Machu Picchu, Peru
Hey y'all. So we said farewell to the Galapagos:
And hello to 48 hours of HARD traveling. To start, our boat dropped us off 4 hours early to the airport. Okay, no biggie, we can use the internet....not. The airport had no internet for public use. Luckily, some friends we had made on the boat were also on the same flight, so we got to talk about their amazing 20 MONTH TRIP while we begrudgingly told them about our puny 3 weeks. We flew from The Galapagos to Guayaquil, Ecuador, where we were supposed to catch a plane to Quito, Ecuador. Notice I said supposed to. Our flight was cancelled and we were put on a much later flight. Instead of arriving at 5 in Quito, we landed somewhere around 8:30 pm. Our hotel pickup was shot, and I spent the next hour first trying to get an earlier flight to Lima (we were supposed to leave at 7 the next morning) and when that didn't work, trying to convince Alex to save 60 bucks for the room and sleep at the airport. He brought up the point that we needed sleep and a shower (definitely needed that shower) so we called our hotel and told them in broken Spanish that our flight was cancelled and we were now at the airport ready to come to the hotel. We finally made it around 10:00 to our upgraded room (a larger shower with consistent hot water!), and got ourselves at least 6 hours of restful sleep. We woke up bright and early at 4 to get ready and get to our 7:00 flight. We flew Quito to Lima, had a 3 hour layover in Lima, and followed it with a flight from Lima to Cusco, where we were again supposed to have airport pickup from our next hotel. We waited for an hour, wasting precious time in our day for the hotel that never came. The plan was to go to the hotel, drop off our luggage and bring a nights worth of clothes with us, get a bus to Ollanytaytambo, catch our train to Aguas Calientes, and in the morning hike up to Machu Picchu. It was a lot to try to do in one day, and it was already 1 in the afternoon. We tried calling the hotel and discovered no answer; I started sweatin, considering I had paid in full for the hotel already. I finally said "screw it" and told Alex we're getting in a Taxi and making our way to Machu Picchu with all of our crap. We got in a taxi waiting outside of the airport, and told the driver we needed to get to the "bus station" (just a street corner with vans parked around it) to catch a collectivo (a van full of people going to the same place) to Ollanytaytambo We paid 30 soles ($10.80 USD) and prayed that we were in a legitimate taxi. Soon when we arrived and squished in the back of a van with a bunch of locals, settling in for a nice bumpy two hour ride. We paid 10 soles ($3.60 USD) for the two hour ride to Ollanytaytambo where we were going to get on our train to Aguas Calientes. Initially, we were supposed to arrive around 2:00 so we could look at some historical sights in Ollanytaytambo, but with all the delays and running around, it ended up being around 3:45, with our train leaving at 4:15, so we only had time to pick up tickets and hop on the railroad. I had bought tickets on Inkarail 4 months ago when I had read online that tickets often run out if you try to get them the same day. Apparently, I was the first purchase for that particular ride, seeing that Alex and I were in seats 1 and 2 of cart one. The lucky winner of these seats get to sit right next to the front of the train WHERE THE CONDUCTORS LAY ON THEIR DAMN HORNS FOR ALL 2 HOURS OF THE RIDE. My hearing was shoddy at best before, now I'm officially at the hearing of an 82 year old. We arrived in A.C. (Aguas Calientes) around 6:00 pm, in full dark, tired as fuck (excuse my French, but that's how I felt) and trying to figure our where our hostel was for the night. We stepped off the platform with the rest of the passengers and a golden light shined in front of me. Behold, a woman, standing with a sign, and there on the sign, Katherina Bryan was written clear as day. The hotel had come! We didn't have to struggle through the dark to find our Hostel after two days of traveling. Warmth spread throughout my body, and my soul, was finally at peace. Until we were trudging up a hill three minutes later after being at sea level for a week and gaining 6,693 feet in altitude in one day.
