Arriving in Cusco felt like a milestone. Somewhere that has been on the agenda from the start but always seemed far far away. But here we were and we really liked it. It’s a gorgeous mix of Spanish colonial style and of course original Inca walls. The only thing missing seemed to be good cake shops. Ah well you can’t have it all. We ended up staying in the city for ten days give or take, getting back in to city living as it were. With yoga classes (sadly only me, apparently Gio is stretchy enough), shopping – the delights of ‘Topitop’, and pubs, bars and restaurants.
La Compania in Cusco's main plaza, Plaza de Armas
Of course from Cusco the big trip is Macchu Picchu. The journey to Macchu Picchu was long. Two hours in a mini van and 2 hours in a train got us as far as Agua Calientes the nearest town. Where we realised we needed to be up at 4am in order to get on the first buses up to the site. Now, we have done a fair amount of research about visiting Macchu Picchu, about the tickets you can get to climb to the view point above it and about when to get there and what to see. Never, in all of our reading, had we heard of anyone getting lost.
The train to Macchu Picchu
In our defense it was very very foggy when the gates opened at 6am and we trundled in! We took a left, thinking we were following everyone else. And then started an ascent, thinking ‘everyone else’ was simply ahead of us in the fog. About an hour of up we suspected something wasn’t quite right but couldn’t be sure what. Two hours ‘up’ and we arrived at a battered flag and a very very long drop (from what we could make out through the clouds), now we were fairly certain something wasn’t quite right. About five people seemed to make this error. And after an hour the clouds began to clear and we could see where we had gone wrong. Down, far, far below us was Macchu Picchu, we’d accidentally climbed a mountain.
Our first view of Macchu Picchu (when the clouds eventually cleared) from Macchu Picchu mountain.
What was even better was that by the time we’d waited for the clouds to clear to show the magnificent climb, we saw Winnau Picchu – the smaller peak that we’d queued for tickets to climb – the other side of the site. And our slot was in less than an hour. So we clambered as quickly as we could down the mountain, across Macchu Picchu with barely time for a sideward glance at it’s beauty to burst through the gates ready to climb again. Well, I say ‘ready’... This climb was indeed shorter, but much much steeper. The views at the top were amazing, as were the ruins perched up there. But fatigue was starting to kick in, and it was only 12pm!!
Looking down from Winnau Picchu.
The Kodak moment.
After refuelling we eventually saw Macchu Picchu itself, at ‘ground’ level at about 2.30, having entered through the gates a mere 8.5 hours earlier! Still it was amazing and we managed to survive till it closed its gates at 5pm.
A Viscacha (rabbit type thing) on Macchu Picchu
However I don’t think my legs were quite prepared for all that, i walked like a 90 year old shuffling along for almost a full week afterwards!
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