Machu Picchu! y más...

On top of Wayna Picchu

Brace yourself. This will be long. Also sorry I haven´t posted in a week. I have been crazy busy ever since I got back from Machu Picchu so I haven´t really had the time to sit down and write.

Friday night I went out with seven other ladies from various parts of the world who volunteer with me. One of them is leaving this week to go back to Sweden so we were all celebrating for her. As it turned out, I didn´t have to arrive in San Blas to catch the bus to Ollantaytambo as early as I thought, so I stayed out pretty late with my friends. It felt kind of strange speaking in English, actually. One of the women (Amber, from Canada) is staying in Cusco for an indefinite period of time so she really wants to practice her español, so she and I talked for a little bit because neither of us really wanted to talk in inglés.

Anyway, Saturday morning I had to be in San Blas at 9:10. I figured I´d leave my house around 8:30 so I would have some time to get more batteries before heading to Ollantaytambo where I knew they´d be more expensive. Ha, well, it took me almost forty minutes to catch a taxi. Every time one stopped I would say, "Plazoleta San Blas, dos soles" and they all rejected me. San Blas is not that far so I don´t know what they were trying to pull. Maybe they figured they could get more out of the foreigner with the giant backpack (embarrassing). I would´ve paid more but they kept speeding off before I could say anything. Plus very few were even stopping in the first place which made it difficult. Finally, at 9:05 or so I caught a taxi. There was a ton of traffic though so I didn´t end up getting to San Blas until 9:20, totally panicked because I didn´t know when I actually had to get to the bus or anything. Plus I obviously didn´t get to buy spare batteries.

Luckily, when I got there everything was okay. This woman handed me a bunch of papers and very quickly told me what to do, shoved me in a van with the other volunteer (Richard) and in about 30 seconds we were on our way to Ollantaytambo. As I´ve said before, the Peruvian countryside is absolutely gorgeous and I couldn´t help but stare out the window mouth agape the entire time. That is, until our van´s engine started to overheat and we had to pull over in the middle of nowhere so the driver could fix it. That only took 15 minutes or so and soon we were back on the road. That little glitch was only the beginning of a really ridiculous weekend. Little did I know...

Anyway, we arrived in Ollantaytambo around 11:30 in the morning and the train was at noon. The town of Ollantaytambo itself is really small, so Richard and I putzed around the train station for awhile and I paid 5 soles (ridiculous) for a pair of AA batteries. Richard went into some store that made him pay 1 nuevo sol to go to the bathroom (which, conveniently, they mentioned after he had come out). He also bought a box (yes, a box) of some terrible Chilean wine to drink on the train to Aguas Calientes which I thought was pretty funny.

The train ride to Aguas Calientes was just as beautiful as anything else I´ve seen in Perú. The railroad runs right through the Andes next to the Río Urubamba and is just exquisite. I listened to Juanes because I was kind of tired of hearing and speaking so much English. It helped get me excited to go to Machu Picchu (as if I wasn´t already).

We arrived in Aguas Calientes around 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturday and were told that some representative from our hostal would come to meet us. Naturally, no one was there. So we had to call the hostal and ask for directions from the train station (not that that was even necessary because the whole town has one street and simply walking up it we would´ve found it). For some reason the coordinators in Cusco only booked one room for the both of us, so Richard decided he would just pay extra for another room. After arriving to our hostal, we both took it easy for awhile and decided to meet up a little bit later to eat and explore the town. I tried to use the phone in my room to call Dad for his birthday, but to no avail. The guy working at the front desk told me I´d probably have to buy a phone card to make a call out of the country which would´ve been terrible because I already put twenty dollars worth of minutes into the phone card I already had (but which works differently from those you buy in Perú). I decided to hold off on that and instead went to an internet café where the guy charged me one nuevo sol for 15 minutes of internet (one sol gets me an hour in Cusco) so that was stupid.

I met up with Richard at the restaurant across the street where he had four beers for the price of one (a lot of you would really enjoy happy hour in Perú, because you can get four beers for about a dollar apiece. Granted I don´t know if it´s good beer or not, but still that´s some great value). I told him about my predicament with the phones and he told me that his phone could make international calls so I ended up using that later to call home. Anyway, Richard didn´t have enough cash to pay the bill so I spotted him 20 soles. He told me he´d just go to the ATM later and pay me back.

After eating, we went around to explore the town and ended up wandering all the way to the bridge which marks the beginning of the road to Machu Picchu itself. It was a beautiful little hike except OH MY GOODNESS it is so humid in Aguas Calientes. By the time we got back to the hostal I was practically drenched in sweat (something I´m sure you all wanted to know) which was incredibly unpleasant.

Anyway, at seven o´clock that night we were supposed to meet our tour guide to find out when we were supposed to meet in the morning to take the bus to Machu Picchu. Naturally, he didn´t show up. So we went out to dinner right by the hostal and after we ordered, Richard went to the ATM to get money. Aguas Calientes has one street and one ATM and by this point in the evening, there was no money left in it because all the tourists from the morning had taken it out. So I had to cover him again which meant that neither of us had a sol to our name in cash. Awesome.

When we got back we waited for our tour guide for a little while before the people in the hostal took pity on us and called him for us (because usually we´re not supposed to use their phones). At this point I could not stop laughing. There I was in Aguas Calientes without any money with some guy who couldn´t speak any Spanish not sure if I was even going to be able to go to Machu Picchu the next day. I´ve learned to have a really good sense of humor about this kind of thing since I´ve been here. Anyway after twenty minutes or so, our tour guide Reuben showed up and after apologizing profusely for about five minutes, told us to meet him at 5:40 in the morning in the Plaza. After that, Richard and I watched Futurama in Spanish and called it a night.