We took showers and made preparations for the following day. There are two choices for getting up to Machu Picchu: a hair-raising bus ride (by far the most used option, but one I wasn't looking forward to), complete with sheer drop offs, near death experiences, and lack of guard rails...anywhere, or, climbing 5.2 miles and gaining 1,279 feet in altitude up the staircase built vertical up the mountain. Our original plan was just to take the first bus up and get there at the 6 am opening, but after hearing some people talk about the hike up, we thought it could be for us. They had done it a couple of years ago, and said it took between an hour and a half and two hours, depending on how fit you are, and can be done even by people who aren't in the best shape (our hands rose here). And we thought, "Yeah! What a great idea, we'll get up early, experience the real climb of the Incas up to the mountain, and then at 7 climb for another 2 hours to Huayna Picchu (the mountain we were scheduled to climb at the top), no problem, were young!" What the hell were we thinking????!?!?!? So first, we leave our hostel at 5:05 thinking we'll get there at 6:30 and there shouldn't be too many people. At that point it was full dark, and guess what, there isn't a lighted path up the mountain. Strike one against us: no flashlight. We stumbled through the dark until we came across two other couples walking up with a flashlight, and stuck close to them for a while. Eventually the sun started to rise and I attempted to take the first picture:
My guess is that the dots all over the camera was from the morning dew. At the time I was hoping that it wasn't water damage from snorkeling with the supposedly "waterproof" camera. At this point we were about 20 minutes in and had just then gotten to the bottom of the mountain. We were feeling good, thinking so far that the brisk morning walk was really setting the mood for the start of the day. By this point we came across the bottom of the stair case leading up to the top. My feelings changed around 3 minutes later. Ever been on a StairMaster at the gym? EVER BEEN ON A STAIRMASTER FOR 5.2 MILES, WITHOUT BEING ACCLIMATED AND RISING 1200 FEET IN ELEVATION???? Not to mention that the stairs are slippery, uneven in height, and are hundreds of years old? We stopped every.... I'd say 2 minutes....to catch our breath, and of the couple thousand people who went to Machu Picchu that day, we came across about 10 that climbed to the fricken top from AC. And of the ten, we were the only two that then climbed Huayna Picchu 20 minutes after we arrived. For the next hour and a half I was close to tears every time I heard a bus full of cheery tourists pass us by, slapping bugs off the bottom of my calves and drowning in my own sweat. But when the light started to illuminate the valley, it started to feel worth it:
The worst part is you can't tell how far away you are. In this picture, I'm thinking were maybe....15 minutes away. We were another 45:
I know it looks like Alex is springy and refreshed, but he just barely grudged up a smile for this picture. I wasn't going to lie to my audience by plastering a smile on my face.
This will give you an idea of what the stairs look like. But don't be fooled, this set were the nice, small stepped ones, rolling peacefully up the mountain into the beautiful scenery. All of the others were the equivalent of me taking 2 or 3 steps at a time, straight up, no relief.
About an hour in we heard some people ahead of us, and I thought, we've made it! Nope. Just another 2 people who decided to climb to the top, parked on the side of the road drenched in sweat and looking like they've just been told they have an hour to live. We soldiered on, and when we heard the sound of a bus backing up, we knew, we had finally made it!!!!! Here's the view from the top. That little river below...yeah that one, way down there....that's where we started:
A lot of people will tell you that the hike up isn't worth it, you don't see much, there's still so much walking to do at the top, and it doesn't add anything to the experience. Alex and I fully disagreed. Yes it was strenuous, and yes, it was by far the hardest hike I've ever done (save 20 minutes later, ha), but there was nothing better then seeing the valley below after making it to the top. It also gave us a great understanding of the magnitude of building something as incredible as Machu Picchu at the top of such a great mountain.
