We had been looking forward to Machu Picchu for a while and here it came at last !

We arrived in Cuzco 2 weeks ago, possibly the prettiest city we’ve seen so far (I know we say that every time !!) : cobbled streets (again), hundreds of beautifully preserved haciendas (again), stunning and animated plazas. We decided to put our bags down for a few days to properly enjoy it ! Our favourite finding : bars showing free movies for the price of a drink. We went there everyday to catch up on the latest movies and found ourselves bumping into the same group of people, as eager as us to trade museum & church visits for 2 hours of sheer relaxation… We also spent a considerable amount of money, buying all kinds of arts and crafts, which will cost a fortune to send back home !

After a few days of chilling we had recovered enough energy to face Machu Picchu : it wasn’t the Inca trail (too lazy for that), but it still involved 8 hours of climbing up and down billions of Inca stairs to see the site from all angles !! To get to Machu Picchu, the only way if you don’t want to walk for 4 days is via a picturesque train ride which took us to a small town called Aguas Calientes - its basically a big tourist market town at the bottom of Machu Picchu where we spent the afternoon, prior to our assent the following morning.

At 9.00 in the evening, we started worrying: the guide hadn’t turned up with our entrance tickets. We eventually found him at 10.00, supping beers in a nearby bar! Pissed off but relieved we headed back to the hotel with our tickets. Once in the room I realised that I had left with him my bus ticket for Machu Picchu (departure time : 5.00 in the morning !) along with my return train ticket. Panicked, I ran back to the bar to find out he had gone home and wouldn’t be back until the following morning, at 11.00 (!). No ticket, no early access to Machu Picchu to see the sun rise …. No chance of that happening!!! I started pestering his mates until they agreed to go to his home to collect the tickets. The guide came back 45mn later to our hotel, telling me that he couldn’t find them and seemed to have lost them….I was gutted ! That’s only then that I happened to put my hand in the pocket of my coat to discover the ‘lost’ tickets, doh!! . ‘Utterly ashamed’ is possibly the most appropriate word to describe how I felt after making people run around for about 2 hours… but hey, we were going to see the sun rising on Machu Picchu !!

And that’s exactly what we did. 4.30 wake up call to take the first bus to the site. A bit of competition was going on amongst people to be the first ones to take the famous ‘postcard picture’. Once there, everybody started running uphill towards the main point of view ….but what a view ! Some say Machu Picchu is overrated, but we didn’t think so !! After the compulsory set of pictures we decided to head higher up towards the sun gate to get a better perspective. On the way up we passed the first Inca trail trekkers doing the last few metres of their trek. To say that they looked down on us (as we were only lazy train takers) is an understatement! Most didn’t even acknowledged us ! At 6.00 we got to the sun gate, just on time to see Machu Picchu coming out of the mist and the sun hit it . A beauty !

After that, still full of energy we decided to climb Waynapicchu, the mountain in the traditional picture background, before our guided tour. Now, I thought I would die….1 hour of VERY steep Inca stairs. Andy steamed ahead while I took my time, literally finishing on my knees an hour later ! But again that was worth it for the great and different view it gave us of the city. Check the pics.

In short we loved it. We were fascinated by the Inca culture : an empire that only existed for about 100 years , but that had such a significant impact in South America. Their veneration for the sun, their respect for Pachamama (Mother Earth), their determination in building amazing cities in utterly inaccessible sites to be closer to their gods is incredible. But the most fascinating is maybe their geological, astronomical & architectural knowledge in those times, as well as their desire for perfection: to the point of chopping off mountain tops to ensure the sun reach the city at the right time of the day, or again carving the face of their Inca chief in a mountain miles away so that during the summer solstice the shadow of the face is cast exactly in the centre of a sacred fountain on the main village place !!

Not something we’ll forget soon ….

Next and last in Peru : Lake Titicaca :)