After our day off Shelby and I traveled to Aguas Calientes (literal meaning is "hot water"). This little town is the gateway to Machu Picchu and is only accessible by foot through the Inca Trail (a 45 km trail many people hike from Cusco in 4 or 5 days) or by railway from a town called Ollanta, about 2 hours bus ride from Cusco, and then about a 2 hour train ride to Aguas Calientes. Shelby and I opted for the more comfortable train ride due to time constraints as well as comfort. Since arriving in Lima we have heard many good things about the trail and LOTS of people hike it but we have also heard from everyone that's its one of the hardest things they have ever done and the nights are so very very cold that you can hardly sleep. The trail is a series of ups and downs through the mountains and the altitude reaches 14,000 ft. You walk about 8 hours a day for 4 days. On that note, the record time through the trail was 3 hours (unbelievable). Anyway since we didn't have 5 days to trek to Machu Picchu we took the train. One day I wouldn't mind coming back to hike the trail, but probably during their summer rmonths, not the winter as it is now.
We had quite a time getting to Aguas Calientes. We were supposed to be picked up at the hostel but we ended up being picked up on foot and made to walk a ways through the city (with our big backpacks) to another pick up point. No big deal but my backpack is getting really heavy so it's quite hard to wear it for long, especially when it seems you are always walking uphill in this environment. We were also told by our travel agency that we would receive an envelope with all our tickets we needed for meals, the train, and Machu Picchu. Well the envelope was missing my return train ticket (it had Shelby's) and our Machu Picchu tickets. Since we didn't receive the envelope until we boarded the bus we couldn't ask anyone where the tickets were and of course the people that picked us up only spoke Spanish so I couldn't ask them what was going on. We had everything we needed to get there so I decided we would just email the agency when we arrived. So we took the bus and the train to Aguas Calientes. The train ride was really beautiful. The passenger car had lots of windows along the sides and the ceiling so you could enjoy the scenery. For the most part the train followed the river and we saw lots of white water rafters (some treks to Machu Picchu include rafting for a ways). They served us banana chips and local chocolate. I also tried Inca Kola which is a local soda made in Peru that is super popular. It tastes kind of like Cream Soda. When we got to the town we had someone from our inn waiting for us who showed us to the inn. Since Aguas Calientes is only reachable by rail and foot, there are absolutely no cars there. It is a completely pedestrianized town, which was a nice change from all the honking and crazy driving you see elsewhere. Our inn was aaaall the way at the top of the hill in the town (of course) so we slowly trudged along dragging our big bags. We got settled there and then decided to go check out the local hot springs (remember "hot water"). They were a huge disappointment though. This was the fourth hot springs I have been to on this trip so far and definitely the worst. It was very small with 4 small pools with gravel bottoms. The small pools were made worse by the amount of people in them. Tons of locals, not just tourists, and you were always touching someone which is too much for me. The water was super murky, whether from the minerals in the water or because it was dirty I don't know, but that still grossed me out. Also I wore my blue and white bathing suit and when I came out the white was stained a rust orange from whatever mineral was in the water. Not happy!! Also the water was warm but definitely not hot. So it was a disappointment and we didn't stay too long! But we did meet an elderly couple from Florida and had a good little chat with them while we were there. The man was a retired football coach and when he heard we were from Saskatchewan he immediately said "Go Riders!!" Me and Shelby were like "WHAT?! Hell ya!" He told us he had a player who went to the riders (a long time ago). I think he said his name was Ronnie Getz (not sure of spelling) and that people called him the coloured one hahah so I assume it was a long time ago when there were not many African Americans playing in the CFL. Anyone remember him? I tried to google him but didn't find anything.
After the hot springs we went hunting for a restaurant that we had a voucher for. We eventually found it after much asking around and waving off 50 other restaurant employees begging us to come in and have a pisco sour. All the people trying to sell you stuff here is super annoying. But we made it to the restaurant and it was really good. We got an appetizer and a main course with our voucher so I had homemade chicken noodle soup (different than at home but good!) and ham pizza... I am totally obsessed with pizza since I have been gone. It's so good!! Everyone makes it in huge wood burning clay ovens and they aren't overloaded with anything. So so good. I am also obsessed with milkshakes and have given over to the idea of getting fat so you should probably get used to the idea of Alyssa with two chins. Just kidding, but the food is too good... Hahaha. I do miss cooking my own food though. Sometimes I just want something simple and clean but that's rather hard to find in restaurants. Anyway back to the restaurant. While we were eating dinner a guy from Bamba came along and talked to us and sorted out all our ticket worries and told us what we needed to know for Machu Picchu in the morning. We had a tour at 7:45 am but we decided we would leave a little earlier so we could poke around without tons of tourists. So after dinner we went back to the hotel and I attempted to get the orange stain out of my bathing suit and then we hit the sack.