And we were awarded by our first glance after entering the gates:
We reached the top at 6:35, taking us exactly 1 hour and thirty minutes to get to the top. Not bad for all the whining and groaning expressed on the way up. So now came the real test: Huayna Picchu. When you buy tickets to Machu Picchu, you have the option of upgrading and also getting a pass to climb Huayna Picchu (if you look at the picture above, its that looming peak in the distance). Only 400 passes are issued a day, with 4 different times to climb, the earliest at 7:00 (supposedly the best time). This is where high priests went up to sacrifice a couple of virgins and get even closer to the heavens, and as far as I heard, another unforgettable experience. But a word of caution, and one that I did not heed, it's not easy. A lot of people had to turn around, but if you're in relatively good shape, it IS doable. But give yourself a break if you just climbed up from Aguas Calientes. When we initially left early that morning, we thought we would have our half an hour rest and that would be more than enough to them climb to the peak of Huayna Picchu When we got through the gates of Machu Picchu, we realized that the entrance to climb H (hence forth, its H), you had to RUN ACROSS THE ENTIRETY OF MACHU PICCHU TO GET THERE). So we had around 5 minutes rest before we were lining up with the first group to climb to the top:
Here we also found H is also referred to as Waynupicchu. When we went through the gates we had to sign in, in case they have to come looking for you if you don't sign out by closing time:
Off to my right is at least 1,000 feet drop, if not more. No coming back from that. It makes my toes curl and fingers shake just looking at the picture. There were quite a few parts that I took crab walking and scooting down on my ass. I'm not ashamed in the least (considering that Alex was one of the only people taking them standing upright and not quivering with fear).
Earlier, on our way up H after a good half hour, we had rejoiced at the sign that said the summit was 25 minutes away. We naturally looked for the sign on the way down....and 25 minutes quickly turned into an hour of slow going until we finally reached it. It was definitely an accomplishment photo:
We reached the bottom of the mountain and were back in the Machu Picchu area at 10 am. Meaning we had been hiking, non-stop for 5 fricken hours, gone through two liters of water and 3 granola bars plus breakfast, and I was still considering ripping off the face of a cute alpaca standing next to me to regain sustenance. Instead we left the park for a bit, bought more water, paid a ridiculous price for a terrible sandwich, and sat for a long time before we finally got our legs working enough to get back to exploring Machu Picchu. The best part was....more climbing!!!! Since Machu Picchu itself is pretty much built up the side of the mountain, we thought the best plan of attack was to climb up and work our way down. I actually suggested that we skip it and go home. I'm sorry, I don't think you understood me there. I SUGGESTED THAT WE LEAVE WITHOUT GOING THROUGH MACHU PICCHU TO GO BACK TO A HOTEL ROOM TO REST. I'm sure that will let you know how tired I was at the time. Alex just about slapped me across the face to get me moving again, and we took it one step at a time to get to the top most part to the left of the ruins:
Well, kinda. There was another hike that you could do further up, and we both said screw that and walked on.
And we spent the next 2 hours exploring everything there was to see. We finally left around noon, 7 hours after we had started that morning, and took the bus down to A.C. Sure we paid top dollar for the bus tickets at the top of the mountain, but boy, that was the sweetest (and yes most terrifying) bus ride of my life. We reached A.C. by 1:00 pm, and had 3 hours to burn before we left back to Cusco. We tried trading our tickets for the 1:30 train, but were told that it was booked up (duh) so we went to a place recommended to us by some friends we met in The Galapagos, where they had the best lemonade, and Jenga!
We explored the market where I had bought my alpaca sweater the night before (for 15 bucks, hells yeah! I almost bought one just like it in Tahoe a year before for 40 dollas. Suckas) and Alex bought his obligatory shot glass. We finally left A.C. at 4:00, got to O at 6:00, took a collectivo to Cusco arriving around 8. Got in another sketchy cab that didn't know where our hotel was and dropped us off where it was supposed to be. We walked around freaked out for 20 minutes until we figured out that the street numbers were not even close to being in order, and found our hotel and the comfort of a waiting reservation. We were welcomed with apologies about the airport pickup, and a nice room that we paid half price for, plus, a new episode of The Big Bang theory that wasn't dubbed. Yes!
