Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu


Up early to catch the train to Machu Picchu town (aka Hot Springs). The train ride was an experience in itself! It actually felt like we came off the tracks at certain stages and then slammed back down! We arrived in Machu Picchu safe and sound 4 hours later, checked into the hotel ( which had beautiful gold bed-spreads) and then off for lunch.
After lunch we made our way to the museum. The walk down was gorgeous. There's a fabulous river walking through the town and you are surrounded by the Andes and it really reminded me of the setting for Jurassic park.

Machu Picchu was discovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911, when he was led there by an 11 year old local boy. The local people of course knew of it before this but did not tell anyone because back then the Government took over any land which was thought to be Inka and destroyed it. Hiram Bingham returned in 1912 and received permission from the Peruvian government to remove some of the artifacts and bring them to Yale University in the US for a period of 2 years. However, to date they still have not been returned to the Peruvian people, despite ample requests. So our Attorney Remy (group member) is going to get onto the case on his return to the US!

We hiked back up to the town and decided to relax and visit the hot springs that gave the town it's name. Now I don't know about you, but when I think of a hot springs I picture a totally natural surrounding with rocks and trees and steaming water? Well, we arrived up to the springs, to see man-made pools filled with brown dirty looking water and no steam in sight! We were quite hesitant about going in but we decided to brave it anyway. The water wasn't even hot and it just felt so disgusting that we only lasted 15mins and then ran back down the hill to the hotel to get showered. But there was no hot water!! But we survived!
We all went out for dinner and had a lovely meal and birthday cake to celebrate Remy's birthday.

Early rise the next morning to go up to the Inka site. We stepped outside the hotel and all we saw were clouds so everyone was really disappointed because it meant that we wouldn't get to see the sun-rise properly. The bus ride took about 25mins and then from there we had to climb what felt like thousands of steps ( but wasn't) to get to the site! It was pretty eerie and magical at the same time because everything was still covered with cloud and mist.

After about 30mins the clouds started to clear and the view was simply breath-taking. There is no way to explain the magnitude of Machu Picchu, it must be seen for yourself and the pictures of it really don't do it any justice whatsoever. The sheer brilliance behind the construction is mindblowing. It is estimated that it took roughly 100 to 150 years to build Machu Picchu, but the people only got to live there for about 150 years before the Conquistadores arrived. 65% of the site is still standing today! We walked around for about 2 and half hours and then just for the fun of it we decided to climb the mountain beside it called Wayna Picchu mountain which reaches 2,400m above sea level, but obviously we weren't starting from the very bottom. It took us about 1 hour to reach the summit and roughly 35mins to come back down. There were moments however when I didn't think I'd make it back down to the bottom. Between the altitude, the literally thousands of steps and my level of unfitness I both looked and felt like I was having a heart attack all the way up! But I did make it back and I can tell ya I won't be going climbing anymore mountains any time soon!!

We got the death train back to Cusco later on that day.