We woke up at 6 to try and catch the 6:30 am bus to Machu Picchu. We got to Machu Picchu at 7 and went in to get a few pics and such before the tour. Of course the sight of Machu Picchu is amazing. It was the biggest set of ruins we had seen so far and very well tended to. We were there while the sun was coming over the mountains and lighting up the site which was pretty cool to see. We got a few pictures and then went back out the gates to meet up with our tour guide. He took us first to the look out point (just a five min walk) where everyone poses in front of the site and gets their Facebook pictures. Once everyone had their pictures he proceeded to tell us the history of Machu Picchu. The local people have always known it was there and some German archeologists "discovered it" before the American but it was an American man who shared Machu Picchu with the world and built the road up to the site. The American was looking for the lost city of the Inca's and so was questioning the people of the nearby village (this was in 1912 I believe). They didn't know anything about the lost city but a little boy took him up the mountain to show him the ruins and that's how they came to be known. The guide said the site was abandoned 400 years ago, most likely because the Inca's wanted to save the city from the invading Spaniards. Between 700 and 800 people lived there, and only nobles, scholars, astronomers, etc. the Incan king lived in Cusco but whenever he came to visit he had his own palace (with the only toilet!) and huge doorways so he could be carried through. The other doorways and passageways are very tiny. The tallest people were only about 4'9". Most of the people I have seen in the villages at present are still very short!
We went through the city gate and they showed us the notches and holes in the stone that indicated that once a large door had been there to keep out predators. Most of the buildings do not have roofs over them now but many of them did. They have a few examples of the straw roofs set up on some of the buildings. We also saw the stone quarry where they carved the stone blocks for their walls. There was one block with about 7 notches along the length of it and he used that to explain how they broke the huge rocks apart. They made these notches in the stone and then stuck wooden poles into them and poured water on it to swell the wood and eventually break the rocks. This would have taken a really really long time. There were many temples on the site. We saw the sun temple which has two windows, which the sun will shine through on the day of the winter and summer solstices. We also saw the temple of their main God, and a temple for the Condor. There was also a huge stone "compass" and sundial. We also passed through a room with two "mirrors" (kind of bowls of water) that astronomers used to look at the stars. That was a really fast recap but the tour was 2.5 hours and really interesting. Shelby and I actually had to leave a few mins early so we could start our Wayna Picchu trek. We bought a ticket for Wayna Picchu when we bought our regular entrance tickets. Only 400 people are permitted to climb Wayna Picchu everyday, 200 can enter between 7 and 8, and 200 between 10 and 11. We were of course in the second group and we started our hike at 10:30. It was a pretty crazy hike!! The path was rather treacherous. It was super super steep, so much so that in places you literally had to crawl up. And the path is just random jagged stone you have to be careful not to twist your ankle on. It is supposed to take an hour to reach the top but Shelby and I were trying to go fast because we had a train to catch. We made it to the top in about 40 mins. I actually felt pretty good and healthy going up. Shelby was struggling a bit because she hadn't eaten much breakfast and her ears were popping but we still made it in good time. At the top of Wayna Picchu you can look down onto Machu Picchu and its amazing how small the city looks. When you are walking through Machu Picchu it takes a long time (we didn't even get through it all on our 2.5 hour tour). You can also see the shape of the city which is in the shape of a condor. There were more ruins on top of Wayna Picchu which is how we could get around the mountain. It was quite strange though, with lots of steep side slopes, stairs, caves, tunnels, and ladders. We spent about half an hour up there and got a picture on the very top of the mountain, a very cool but scary feeling because of how far up you are on jagged rocks that could lead to your death at any moment. There are no safety railings up there. But it felt totally awesome and the view was so incredible. There are mountains to all sides and the river winds through the base of the mountains. They are all covered in dark greenery with random little ruins sticking out here and there. It amazes me people lived that high up. It seems super isolated and dangerous. But still so cool to wake up to that view every morning. We took almost the hour to get back down the mountain, due to the steep treacherous slope and lots of people coming down. By the time we reached the bottom we had been walking/hiking for 5 hours (most of what felt like uphill) and I was so crazy exhausted. We caught the 12:30 bus back to town and had lunch at the same restaurant as the last night (another voucher). This time I tried a Peruvian noodle soup which was quite good and trout which was also delicious! We had to catch a 2:30 train so we quickly grabbed our bags and then headed for the train station and headed back to Cusco. We arrived back at our hostel last night at around 7.
Yesterday (our Machu Picchu day) was a day of huge celebration in Cusco. We had noticed lots of parade floats and tons of people and music in the square since we arrived a few days before but we didn't know why at first! But on June 24th they have a huge celebration called Inti Raymi which is a sun celebration (I think). It is apparently the second largest festival in all of South America. I was a little bummed our Machu Picchu tripped had landed on the big day but it was still cool to be there at that time. We missed the day celebrations which include a huge ceremony with thousands of people gathered at some local ruins acting out re-enactments of the Incan people with lots of dancing and singing. There is even an animal sacrifice (fake in recent years) and at night just lots of celebration. We were dropped off in the square after Machu Picchu so we got to see all the celebration but we didn't stay long because we were totally wiped and had all our bags with us. Still very cool to hit Cusco at that time! Lucky! And that is it. Now we are on a train to Puno, our last stop in Peru. We will be taking part in an Amenati homestay experience, where we will stay one night with a local indigenous family on a floating island made of reeds.. I am rather nervous because they don't speak English and we are warned the houses are very primitive, some without electricity. Also Shelby and I won't be staying together. Also the tour says we have to dress up in traditional clothes and dance all night... Hmm not sure about that hahaha. Hopefully it goes well!