Machu Pichu

We got up at the ungodly hour of 4.30am so we could catch the 1st bus up to Machu Pichu at 5.30 and be there for sunrise...not that we would see the sun rise as it was tipping it down with rain, but we had our ponchos and umbrella and stood drinking a coffee in the queue while we waited. The bus journey was uneventful except for overhearing a Peruvian guy tell a lady from Canada that Machu Pichu was only 200 years old, plus we realised we had been right to pay the extortionate $9 each for the bus as it went up and up and up!! We arrived a couple of minutes before the gates opened and had a quick look at the large map on the wall as they dont give you one to take round with you. Once open we went through the entrance and like everyone else ignored the ridiculous rules about not taking food, drink, bags or even walking sticks into the reserve and instead walked straight past the guard and on into the mist. There were stairs.....lots of them!! We climbed through the drizzle, not really being able to see more than a couple of metres in front of us until we reached the 'Hut of the Caretaker' which is situated at one end of the complex and is one of the few buildings that has been re-thatched, giving welcome relief from the rain when needed. The fog being so thick it was hard to tell how many people there were but until you could almost touch them it was as if we were the only people there, a slightly spooky but exhilarating feeling in this ancient fortress/palace/town (no one really knows what it was used for, just that it must have been important at some point). A slight breeze occasionally blew the clouds apart for a second or two and the most spectacular view emerged of steep, green terraces, myriads of small dwellings built out of stone and behind everything the illusive Wayna Pichu rising mysteriously out of the vapour like a silent watchtower. We had read that only 400 people a day were allowed to climb Wayna Pichu which is home to other ruins and so made our way in that direction to pick up a ticket. Before reaching it however we came across a small courtyard with 2 open faced buildings opposite each other and a small herd of llamas sheltering from the weather inside. We stopped to take some pictures, the first time we've been able to without someone asking for money, then left the other tourists there to carry on to the mountain. A stout wooden gate barred the way to the hut at the entrance and we had a quick look at the map on it before passing through and asking for a ticket to climb that day. We had to show them our entrance tickets and it turns out that despite the cost of them, ours aren't valid for anything other than the actual site itself and the fact that it says in the guide book that it is free to climb Wayna Pichu is clearly a load of rubbish! The guard told us its only free in July (peak tourist season) really bloody useful to us then! Now we understood what the woman in the tourist office must have been saying, that there was more than one type of ticket available and that had we wanted to pay an additional $25 each, we would have been able to go up. Very miffed and a little upset, we went back to the 'llama huts' to sit out of the rain while we discussed how best to spend the day now we had an another 3 free hours. We decided that we'd paid quite enough to go anywhere else we damn well pleased and so set about examining everywhere thoroughly, if there wasn't a rope across a gap, we went through it, if there wasn't a sign telling us not to, we went there!

We found some interesting things during our exploration of the areas that most tourists dont usually go to as its hard to tell whether you're actually allowed to or not. In various places tucked out of the way we discovered rubbish dumps with things from grass clippings to black bags and broken ladders hidden in them! We covered one whole side of the sites buildings, sometimes listening in to the guides people hired to take them round and discovering useful snippets of information about what we were looking at. Understanding 3 languages between us is quite useful at times lol!! We found out that a large oddly shaped rock was in fact some kind of sundial used for telling the seasons as well as other bits and bobs about various structures. One of the most impressive things however was the stonework on the obviously more important buildings, it is absolutely seamless, just the same as we found in the old wall in Cusco except with more regular shaped blocks. Another discovery which I rather liked was the frequent usage of 'wall steps' these being stones set sideways within a wall so as to provide access without the need for an actual stairway, depending on the angle it can look as though you are rising through thin air! These were another thing that no other tourists seemed to be using and yet they were much more fun than the regular steps and allowed us to access other places that no one else seemed to venture. I have to say, a number of areas we went to weren't exactly what you'd call safe as the terraces tended to just drop off sheerly into the valley way below where we could sometimes see the turbulent Rio Urumbamba, an amazing sight from such a vantage point! After more exploration we decided it was time for a bite to eat and climbed some wall steps to sit on top of a wall to have our sandwiches which we weren't meant to bring in and watch the clouds pass by revealing and disguising in turn the fantastic site. Once finished it seemed to be getting a little brighter so we spent some time taking a huge amount of brilliantly atmospheric pictures before it could cloud over again! Having worked our way around a side of the site we found an arrow pointing to the 'Inca Bridge' which we thought we'd follow and see where it led. After passing a small empty hut with a registration book we declined to fill in and of course many obligatory steps, we found ourselves on a cliff hugging path that led away from the main site and around the side of the mountain. A beautiful view awaited us down the length of the valley as we rounded a corner as well as many trees and flowers clinging to the rocks giving the perfect spot to watch hummingbirds as they flitted about with their bright luminescent wings moving faster than the eye could see. We continued on this path for sometime until we saw a cliff face with steps cut into it from both sides of the mountain and some rather ancient looking planks of wood bridging the gap between them, underneath which was a 30ft space with nothing but sheer rock before plunging depths to the river