The Machu Picchu Blog

Tom:

Tourist information, guides and the internet had, during our trip and before, given this UNESCO site a rather elevated level of expectation. The overwhelming amount of tourists has meant that UNESCO have had to step in and impose a 500 person per day entry limit (300 trekkers/200 others), and only 400 of those could climb WaynaPicchu (the mountain behind the settlement in the blog image). This, coupled with the fact that Machu Picchu had a lot to live up to with the other sights we´d seen (Angkor Wat/Blue Mountains etc.), meant that we set off from the tourist town of Aguas Calientes at 4am feeling very excited, and a little apprehensive. 3 days of trekking in Thailand was heaven compared to the 2 hours, 700m climb up to the entrance. The trek was poorly sign-posted, especially considering that it was dark when we left, and the hike just never seemed to end. To make matters worse, during one of our many breaks on the way up to stop ourselves from vomiting, the first bus rolled smugly past us. All hope seemed lost. Finally we made it up and dicovered to our delight that we´d only been beaten by two bus-loads, and the WaynaPicchu permit was ours for the taking! Knowing that our permit to climb was for 10am, and our guided tour was at midday, we staggered wearily into the settlement. There isn´t much point trying to put into words how utterly breath-taking the sight is. To avoid gushing cliches and superlatives I´ll simply say that this is, and probably will remain, the most awesome sight I´ll ever see. It beats everything we´ve done on our trip so far hands down, and any traveller who claims that it´s impossible to choose between Machu Picchu and, say, Angkor Wat, are merely fence-sitting! We duly continued, tired and happy, up a further hour´s hike to the sun gate, and watched the sun lift the mist off the mountain-tops. Suffice to say, the views were awesome. The tour was also a surprisingly good one. Up until now every tour we´d had had been opinionated, nonsesical drivel, but our guide, who spoke Quechuan (the Inca language still spoken in Peru), really knew his Machu Picchu. Anyway, we´re now back in Cuzco, incredibly happy with what we´ve witnessed, and enjoying looking back at our photos with a great deal of fondness for such a beautiful place.

Nil:

It´s always been one of my ambitions to see Machu Picchu, now that I´ve seen it I can die happy, although getting up to the site nearly did kill me! Starting at 4am we walked in the dark with nothing but my pathetic torch to give us some idea of our direction. We were told to follow the river Umbamba until we came to the bridge, and from there it would all be sign posted. Like hell it was! The stony steps between the buses´ cascading route were so steep, we should have brought ropes to help us up! It was pitch black, and the steps were very well concealed, which required all of my eagle eye abilities to find! At times we thought we were following the light from other travellers futher ahead, but then we realised that they weren´t people, but fire-flies! Very deceptive little b*****s they are too! I won´t bore you with the details of that 2- hour trek, because not only do I fear losing our blog audience, but also to relive the experience hurts! It was painful, exhausting and debilitating. I didn´t think I was that unfit, but evidently I am. We stumbled into the site and got our first view of Machu Picchu, and ladies and gentlemen, it does not disappoint. This isolated, self-contained city is an architectural marvel which showcases the Inca´s rich culture. And it is a city so shrowded in mystery, that, for instance, nobody knows why or when it was deserted, and what the city was used for, as no weaponry has ever been excavated there, and out of the 120 bodies found buried, 100 were women! The misty atmosphere enhanced the mystery and magic of the ruins- a truly awesome experience. Our guide wasn´t able to show us around until the afternoon, and recommended that we walk to the Sun Gate, which was a 2 hour round trip up some more steep steps. The Sun Gate is the opening to Machu Picchu, and forms part of the trail that the Incas used to access Cuzco (a 7/8 day hike!), now it´s the last leg for the Inca Trail trekkers, so we felt that doing part of the trail would be interesting and give us some idea of what the trail might have been like. Although the path is full of spectacular flora and fauna, it´s also pretty gruelling, and I have a lot of respect for those trekkers, and even more for the Incas who used to regularly hike that trail. The views from the top were amazing, and I´m really pleased we did it. But after the 2 hour climb to the site and then another 2 hour climb to the Sun Gate, I was done. I couldn´t, not even for money, move my sore bottom to climb Waynapicchu too. I feel bad for Tom, who really wanted to climb it, but I just couldn´t do anything anymore, I was spent. He was being a gentleman and wouldn´t leave me on my own in the state I was in! Instead of more climbing, we chilled out on a rock in the shade and observed the llamas who have now taken ownership of the site. I love llamas, I totally want one. It took me a good 3 hours to recover from all that trekking, and by that time we had met up with our guide and were given the best tour of Machu Picchu ever. Our guide gave us a very local and Quechuan perspective on the information about the ruins which was very interesting. When I get home I´d be happy to bore anybody who wants with some of the information he gave us! So, in summary, we were tired, but loved Machu Picchu, worth every bit of effort, and definitely somewhere I´d like to visit again as it´s so big you could spend a couple of days taking it all in. Hope I haven´t gone on too much. Lots of love to everyone back home, missing you all very much. xxxxxxxxx