Magical Machu Picchu

Not even a 5am wake up could contain the group's excitement about getting back up to explore Machu Picchu with our guide Miguel. After jumping on the "Bus of Shame" we arrived at the ruins to see it clouded in, which gave it a mystical and magical feeling as we walked through the ruins with the clouds enveloping us. Already at about 6:30am there was a large number of tourists already at the site, and we were told that the numbers would keep increasing. The reason for the early start was to get up there and have our tour around before the hordes arrived.

Miguel gave us an initial 30 minute talk at a spot overlooking the ruins. He spoke of the history of the place and the significance in Incan culture (both of which there are many theories on), the fact that the Spanish conquistadores never found it high in the hills, and the "discovery" in 1911 by Hiram Bingham an American academic/explorerer (Think Indiana Jones). An interesting note here is that when Bingham stumbled across the ruins, they were covered in vegetation and a local farmer was grazing stock on the slopes! The locals clearly hadn't forgotten about the place.

Our tour of the ruins took about 2.5 hours, during which the clouds burned off to bathe the site in sunlight. By the end of Miguel's tour I had definitely noticed that the numbers of tourists had increased rapidly. The main points of interest we took in were the Intihuatana ("hitching post of the sun"), the Temple of the Sun (the only round building at Machu Picchu), the Temple of the Condor, the Room of the Three Windows, the Royal Tomb, the king/lord's house (including his toilet) and the Water Fountain. To be fair I heard so much information on the places that we stopped at that it was hard to take it in. Not only were there the major stops, but all around us were residential houses, agricultural terraces, plazas, stairs, along with a few local llamas.

As with a lot of Incan construction they integrated their buildings into the surrounding rock. A prime example at Machu Picchu is the Temple of the Condor. Hopefully the photos below show how this has been achieved with the rock on the floor representing the head and beak of the condor, and the rock at the back representing the wings of the condor.

Without creating too much work for myself and typing out all the facts, details and figures on Machcu Picchu any old Google search will turn up a wealth of knowledge and info on the ruins. So if you want to know more I encourage you to do so. There are many varying theories of why it was built and what is was for so far be it from me to add to those. Personally though, for whatever rhyme or reason for building the place, it was an inspiring site. The journey there was exciting, trudging along the Inca trail with the goal of Machu Picchu at the end, but being there was amazing. It is hard to express in words how impressive the city is, surrounded by hills and clouds. No wonder that it is now one of the new 7 Wonders of the World!

Our tour finished at about 9:30, so we were then free to explore the ruins for as long as we wanted. Simon, Mitzi and Sam decided to climb up Huayna Picchu, which is the hill you see in all the pictures of Huayna Picchu. Apparently it takes about 45 minutes to climb to the top - they blitzed it in 22! After three days of sweatiness, trekking and being surrounded by people, I decided to stay nice and clean, comfy, and headed off for some contemplation and quiet time away from everyone. It was great to wander through the ruins on my own, and I found a nice spot to sit and enjoy my own company while overlooking the site. I also headed off to an old Incan bridge that was about 10 minutes away from the main ruins. You used to be able to walk across the bridge, but due to a fatality a few years ago it's now off limits.

By the time I had wandered back from the bridge and the others had returned from their Huayna Picchu expedition, the amount of tourists had grown to an annoying level, especially the loud and milling about types who are the prime candidates to take the train to Machu Picchu. We decided to jump back on the bus down to Aguas Calientes and unfortunately end our Inca Trail and Machu Picchu experience...

...an experience I will never forget.

The Inca Trail - Day 3

An 8 hour hiking day beckoned us today as the group decided to take Plan B. Most people who walk the Inca Trail take four days to reach Macchu Picchu, as they camp at Winaywayna on the third night, get up at the crack of dawn (she must be a skanky lady cause she gets a lot of that...sorry bad joke), and stumble around in the dark with torches to get to the Sun Gate ("Intipunku" in Quechua) and watch the sun rise over Macchu Picchu. Miguel, our guide, said that it is normally clouded over so you don't see jack. So in our collective wisdom we ditched Plan A in favour of Plan B. In a nutshell, Plan B was to trek all the way to the Sun Gate from our second night campsite and arrive at Macchu Picchu in early afternoon to a guaranteed view of the ruins. The bonus was that we got to spend the afternoon at Macchu Picchu and as long as we wanted the next day, we could sleep inside (albeit on the second floor of a restaurant!), and hit the hot pools at Aguas Calientes to ease our aching joints.

