Like all good travel adventures, things rarely go to plan and Machu Picchu was no exception. After spending a week or so in Peru everybody we had met had been telling us that we simply HAD to climb Huayna Picchu as it was the highlight of the Machu Picchu experience. We had never heard about HP before arriving in Peru but soon learned it was the larger of two mountains that overlook MP in all the photos you will see of the site. Great we thought, sounds amazing. The only snag was that only 400 people a day are allowed to enter the HP site which means you have to get to the entry gates of MP super early in order to be one of the lucky few to get the access stamp on your ticket.
Always up for a challenge we decided to chance our luck and headed towards the Ollantaytambo train station in an attempt to change our train tickets to enable us to arrive in Aguas Calientes earlier than planned. We were lucky and managed to get the 11pm train out of Ollan that night which arrived in AC at 1am. The only flaw in this plan was that we had not arranged a hostel so we decided that we would either find one when we arrived or sleep rough at the MP gates. We had to get up at 4am to trek to the gates anyway so we figured this was no biggie.
Our train rolled in to AC bang on time and when exiting the carriage we were harassed by a few locals touting their hostels. We decided to chance it and agreed to a room for 20 soles that some guy that looked like a wrestler was selling. We quickly began to regret this decision as the huge man and his skinny sidekick started to lead us down some dark streets. We finally arrived at a door which led us in to a basement with what looked like a common room and one bedroom. The room was basic to say the least and I didn't get a wink of sleep expecting the wrestler to come in at any moment armed with rope and some chloroform. I was so happy when the time came to leave the hostel, relieved we hadn't been turned in to human traffic.
The next twenty five minutes were spent walking towards the first set of gates of Machu Picchu. We were quite pleased to arrive in good time but our happiness was to be short lived. It turned out that we couldn't buy our MP entrance tickets at the gates, we had to go back to AC to get them. Annoyed and gutted at the misinformation we had been told by other travellers we headed back up the hill towards AC. The worst part was that the ticket office didn't open until 5am and we knew we had to be at the top entrance gates of MP by 6am at the latest to get the HP access stamp. There wasn't much we could do except wait so while Ryan stood outside the ticket office I joined a line for bus tickets up to MP. We decided this would be our best chance of getting up the hill quickly and a nice Canadian bunch of ladies who had been before helped us out which was awesome.
We finally had our tickets and boarded the bus up to MP at 5:30. The long winding road seemed to last forever but in fact took around forty minutes so we were standing in line at the entrance gates by 6:10. We were however to be in luck and managed to attain 10am access stamps to HP. Relieved that our ill planned strategy had worked out we entered the gated of Machu Picchu just as the morning sun was bursting through the clouds.
The Inca ruins on Machu Picchu really are a sight to behold. As we sat on the top of the ruins it felt surreal to be looking down on the image that we knew so well from books and internet sites. It almost felt like our eyes were playing tricks on us and we were actually just looking at a photograph . We spent the next few hours running around and exploring as much of the site as we could. It's a bit of a labyrinth and new things can be found around every corner. Llamas, lizards and wee rabbits with curly long tails could be seen everywhere, as if we had stepped in to some bizarre friendly Jurassic park.
There were many other creatures though that weren't so friendly. One of these being the sand fly. If you're not familiar with the sand fly it's basically a 1-3mm little black fly which lives in dry, mountainous areas of South America. The female of the species has a keen taste blood which was something my legs were to find out. There I was just standing there waiting for Ryan to take a photo when for some reason I decided to look down. This turned out to be a very good idea as I discovered my legs were covered in hundreds of these little black buggers. Within seconds my legs had been eaten to shreds with twenty nice red bites swelling up quickly. This was enough for me to put my trousers back on but sadly the damage had already been done and I was to spend the next few days with sore, swollen, oozing and itchy red lumps on my legs.
Traumatised after the attack of flies we found a quiet and fly free area in the ruins and settled down for an hours snooze before heading to the gates of HP to begin the climb. We woke refreshed and excited about the challenge ahead. Many people had warned us of the treacherous and difficult path up HP and that it should be avoided unless extremely fit or an experienced trekker. Those of you who know us well will know that we are neither of these but we like a challenge and guessed it couldn't be any worse than Colca Canyon. Turns out we were right and we whizzed up the steep and uneven staircases in a record time of fifty minutes. We were told the trek would take at least an hour to an hour and a half so we were chuffed with our time. The views from the top lived up to their reputation and we tucked in to lunch feeling special to be amongst some of the lucky few to conquer HP.
After slithering back down HP we headed up towards the Inca Bridge. We actually meant to head towards the sun gates but took a wrong turn so the bridge it was. The route was a fairly pleasant stroll which led us around the mountain side with amazing cliff drops surrounding us the whole way. We finally reached the bridge which I found slightly anticlimactic, a three meter gap in the track with four planks of wood leading across it. Oh well at least we saw it. Feeling dehydrated and tired we decided to call it a day and headed back to base camp to grab some disgusting over priced food and a nice cool water.
It had been an amazing, once in a lifetime day and the Machu Picchu stamp in our passports just topped it all off. It was hard to believe we had just walked in one of the seven wonders of the world. We left fulfilled and happy but it was almost hard to leave knowing we may never see the site again. To witness with your own eyes what the Incas created is a very special experience and leaves you in awe of their capabilities. It's something that I think will always stay with you and it has definitely left an impression on us during our travels.
Our time in South America had come to an end and we had only three more days before leaving for New Zealand. I don't know what we expected SA to be like but it definitely exceeded all expectations. Here you will find some of the most amazing places to explore and the friendliest people you could meet. Not to mention super cheap accommodation and food. It had always been a dream to visit and now that we'd actually done it we were stoked if not a little sad to say goodbye. We'll be back though that's for sure. Hasta Luega South America it's been a blast! See you on the flipside.
No comments:
Post a Comment