hundreds of feet below! A clever defense system for the Inca's who could put down or pull up the planks as needed effectively sealing themselves off when they wanted or providing an escape route. We walked up to a barrier that stopped short of the bridge by about 15m and took some more pictures, wondering where the other set of steps led to as we couldn't see an obvious route before heading back the way we had come. Once back at our lunch spot the mist started to close in again and we thought we'd see where our path led in the other direction before looking round any more buildings which get a bit samey after a while. We walked along the top of some terraces meeting hardly any other people along the way until we came to a sign saying 'Machu Pichu Mountain' which we hadn't known existed as nothing is said about it in any of the guide books. Going up yet more steps we emerged at a gate similar to that at Wayna Pichu with the same little hut and our hearts sank as 3 girls walked out as we went in and we were asked for our tickets once more. As we'd already guessed it was another place where you needed a different ticket to enter, this one only costing an additional $15 we think, but still, something we didnt have. We tried arguing the case and then just stood looking dejected for a minute or 2 until the lady in the hut said that the 3 girls we'd passed had the correct tickets but had decided at the last minute not to climb the mountain as they were too tired and so we could take their place instead as a favour! We readily agreed to this and after seeing that only 5 other people had climbed the mountain that day delighted in the fact that we practically had the place to ourselves. What we hadn't reckoned on was the fact that this was an Inca mountain and therefore the whole 1000m we had to climb to reach the summit (3400m above sea level) consisted solely of steps!!! We trudged, there's no other word for it really, for almost an hour, being overtaken by a very fit looking guy after about 15 minutes and then meeting a couple on their way down after we thought we should have reached the top several times over. They told us we didnt have too far to go and that there was a bench with a shelter at the top which was good as it was very drizzly by now, so we carried on until finally we saw the shelter followed by the Cusco flag fluttering brightly against the leaden sky. After a brief rest in the shelter we took some pictures at the flag and had a chat with the guy who'd overtaken us and his friend who arrived a couple of minutes after us, it turns out they hadnt known about the other tickets either and had got permission as a favour the same as us. It was now 12 o'clock, midday, so we had a cereal bar each to give us some energy for the trek back down and prepared for the rain that had started as we'd been sitting there. We speculated over some other steps cut into the mountain as to whether they could possibly be the ones leading to the other side of the Inca bridge and took a couple more pictures, although there was no view due to the clouds before starting our descent. This was horrible...the rain started in earnest making the uneven steps slippery and even more treacherous as it ended up like walking through a waterfall, not to mention the fact that after 10 minutes our knees were feeling the strain and were trembling uncontrollably whenever we stopped! Eventually we make it to the bottom, 1hr to climb up and ½hr to come down, not bad considering how little of this sort of thing we do! Going by the hut on our way out they sign us off and we pass a girl going in the opposite direction who asks how long it takes to climb the mountain, we tell her an hour or so and continue on, making a dash for the caretaker's hut once more to escape the rain and wind which is blowing fiercely by now. Many other tourists have had the same idea and its a bit of a squeeze to get in, but once we do we find that so many people have made the place quite a bit warmer and we wait there for 1/2hr or so until the worst of the weather dies off before venturing out again. Being cold, soaking wet and tired from our exertions we decide to make a quick tour of the other buildings which include the temple with the condor carved in the stone, the prisons and an amazing irrigation system which has waterfalls all over the place which work as well now as they did 2000 years ago! No matter how worn out we were it was still hard to tear ourselves away from this incredible place as there is always one more corner to turn or one more entrance to look through! We did head towards the exit finally at about 2pm which seemed to coincide with the time that a bus load of old, fat, rich american's showed up!! Why anyone would leave it that late in the day I dont know but we couldn't help but laugh at some of the ridiculous things they were wearing for the conditions, like high heels or flip flops!! After many more steps we reached the exit hoping to maybe find someone selling coffee so we could warm up a little before walking back to Aguas Calientes, but there was nothing except a vending machine churning out some watery brown stuff for $2 that we declined, preferring instead to wait until we were back. We ended up following 2 guys down the endless flights of steps that descended the mountain to the valley below and it was just as bad as coming down Machu Pichu itself, the steps acted as channels for the water to run down and by the time we got to the bottom we were exhausted and pretty much dragged ourselves the last 1/2km or so to the hostel where we got straight into the lovely hot shower to warm up. After a bit of a rest, Andy being the only one of us with enough dry clothes to constitute an outfit (swimming shorts, t shirt and my fleece jacket) went out to take a few bits to the laundry so that we'd have something to wear the next day as well as buy some bread and cheese for dinner and train tickets to Ollantaytambo for the morning. It was only after much discussion that we decided to go by train as it's ridiculously expensive but we were so knackered after the last 2 days that we couldn't face the journey back the way we had come. The other thing that really annoyed us about it and a reason we didn't want to take it on principle was that it is exactly 10 times more expensive for a tourist to take than a local which is totally disgusting!! Anyway, we got the tickets in the end regardless, ate our cheese and bread and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow at about 9pm at the end of a day I'd dreamed about since I was a small child!