Machu Picchu

So here´s the thing, I wasn´t even that psyched for this place. Yeah, I´m serious. I just figured it would be completely overrun by tourists and I´m not even a ruins guy in the first place. I mean, they´re just old rocks right? I was wrong. I just want that here on record. I WAS WRONG, FORGIVE ME INCAN GODS!!!!!!!!!!

That day was amazing. This was back on Friday and I´m so glad I waited for Friday. The weather was perfect; fluffy clouds and sun all day long. A lot of people told me to hustle and make sure to catch the first bus up there or hike up at 4am or even earlier to get the stamp for climbing Wayna Picchu. I didn´t have to do that at all. I rolled out of bed around 5am and didn´t get down to the bus station until after 5:30 and I was on maybe the 8th or 9th bus up there. I still got the stamp to climb Wayna Picchu.

Some background here, Wayna Picchu is the peak that overlooks Machu Picchu. Only 400 people a day get a stamp to climb up to the top for the awesome view. That sounds like a lot but a ton of people visit this place during high season. The climb takes about an hour and is fairly strenuous.

The sun still hadn´t crested over the mountain peaks when I entered the site and I immediately headed up to get a few pictures of the ruins from the classic postcard spot. I wandered around there in a daze for a while as the sun came up and eventually meandered down a path to something called the Incan Drawbridge, a gap spanned by several very old looking logs. The path was spectacular and clung precariously to the side of the mountain. After a brief chat with some Americans about choice places to ski in New Hampshire I headed back around the mountain and ran into Joe from Boston. Joe and I had dinner and drinks back in Puno. He´s a good guy and we played photographer buddies for a while so we could be in pics from our own cameras.

I had signed up to climb Wayna Picchu between 10am and 11am but Joe had signed up for between 7am and 8am. We decided to head over to the other side of the ruins and see if they would let me up early so we could both hike together. It didn´t end up being a problem so off we went. We chatted for a bit but as the path got steeper I left Joe behind, and by the time I was nearing the top I was drenched in sweat. The view was all worth it though, as you can see by the pic I got.

After I got to the top I saw the sign to go to the other side of the peak and see the Temple of the Moon and the Grand Cavern. It was about a 40 min hike, all of it downhill with a few tricky wooden ladders thrown in for good measure. When I made it down to the Temple I ran into two more British chaps, Dan and Harry. After talking with them for a bit and playing photographer for each other we started the hour and a half hike back to Machu Picchu together. I also determined they had very little water left, the hike back was almost entirely uphill, and I had over a liter left in my Camelbak. I didn´t think it would be very sporting of me to watch them die so I insisted they take a few big sips on the way back. They thanked me by buying me an insanely overpriced bottle of water at the cafe near the entrance of the ruins.

We lunched at the cafe and headed back in the ruins where I took my shirt off to dry it out and sunbathed on the grass. I made sure to put a healthy dose of insect repellent on to keep the pesky sand flies off of me. Dan and Harry wanted to walk around the ruins a bit more but I had already been up there over 6 hours and the weather was so nice that I wanted to go back to Aguas Calientes and take another dip in the hot springs. I bid them adieu and grabbed my bus ride back down. My original plan had been to catch the 12:30 train to Santa Theresa to ride the zip line over the jungle but Harry and Dan told me the walk was only 2 hours and flat the whole way, so elected to skip the train to have time for the hot springs.

The springs were a good decision as I got to meet a 23 year old German girl named Kerstin. Her Spanish was worse than mine but we´ll let it slide because she speaks German, English, and French. We helped each other take pics, kibbitzed about this and that, and enjoyed the pools until we were both hungry enough to go to dinner together. I actually needed to get going on my hike but I wasn´t about to pass up dinner with a lovely blond German girl. I was impressed by Kerstin´s chutzpah when she told me she really wanted to try cuy(guinea pig). I don´t think I know a girl who would really want to try that especially the way she dove into it as you can see by the pic. That is her playing with the poor little buggers head. On the way to dinner we ran into Boston Joe again who had survived his hike to the top of Wayna Picchu. After dinner I had to get my ass moving.

I definitely started my hike a little late but I ended up seeing other backpackers coming the other direction the whole time. I hiked with a Peruvian couple, a doctor and nurse, from Huancayo for a while too. I gotta admit, this part of my journey starts getting a little sketchy. I made it to the Hydroelectric dam where I expected to be able to find a cab. After a few conversations in broken spanish I determined that there would be no cabs until the next day. One of the ladies at the little snack stands told me that I could get a room at a small hospedaje just down the tracks. I ended up sitting down for some more food with a bunch of what looked like railroad workers who were highly amused at the gringo in their presence. We watched a spanish soap opera together on the TV and I eventually passed out in my tiny little room after a day of about 5 hours of hiking. The next day continues in this vein...