Tour Machu Pichu, bus 06:00
Lunch meenemen van hotel
Tour Trein 15:20 Aguas Calientes-Cusco
Dinner Greens in Cusco
Hotel El Mariscal Cusco
Aguas Calientes (=Machu Picchu town)
This valley village can only be reached by train or foot. From here a bus leaves to Machu Picchu, that is what this villages is all about. The small village consists entirely of hotels and restaurants, and when you step out of the train you have to roll your luggage through a souvenir market.
We settled at the central square and enjoyed the Halloween party, which happened to be here. Children were dressed up and running and collecting sweets everywhere. Big fun. We also enjoyed watching the way of walking of people here. If there would be a contest of funniest walks, these people would win. They bend over so much, they seem to fall. And while walking they hop. We laughed a lot.
From Ollantaytambo you can also walk to Machu Picchu. That is called the Inca trail and takes 4 days.
Machu Picchu
We arrived at 06:30 and since that sunrise-arrival we understand why everybody says you have to be there so early. It is breathtakingly beautiful in the early morning, when the sun creates wonderful colours and shadows.
Also, it is not yet crowded. The crowds take away a lot of spiritual atmosphere.
At 07:00 we went to the gate of the Huayna Picchu. That is the steep mountain you see on all of the pictures. On top are some Inca terraces and you can visit them, with max 400 other tourist per day, if you make a reservation for the tickets. We have trained 5 hours per week, to be fit for the climb to 2.700m.
It is a steep climb and quite dangerous. Because of the height, your body is tired soon and your legs do not always respond well. A misstep into the valley next to the rocky stairs is absolutely deadly.
Some 50m below the top we had to crawl through a cave. More like a wormhole. Crawling on hands, knees and feet, pushing your backpack in front of you. Claudia did not go, I noticed after waiting on the other side for a while. So I had to go back and convince her because the way back would be via another route. Fortunately she did it.
At the summit you could feel like Zeus. Being on the top of a peak, surrounded by the spectacular view.
In reality it was different. The summit consists of some large eroded rocks, where 20 tourist are concentrated to prevent falling down while making pictures. No vacancies. We were very tired with trembling legs, did not even take the camera out of my bag and decided to have a picnic 20m lower, which was great. We were welcomed by 2 beautiful birds that enjoyed our sandwich that we had prepared in the hotel. We enjoyed the great view on Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu is worth the money and the effort. The city is one of the most marvelous creations of human beings AND located on a spectacular location. You should visit it in the early morning and also visit the huayna picchu.
From Aguas Calientes we took the train to Cusco. This is a 4 hour trip.Labels: Peru 2013
