Today we had the option of sleeping in or heading back to Machu Picchu for the morning. There was no way I was going to give up a chance to spend another morning at Machu Picchu. So for the handful of us that were willing to give up our sleep in, we were to meet in the hotel lobby at 6.30. So I set my alarm for 5.10..... Or so I thought.
I woke up in the morning and it looked pretty light. I wasn't going to look at my watch, but in the end curiosity got the better of me, I checked my watch and it was 5.40. Holy crap.... I sprinted out of bed, had the quickest shower and then ran to grab some breakfast. Breakfast was essential this morning as we were hiking!!
Don't ask me how, but I did manage to have a shower, get my bag sorted for the day, semi pack my over night bag, eat breakfast and meet the group in the lobby just before 6.30. It's amazing what you can do when you don't have any time.
So we caught the shuttle bus back up to Machu Picchu, and we were warned that there were dark clouds up there, and that it looked like a pretty good chance for rain. Oh well, we can go up, if it starts raining I will just come back down again. But I have to give it a chance!!
When we arrived at Machu Picchu, we actually had to ask.... Where is Machu Picchu??? It was covered in clouds, and essentially we couldn't see anything in front us apart from fog. At least it wasn't raining. It may clear?!?!?
The decision was made, it's not raining so I'm hiking. Out of the12 of us who decided to go up to machu Picchu this morning, 6 of us decided that we were going to hike up to the sun gate. This hike started at Machu Picchu ruins, and continued up out of the ruins and along the inca trail. It was great to see all those hikers who had finished their 4 days on the inca trail that morning, walking down the hill towards Machu Picchu with huge smiles on their faces.
We on the other hand were climbing up the path. Pretty much I just watched Rob's shoes in front of me... One step after another. We stopped at a couple of ruins along the way, firstly as a bit of a catch your breath station, but also to take in the views below. At times we were clouded in, other times the clouds lifted, giving us a stunning view of Machu Picchu and the surrounding Andes mountains. After about 1hr and 15mins of walking at a steady pace up the trail, we eventually made it to the top..... We had been welcomed by the sun gate. We were so super stoked, we took photo after photo, we hugged it out and were dishing out high 5's left right and centre. By this stage the clouds had lifted and the view was absolutely spectacular!!! Machu Picchu had the sun was shining on it..... Just like a little bit of heaven. The Andes stood there with its green might and power, looking untamed in so many ways. Yet every now and again you could see the scattering of Incan ruins built high up on the mountains, just proving where there's a will, there's a way!!!
We stayed up at sun gate for about 15mins, and then it was time to climb back down. So we started to descend, again making a couple of stops on the way down. Whilst we were breathless going up to sun gate, you could feel the extra pressure on your knees going down. We made it back to Machu Picchu in about 45mins. That left us with about 40min to explore the top part of Machu Picchu before we had to meet the rest of the group at 9.30 to leave.
At around 9.20 we thought that we should start to make tracks. So we started walking down all of the steps, walking across terraces heading in the general direction of the exit. The closer we got to the exit, the more people we started to see entering Machu Picchu. At one stage, we got to a part of the ruins where we had to duck through a narrow and low lying walkway, however there was a steady stream of people coming from the opposite direction. We were stuck. It got to the stage that it looked like there was no way that we were going to make it back by 9.30, so I said to Rob that we may just need to push through. Which we did. We then pretty much ran to the exit. We arrived at 9.33, and everyone else was already in a shuttle bus just leaving Machu Picchu. The guide Luis wasn't too happy with us... But in the grand scheme of things we were only 3mins late. I thought that was a pretty good effort actually!! Considering how busy it was.
We jumped on the next shuttle bus heading down the mountain. As we got on the bus, we noticed the driver looking at the right hand wheel..... Should we be concerned?? It's never a good sign, when you are about to board a bus, destination: bottom of the hill, route: down a very steep unmade road with sheer cliff drops of to the side, passing other buses. Again, you can see the religious paraphernalia tucked safely into the sun visor looking directly over the driver, also an Incan good luck charm, that looked like a dream catcher, hung from the roof above the driver. It seems to be working, as he is still driving up and down the mountain, and really there's no need to change a winning formula.