Although a long day of trekking, the journey wasn't too arduous in an upwards sense. We climbed up to the third and final pass of the trail at Phuyupatamarca and along the way visited the ruins of the same name. Next followed about 4,000 Incan steps (accoring to the experts who I assume have counted them all...) down towards Winaywayna. Trudging downhill got pretty tiring after a while and all I wanted to do was arrive at the next stop. The old knees started to take a pounding and it was again that the sticks we bought on Day 1 came into play. Following the steps was a seemingly neverending downwards zig-zagging path that felt like it went on for hours. Finally we arrived at Winaywayna in time for lunch - a hearty feed of papas fritas (fries) and beef patties. I also splashed out on a bit of civilisation at this stage as I bought a coke and some popcorn which was a delght to the culinary senses.

Following lunch and a brief visit to the nearby ruins (see photo below), we headed off for the leg to the Sun Gate. The morale of the group was pretty high as we wereall excited about finally getting a glimpse of the magical Macchu Picchu (and cause we had full bellies!). Most of the trek to the Sun Gate was flat aside from a brief, and in my case, extremely sweaty, ascent at the end. As a Kiwi and keen for a Hillary-esque moment I was the first one of the group to arrive, and stepping out from behind the Sun Gate I had the first view of Macchu Picchu. I was buzzing out, and when the site came into view I couldn't believe that I was finally here.

The view was amazing as the ruins were bathed in sunshine. Cecile and Merryn were the next to show up and after getting some photos taken by a kind stranger we waited for the remainder of the group to arrive. Needless to say everyone was pretty excited and after a lot more photos (both for us and on behalf of other groups) we picked up our feet and headed down the mountain towards the jewel in the Inca Trail crown.

Upon arrival at the site we hung mostly around the Hut of the Caretaker of the Funeral Rock. I sat there just taking in the ruins and still feeling rather surreal that I was there. It was mid/late afternoon when we arrived so there weren't too many tourists around the ruins which allowed us to breath them in without too much distraction. Our big in depth tour of the city was due to take place the next day so after hanging around the hut for an hour and taking some photos we headed down the hill to Aguas Calientes.

The descent was more stairs, much to our chagrin. At the bottom Cecile, Simon and posed for the compulsory exit shot to balance up the entrance shot. The total trip down took about an hour and a half later when we arrived at Aguas Calientes a little grumpy (cause of the stairs), tired and stinky. Nothing a trip to the hot pools didn't solve (although the stinky part is still debatable). The main pool smelt like urine but we wisely spent our time in some of the smaller hot pools that had sandy/gravelly bottoms. It was a weird feeling and I wondered why the water didn't seep away. Fluid physics has never been my strong point. Our accomodation, as mentioned earlier, was on the second floor of an Italian restaurant (complete with little ginger kitten scrounging for food), although the porters still fired up their cookers out the back and served us a tasty feed. After dinner we said our thanks to the cooks, porters, and assistant guide, Gato (who was really called Sergio), as they were leaving us. We managed to rustle up some cash for tips and they probably headed off to blow it all at the pub. Bedtime clocked in at 10pm as we were due to get up at 5am the next morning to catch the bus back up to Macchu Picchu for our tour and day at the ruins.

The Inca Trail - Day 2

The sun shone bright and early as we awoke at 6:30am to tackle the toughest day on the Trail, the ascent up to Warmiwanuska or "Dead Woman's Pass". From our campsite it was a 900 metre change in altitude to the Pass, and we set out an hour after rising on a breakfast full of pancakes. Miguel said that it would take about 3 hours to get to the top of the Pass, so no one was really looking forward to the ascent. We could see the Pass from our campsite, it looked little in the distance, and someone made a joke about hiring a helicopter. Before breaking camp we had a group photo, which you can see below was more like a small army.