I woke up Saturday around 4:50 and ate breakfast with all the other folks from our hostal heading to Machu Picchu that morning. Richard told me to knock on his door at 5:15 if he still hadn´t come out to eat breakfast, which I did. He was still getting ready and when he finally came out at 5:30, he decided to order a cup of coffee (loco). I told him I was going to go on without him, left my bag in a room with a bunch of other bags and headed for the Plaza. Richard eventually made it and we all climbed aboard the bus to Machu Picchu.

We got to Machu Picchu itself around 6:15 in the morning and started our tour with Reuben. When it´s that early, there is usually a lot of fog that covers a good portion of the city which started to clear as the sun rose over the Andes. Truly, truly spectacular. Reuben showed us all of the main points of the city and explained the differences in architecture between religious and non-religious buildings (The Incas were famous for their precisely carved stones that fit together without mortar--ashlar masonry--but that style of building was only used for holy buildings. Everywhere else they used clay). We got to visit the Inca´s bedroom (the Inca himself technically lived in Qosqo (Cusco in Quechua), but I guess he had a room at Machu Picchu as well?) as well as the Inca´s bathroom which had one drainage pipe leading directly to the Urubamba.

I would write more about each specific site, but there is SO MUCH to say that I would probably spend an hour just giving an overview. So after our tour, we were at the beginning of the trail that leads up Wayna Picchu. Only 400 people per day are allowed onto the mountain so Reuben wanted us to be able to have the opportunity to go. At this point Richard and I met a woman from Canada named Jo who accompanied us on our trek. This is where the adventure really begins.

Wayna Picchu and the Andes in general are completely unlike the Rocky Mountains in that they go straight up. Because so many people come to climb it, there is basically a staircase that leads to the top of Wayna Picchu but it is INCREDIBLY steep and difficult regardless. Plus, there was about a thousand percent humidity on the mountain itself. If I thought I was hot and sweaty the day before, that was absolutely nothing. I kept telling myself that it would be worth it once I got to the top, but the whole time I was climbing I was miserable. After scaling this giant staircase for about forty-five minutes, Jo and I (Richard went ahead of us because I kept stopping haha) came to this tiny cave that we had to crawl through in order to get to the top of the mountain. After climbing the last ladder, we had finally made it. Being on top of Wayna Picchu is the single most awe-inspiring, miraculous experience I´ve ever had. As soon as I stepped onto the summit, I forgot all about the heat and humidity and every other discomfort I experienced during the climb. It was amazing. Oh yeah, and I definitely listened to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on the summit.

After spending half an hour or so on the summit (I did not want to go back down AT ALL) the three of us decided to head back to Machu Picchu. There are two routes that lead back to the city, one of which being the one we took on the way up and another that passes in front of La Gran Caverna (The Great Cave) so we figured we might as well take the second one. It was so nice because there weren´t as many people and it was a relatively easy hike down. We took our time and allowed ourselves to cool down a little bit. Plus this trail was more "jungle-y" so we got to see a lot of beautiful flora as well as several types of butterflies. We climbed down until we happened upon some ruins and another group of folks from Chicago. We had actually followed them on the way up so it was kind of funny that we ran into them again. We went by the cave which was really just a hole in the side of the mountain and not spectacular in any way (I forgot to mention that I tripped and fell trying to take a photo of the ruins, but don´t worry as I did not incur any serious bodily harm). After resting a bit, we followed the arrow that marked the path leading back to Machu Picchu.

Apparently none of us realized just how far we had come down because we had to climb uphill for around two hours just to get back to the fork in the path. It was miserable. At this point we were all starving and exhausted and just wanted to get back. Plus no one was passing us going the opposite way, so we had no point of reference as to how close we were to Machu Picchu. This trail was far steeper and far longer than the original up to Wayna Picchu which was really unfortunate. Although at some point on the hike back I got into the steep uphill climb zone and stopped feeling so terrible.

After eons and eons of being the mountain, we finally scrambled back to Machu Picchu, exhausted and famished. Luckily for us, the food at Machu Picchu itself is ridiculously overpriced so we couldn´t eat anything. Jo had some fruit bars and wafers that she shared with me which helped. Richard decided he was too tired to stay at Machu Picchu and caught a bus back to Aguas Calientes. Jo and I decided to tough it out and go back inside to the ruins. Clearly the best choice. We got to explore so much more than we had in the morning at a much more leisurely pace. Even though I was exhausted and hungry and my legs were aching (from falling down and from climbing), I´m so glad I went back. I don´t know how to explain what being at Machu Picchu was like. It´s completely different from anything I´ve ever seen. Everything I had been through was completely worth it just to be there and take in all of its beauty.

After an hour and a half or so, Jo and I went back to Aguas Calientes in order to eat before catching the train at six. We had to find a place that accepted credit cards since Richard owed me but didn´t have any cash. I haggled with a server and got him to give us a pizza that normally cost 38 soles for 20 (I drive a hard bargain). After that we all raced to the train station to head back to Ollantaytambo. Richard and I sat across from a German man and a Dutch woman and we all talked the whole way back to Ollantaytambo so that was nice. Once we arrived there, we had to catch a bus back to Cusco. Of course our bus was the only one that was delayed for half an hour or so, but finally we set off and upon doing so I immediately fell asleep. When I woke up we were in Cusco and I was so delighted to be able to go back to the house. Cusco is starting to feel like my home away from home in Perú and after being the tourist hellhole that is Aguas Calientes, Cusco felt like the promised land.

There is so much more to write but I´ll have to do that at a later time. I took about 175 photos of Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu which I obviously don´t have the space to post. Tonight I´m going to Puno with my friend from Australia and we are spending the weekend with a family on an island in Lake Titicaca. Sometimes I can´t even believe how incredible my life is!