Machu Picchu

We got really lucky in Cusco and found a trip to Machu Picchu the first afternoon, yay for low season. We did a four day, three night ¨jungle trek¨. The first day we were driven to the top of a mountain at about 4,300 meters nestled in the fog. We then put on helmets and gloves and mounted our not so great mountain bikes. We rode down a steep mountain road and it was really fun! Shannon, much to our surprise, loved riding super fast down the mountain and kept leaving Kevin behind (until she crashed that is). The first 45 kilometers were paved and nice, not too much traffic. The worst parts were the water that ran over the road which we had to ride through numerous times. We stopped and ate lunch and then continued on a really crappy road. They were doing road construction and it was one lane dirt, gravel, and rocks. We were riding along when a car came behind us and started honking to pass. Shannon tried to get over to the side and rode into some rocks. In slow motion, her bike pitched forward and she hung suspended in the air for what seemed like an eternity before flying over the handle bars, not letting go until the bike crashed on top of her. Needless to say she was quite cut up and bleeding all over. We had to wait for the guide and then the van that was following us to clean her up. All that they had was alcohol which the guide poured over her wounds. Someone else had baby wipes so she was able to clean herself up and stop the bleeding. She ripped her shorts and was covered in cuts and bruises on her left side but luckily nothing more serious happened. The whole bike ride was 65 kilometers but we probably only went about 60 and then rode the last few kms in the car as Shannon was in no shape to bike more. We then drove to the ever so exciting town of Santa María which was dusty and ugly. We stayed there and ate dinner and rested our weary bones.

Day two was the best day (besides Machu Picchu of course) and we hiked 22 kms through the mountains. It rained the first half but we walked through beautiful scenery with breathtaking views of the valley below. We walked on parts of the Inka Trail and actually climbed pretty high. Much of the trail was right along the side of a cliff and our guide acutually fell off, luckily not too far but it was a little scary. We stopped at a hotspring pool towards the end of the day and relaxed for a little while before the uphill climb to the town of Santa Teresa. The town is really growing due to the influx of tourism and most of the streets were paved or in the process of being paved and a lot of things were being built. The town itself was in a beautiful setting with snowcapped peaks on one side and a valley and more awesome mountains on the other. We spent the night there in a small hostal.

Day three started with a terrible hike along a dirt road in the hot sun surrounded by nothing but dust and rocks. We walked passed two impressive waterfalls (impressive until we found out they were manmade) to hidroelectrica where they are still working on a giant hydroelectric plant (hence the waterfalls). From there we walked along train tracks to the town of Aguas Calientes. The trail was surrounded by lush forest and stunning mountains so it was a nicer walk. After about 18 kms of walking, we arrived in Aguas Calientes which is a town built entirely for tourism as it is at the base of Machu Picchu and the only place to stay. It was actually pretty nice but all restuarants and hotels. We stayed the night there before our climb to Machu Picchu.

Day four started at 4:00 AM with a walk to the bridge at the base of the stairs to Machu Picchu. We then climbed over 3,000 stairs to get to the actual ruins. Only one person beat us up and we made it in about 35 minutes so we were pretty happy with ourselves (we did knock a few people off the mountain in our rush up but not too many). We had a tour of the ruins and then climbed Waynapicchu (more stairs) above the ruins. We would have had a great view if it hadn´t been so cloudy. A couple of times the clouds parted and we caught glimpes of the ruins. It was a pretty steep climb and at parts it seemed inevitable that we would fall down the steep, narrow stairs and be lost forever. We also walked up to the ¨sun gate¨ where we had a magnificent view of the ruins below us. It is really impressive how big (area wise) they are and how well made they are. Walking through them is impressive but seeing the whole thing from above is just incredible. The actual site is also amazing as it is on a fairly high mountain (2,400 meters) surrounded by even higher jagged mountains. It was incredibly beautiful. We then decided to walk back down the stairs as we decided taking a bus was for weanies. We had a few hours to kill before our train so we met up with some of the people in our group for some much needed food after hours of hiking.

We had a million problems with our guide which put a little bit of a damper on the trip. Needless to say, there are tons of tourist agencies and as a result quality begins to suffer. Our guide was knowledgeable but not very friendly and never explained anything to us (like the plans for the day) unless we specifically asked him. By the end of the trip everyone was pretty unhappy with him and ready to mutiny. We also had problems with the tour agency not sending our tickets for Machu Picchu or the train back. We finally got our tickets around 9:00 P.M. the night before we went up (of course we wanted to go to bed by 8:00 to get up at 3:30). This happened to most of the people in our group and we had all gone through different agencies (even one recommended by lonely planet). We never actually got our train tickets. Our guide told us to meet him the afternoon when we got back from the ruins to get them. They still were not there and he told us to come back later and worse case scenario we would go to the train station with our passports and they could look them up. What he did not tell us was that he was leaving in half an hour back to Cusco so he wasn´t there when we went back and nobody could help us. Luckily they were very helpful at the train station but it just made us resent our guide even more. He also decided to take only a third of our group on the tour of the actual ruins and sent the rest of us with another guide and even more people and our group ended up having 15 and his 5...we really loved him by the end.

All in all it was a good trip. We had a really good group to make up for our guide and we had a lot of fun. Machu Picchu is so amazing and definitely worth the trip!