The ascent up to the Pass was fairly steep and consisted of quite a lot of steps as well as inclines. What made it worse was that the sun decided to shine brighter, and the sweating episode that occurred on the previous day was about a million times worse. But as tough as it sounded the ascent was a lot of fun, with great views, a few strategic stops, heaps of water taken in through the mouth, and promptly lost through the pores, as well as some singing when breath allowed. I can't believe that I voluntarily sung "Mambo No 5" but anything that took the mind off the climb was welcome. The body held up superbly and as the Pass came into sight the adrenalin started to kick in and the pace intensified. No big problems with the altitude, although I put that down to the coca leaves I was putting back at regular intervals.

Just a quick note about Dead Woman's Pass. You can see from the photo below probably why it is called so. It's a dead woman lying down and this picture shows her breast, with the actual Pass just underneath her breast! The Pass is at 4.2 km above sea level and the view from the top is amazing. We managed to prove Miguel wrong by getting up there in 1 hour 40 minutes, and I was so pumped I even ran the last 40 metres or so. Simon and I were first up, closely followed by Sam, then Merryn and Mitzi. Actually we passed some of our porters on the way up, but I suppose they were carrying 40kgs worth of stuff!

The view from the top was amazing. The first two photos below shows the view back down towards our first campsite, where you can make out tents. The third photo looks out across the valley on the other side of the Pass. The fourth shows Merryn, Simon, Mitzi, myself and Sam with well rested lungs.

We rested for an hour before we headed off down the other side. A few others of our group had turned up at that stage, but as Miguel had said at the start of the day, just rest and then keep on going down the other side of the Pass until we reached our lunch spot. In continuing our power walking episode Simon and I charged down the other side of the Pass and reached our lunch stop at Paqaymayo, which for some groups is their second night stop. We arrived way before the porters had even started setting things up, so we gave them a brief helping hand then we sunbathed for a while waiting for the others and lunch. I also had to hang my singlet out as it was drenched in sweat. Yummy!

Following another hearty lunch and self-applied sponge bath, it was back on the Trail and up towards the ruin of Runkuraqay and the high pass above it. The altitude differential was only about 400 metres from where we had lunch so the climb wasn't as tough as the one up Dead Woman's Pass. The clouds began to roll in and it cooled down so I welcomed the relief from the sweat. Runkuraqay was an interesting ruin. It is designed in the shape of a moon and the Inca and his queen(s) would stay there on their journeys to Macchu Picchu apparently. It also housed runners who were part of the Incan message chain that existed along the highways of the empire. The Pass was a little higher than the ruin, and going down the other side consisted of quite a steep downhill leg and stairs.

Just before we hit our second night campsite of Chakiqocha, Miguel, Simon, Sam and I checked out the ruin of the fortress/temple of Sayacmarca. The others headed on to the campsite but we pottered around at the ruin for an hour while Miguel spoke about its significance. The fortress was cool as it sat on a promontory that jutted out into the valley. Clouds hugged the ruin and shrouded it at times from the rest of the valley. I liked the idea of Incan soldiers posted up here and living their lives awaiting prominent visitors and royalty to pass by, while the clouds rolled in and out.

Our second night campsite wasn't too far from Sarcamarca and we arrived there at about 4pm to find tents erected, warm water waiting, and the girls sunning themselves. The view from the campsite was amazing, which wasn't a surprise as the rest of the Trail was superb and I expected nothing less. It was so peaceful to stand and look at the snow covered mountains, and imagine life up here in a much less modern time.

I think I was pretty wasted from the day's efforts, and not to mention that I sweated out heaps of water, as I got a migraine at dinner and hit the hay at 7:30pm! The group joked that I was having coca leaf withdrawals as I hadn't had any since lunchtime - there was probably an element of truth in that!