Anyway our bus sets off.... Down the hill we go... then we hear a 'bang' 'pop'. Holy crap, did we just blow a tyre?? The driver stopped the bus, got out and inspected the damage. Didn't seem to be anything obvious as he got back on the bus and started driving again. But we constantly heard banging coming from under the bus the entire way down. At least we were sitting in the front half of the bus, so if it does snap in half at least we will have steering whilst the momentum of the down hill slope would be enough to get us back to our hotel. Ok so it shouldn't be surprising when I say that the bus didn't break in half, and in fact we did make it down the hill with no dramas!!
We were dropped off at our hotel at 10am, and we had to be checked out and waiting in the foyer at 10.30am. So I madly ran to my room, finished packing the last couple of things, sprewst up a bit, especially after the hike this morning, and went to check out.
We were told to start walking up towards the restaurant for lunch. But it's only 10.30?!?!? However, word on the street was that it was about to pour. Hearing that, we started walking up to the restaurant, and quickly. Sure enough it didn't open until 11.30, so that just gave us time to head over to the market and shop. Just as we were running over the railway line the rain started to fall. We made it into the market just before it started to absolutely bucket down. Now this was some seriously heavy rain. It just made me realise how lucky we had been, to firstly have such a fantastically sunny day yesterday up at Machu Picchu, and a dry morning this morning where the clouds lifted, up at sun gate. The poor people that were heading up to Machu Picchu today. For starters, the bus trip up there would be so scary, but walking around the ruins in really heavy rain would be miserable.
I did end up buying a couple of things from the market. Hmmmm, now where are these going to fit?? Definitely not in my checkin luggage. Now I have to start thinking about what I can leave behind, in order to fit these new purchases in my luggage!!!
By the time we looked around the market, and headed back to the restaurant it was time to eat. Soon after lunch was finished, we walked our way through the market back to the train station. Most of the market was undercover, however there were a couple of areas that we had to run our way through the heavy rain. At the train station we collected our bags that the porters had brought up from the hotel, and then waited until our train was ready to board.
We boarded the train. I was at the end of the carriage, and in the isle seat that was closest to the service area and toilet. The train started moving and we were all having great discussions and laughing about life. We had a nice cup of coca tea and was just relaxing, enjoying the views and excited by the fact that we were out of the rain.
Then out of nowhere, this masked man dressed up with a wolf mask and rainbow suit stuck his head around the corner right in my face and said raaa. He scared the living bejesus out of me. I swear I lost about 10 years off my life. He then started dancing all the way down the carriage. It took about 5 mins for my heart to start beating again!!!
The train staff then put on a fashion parade, displaying a lot of alpaca goods, including jumpers, jackets and ponchos. It was a great show, but still dark on the fact that he scared me!!!
We travelled over an hour on the train and arrived back at Ollantaytambo. We walked a short distance to the carpark, and boarded our buses.... at long last we were reunited with llama. Once everyone was accounted for, we set off on our journey to cusco. We started out by following the alpaca bus. We pulled out of the carpark, and found ourselves in an interesting position. The roads are quite narrow, and a couple of vans and minibuses were coming down the same street in the opposite direction. This was going to take some manoeuvring. Our bus driver managed to scrape through.... I'm talking about the fact that we were lucky to have an inch to the passing car, and an inch to the stone wall on the other side. It was tight.... and I may have ended up on Jan's lap cringing at the fact that I honestly thought we were going to be scrapping the other bus as we passed. However the bus driver did a great job and we eventually made it through. Argh, I can breath again now. Hahahaha, that was short lived. We started driving around the square, where all the traffic travelled in the same direction, similar to a round about. We drove round the square and then shot out the opposite corner to where we entered, turned left down the next street and then had to make a right. We then approached a road that if you turn left lead back to the town square, however turning right lead you to the freeway out of town. So as we were heading up the street we noticed half way up a political march taking place. Next week are the elections in Peru, so the candidates were doing their best at trying to win votes by sending out these people to march, along with banners and matching bands etc. They were looping back to the city square, with the alpaca bus managing to turn right just as the march was turning left. We on the other hand weren't so lucky. The march started to block the roads. So cars and trucks heading to the city square couldn't move at all. They had stopped and were lining the street that we needed to go down. The problem was, the roads were too narrow for llama to fit down, so we were