Friday, and since the coming Sunday (July 28th) was Peruvian Independence Day, there was a big parade and festivities all day, including bells/cannons/fireworks going off at all hours of the day and night, literally. That got a bit bothersome, but the parade was cute because all the school kids got the day off to march in the parade along with all the city officials and military groups! And we finally saw the locals (cusqueños) because everybody and their brother turned out for this parade.  

Peruvian babies are giving Chilean babies a run for their money

stayin' informed

these girls kept pointing at me and giggling? I'm gonna assume it was meant sweetly because when I finally brought my camera up to take a picture they got really excited and waved for it

we found the marching to be uncomfortably Nazi-esque...

THE RIOT PO ARE BACK. apparently they are called for any gathering of any kind

Then we found one of the Incan walls! You remember learning about how the Incas, somehow, without tools or machinery, got their giant rocks into square shapes and fit them together perfectly for all their buildings and walls. They're still standing in several parts of the city! 

this was when I caved. don't pretend like you wouldn't have done the same for these adorable little ladies and their llama (his name was Pablo)

More wandering around the city. Not noteworthy, but we passed two cops enjoying ice cream cones and the photo just delights me:

Then things took a weird turn, because we found ourselves in prime viewing spots for the military parade that was heading up one of the main avenues in town. At first, we thought "oh, this will be cool!," but then we heard them chanting and saw their rocket launchers and noticed the increasingly-creepier face paint and changed our minds to "what the hell kind of parade is this?..." It was still a parade, don't worry, it was just a weird, creepy, militarized one.  And there were these people running around in creepy masks to keep the crowd back far enough, and they just really did not help things.

what are you stop looking at me!

We made it to one of the big markets in Cuzco, where we strolled around and I chuckled to myself when I found this lady taking a nice little nap among her fruit:

That was pretty much it for Cuzco.  From there we took a van/bus to a nearby town to catch the train that would take us to Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu.  On the way out we got to see a lot of the city that is not touristy, and the huge disparity was a little unsettling to me. In a big city it wouldn't strike me as weird to see wealthy central parts geared to tourist profit and much poorer outskirts, but Cuzco is only a city of about 500,000, and I'm talkin about a HUGE disparity. You can definitely tell where they put all their money, but I guess the tourism industry is their main source of profit so it's a wise investment. Still though, it didn't sit right with me. All three of us agreed that Cuzco was pretty but way too commercialized/touristy and we wouldn't have wanted to spend any more time there. On to Machu Picchu!