So, I forgot to tell you in my last post that the trek we did was 35km over 2.5 days. Oh, and did I mention how hard it was and how high we went?!!

Anyway, on Monday morning we got up at sparrow's fart (hot running water this time!) and headed down to the railway station in Ollantaytambo. We had to take a 40 minute bus ride to another station as the railway track had been destroyed/washed away during the February floods. It was a bit of a hairy ride as the road was very narrow and full of buses trying to squeeze past eachother. We witnessed some pretty good manoevering! You could see some of the track that had completely fallen down the gorge into the river. We got onto a very snazzy train that had skylights in it so you could see the mountains enroute and we were served coffee and a snack - this is more like it! It took an hour and 20 minutes to wind our way through the gorges and some amazing scenery and we finally arrived in Aguas Calientes (which literally means hot springs) which is the gateway to Machu Picchu. We got a bus up to the top (it's all very well organised and well-run) and then, there we were - Machu Bloody Picchu!

So, here's a bit of facts and figures. It's known as the 'lost' Inca city and is considered the most spectacular archaeological site on the continent. It receives between 500-1,000 visitors daily (luckily it was fairly empty the day we were there - phew!). The actual purpose and function of Machu Picchu is still a matter of speculation (as is the case with a lot of these ruin sites by the way) and educated guesswork. The citadel was never mentioned in the chronicles kept by the Spaniards when they colonised. Apart from the Quechua people in the local area, nobody knew about the existence of MP until an American historian stumbled upon it in 1911 when he was actually searching for another site. Despite a lot of studies into MP, knowledge of the purpose still remains sketchy. Some people believe it was founded in the last years of the last Incas as an attempt to preserve Inca culture; others believe it may already have become a forgotten or lost city at the time of the Spanish conquest. Another theory is that the site was a royal retreat abandoned when the Spanish invaded. Who knows eh? Oh, and the other thing is that it's correctly pronounced 'matchu peekchu'.

Anyhooo, what was very weird about this place, and it's hard to describe, is that it was like stepping into the postcard picture of MP. Whereas at some of the other wonders I've seen (Iguassu Falls being the perfect example), you become engulfed by it all and it's all very 3D, MP was very 2D. That's not to say that I was disappointed but I didn't get the enveloping feeling I thought I might. Luis gave us a guided tour in the intense heat which took around 90 minutes. I was thinking of climbing another mountain to get another view of it but decided it couldn't be that worth it and my legs were still in pain. Vee, Adria and I did walk halfway up towards the Sun Gate (but again, not all the way as we had heard it probably wasn't that worth it for the pain!). We then bumped into Michelle and Lisa who had done the Classic Trail. This was the start of that whole group purely talking about how exhausted they were and how we had no idea how hard their trek was, blah blah. You'd think we had all just sat on the sofa drinking tea for the last 4 days, even though we had walked the same distance and we had been 600m higher! The funniest thing was that it sounded as though they had had proper campsites every night as they had toilet and shower facilities whereas we had been bush camping with nothing every day! Grrr and harrumph! Nobody even bothered to ask how our trek had been. Still, I know we had the better experience as we didn't see a single soul throughout the trek and we got to interact with the local people knowing that our money was being put to good use, instead of being ploughed back into the tourism industry.

We headed back down to the town at around 2pm for some lunch (it was too unbearably hot to stay up there) and then found out our return train wasn't until 7pm. Aaaargh! There was nothing in this town except food and tat shops! We ate and drank and wandered and then Vee and I decided to go and get a foot and leg massage. What a good idea - it was well worth it although I pity the masseurs who had to go near our stinky feet as they had not been out of our walking boots for 4 days! Yuk! We finally got back to Cusco after midnight - exhausted but triumphant!!!

Photos from the last week or so are now posted on: www.picasaweb.google.com/lindylou73