stuck in a proper gridlock. The cars going to the square couldn't move, and they in turn were blocking us from turning into the road, we in turn were blocking cars back in the square. All the while there was a traffic control police officer just standing there doing nothing. Well he was doing something, he was on his phone obviously updating his Facebook status!! We sat in the same position for about 20mins. Our driver got out of the bus, and pretty much ripped the police officer a new one. He wanted him to go down and stop the cars and trucks further down the road so that we could turn the corner and make it down the road to the freeway. So off the police officer went. By this stage a posse of other drivers stuck behind us also got out and started to take some control. They managed to get some of the cars to move as far to the right as possible, and eventually there was a big enough break in the traffic for us to get our bus to turn the corner. We all cheered, but again this was short lived. The narrow road had all of the cars down one side of it, and the brilliant town planning saw big rocks placed about a metre out on to the road down the other side, which meant llama was going no where..... again!!! Some of the smaller cars could get through.... which was lucky for the occupants, as they had a plane to catch. Our bus driver cracked it though when a minivan tried to fit down the road (and there was no way it was going to fit), so he just moved llama up to the rock, blocking the rest of the traffic getting through. We in the mean time turned into the biggest backseat drivers. 'Now if this person moves over a bit, and that truck reverses back we could make it through!' Hahahahaha. Anyway the posse of drivers, plus the police officer started playing musical cars. They were getting cars and trucks to swap positions, and moving cars across as far right as they could go. Then a second political march started come up the street. This town is crazy!!! Considering they were the main reason we were stuck here, I'm surprised we didn't have a big rumble in the town square. Eventually the rearranging of cars created enough room just for llama to get through. I mean just. I was hugging Jan, absolutely cringing and waiting for the scrapping of metal on metal, however our driver managed to slide by without any damage. We then came to a part of the road where there were cars on the left side of us, and a sheer drop on the other side of us. Llamas tyre was at least an inch over the edge of the drop, and the side of llama was hanging at least 10cm over the edge. It was at this stage Jan and I were hugging, leaning to the left (just hoping to shift the weight of the bus so we didn't topple over the edge) and I recall that maybe I was screaming 'we're all going to die'. I don't know how, but we did get past the traffic, without a scratch on llama, nor loss of life. Once we made it on to the freeway (over an hour later) we all cheered. We would have given the driver a standing ovation, however we were too scared to take our seatbelts off!!
We were driven along the freeway, on our way to Cuzco. We made a stop about halfway, and were more than happy to get out of llama and enjoy the beautiful views of the glaciers. Even though the Andes are tall and impressive, Peru is so close to the equator that it is too hot for snow/glaciers on most of the mountains. But there are a few mountains that are so high up that they are covered ever so slightly with glaciers.
Again we were heading back up the hill, which also meant the elevation also increased. I was ok, but again many people started to feel the effects of the high altitude.
We watched the sunset from the van, and entered cusco under darkness. Traffic was a little crazy... Ok a lot crazy. Again I resumed my position on Jan's lap.... I was just anticipating an accident. The only way I can describe the driving in Cusco is a massive game of chicken. Who ever has the most courage, and biggest nerves of steel is the one that goes first. The problem being when both drivers are as stubborn as each other.... this is when the size of a bus trumps the size of a car. Don't forget the horn beeping as the cherry on top.
We arrived in the heart of cusco, and found out that the bus wasn't allowed to stop outside of our hotel, so he dropped us off across the street and around the corner. We all jumped off llama, thanking our lucky stars that we were still alive.
We carried our hand luggage up to the corner ready to cross, only to realise that this would have to be the busiest street in cusco. We waited, and then eventually we all picked up enough courage to just walk across the street, and hope that a car doesn't collect you as you do so. We survived. We walked the last 50m to the hotel and checked in.
We had a free night for dinner, but most of us were so whacked from Machu Picchu this morning, trying not to die on our bus ride to cusco and from the altitude that we all pretty much decided to eat at the hotel restaurant. Soon after we all retired to our rooms to rest up. I was all settled in my room, just sitting on my bed writing my blog when the room started to move. I could be really lame and start to sing ' I feel the earth move under my feet', but I'll save you from that! I knew exactly what was happening this time, no denying that it was an earthquake. I later found out that the earth quake was a 4.9.
Now it is time for sleep, on a day that scared the living suitcase out of me on a continuous basis!!!