So we've done The Galapagos and Machu Picchu, what could possibly be left? Well, two days in Cusco, then on to Puno and the floating islands on Lake Titicaca, a three day hike into Colca Canyon, and exploring the two largest cities in Peru, Lima and Arequipa. And on we go!
And hello to 48 hours of HARD traveling. To start, our boat dropped us off 4 hours early to the airport. Okay, no biggie, we can use the internet....not. The airport had no internet for public use. Luckily, some friends we had made on the boat were also on the same flight, so we got to talk about their amazing 20 MONTH TRIP while we begrudgingly told them about our puny 3 weeks. We flew from The Galapagos to Guayaquil, Ecuador, where we were supposed to catch a plane to Quito, Ecuador. Notice I said supposed to. Our flight was cancelled and we were put on a much later flight. Instead of arriving at 5 in Quito, we landed somewhere around 8:30 pm. Our hotel pickup was shot, and I spent the next hour first trying to get an earlier flight to Lima (we were supposed to leave at 7 the next morning) and when that didn't work, trying to convince Alex to save 60 bucks for the room and sleep at the airport. He brought up the point that we needed sleep and a shower (definitely needed that shower) so we called our hotel and told them in broken Spanish that our flight was cancelled and we were now at the airport ready to come to the hotel. We finally made it around 10:00 to our upgraded room (a larger shower with consistent hot water!), and got ourselves at least 6 hours of restful sleep. We woke up bright and early at 4 to get ready and get to our 7:00 flight. We flew Quito to Lima, had a 3 hour layover in Lima, and followed it with a flight from Lima to Cusco, where we were again supposed to have airport pickup from our next hotel. We waited for an hour, wasting precious time in our day for the hotel that never came. The plan was to go to the hotel, drop off our luggage and bring a nights worth of clothes with us, get a bus to Ollanytaytambo, catch our train to Aguas Calientes, and in the morning hike up to Machu Picchu. It was a lot to try to do in one day, and it was already 1 in the afternoon. We tried calling the hotel and discovered no answer; I started sweatin, considering I had paid in full for the hotel already. I finally said "screw it" and told Alex we're getting in a Taxi and making our way to Machu Picchu with all of our crap. We got in a taxi waiting outside of the airport, and told the driver we needed to get to the "bus station" (just a street corner with vans parked around it) to catch a collectivo (a van full of people going to the same place) to Ollanytaytambo We paid 30 soles ($10.80 USD) and prayed that we were in a legitimate taxi. Soon when we arrived and squished in the back of a van with a bunch of locals, settling in for a nice bumpy two hour ride. We paid 10 soles ($3.60 USD) for the two hour ride to Ollanytaytambo where we were going to get on our train to Aguas Calientes. Initially, we were supposed to arrive around 2:00 so we could look at some historical sights in Ollanytaytambo, but with all the delays and running around, it ended up being around 3:45, with our train leaving at 4:15, so we only had time to pick up tickets and hop on the railroad. I had bought tickets on Inkarail 4 months ago when I had read online that tickets often run out if you try to get them the same day. Apparently, I was the first purchase for that particular ride, seeing that Alex and I were in seats 1 and 2 of cart one. The lucky winner of these seats get to sit right next to the front of the train WHERE THE CONDUCTORS LAY ON THEIR DAMN HORNS FOR ALL 2 HOURS OF THE RIDE. My hearing was shoddy at best before, now I'm officially at the hearing of an 82 year old. We arrived in A.C. (Aguas Calientes) around 6:00 pm, in full dark, tired as fuck (excuse my French, but that's how I felt) and trying to figure our where our hostel was for the night. We stepped off the platform with the rest of the passengers and a golden light shined in front of me. Behold, a woman, standing with a sign, and there on the sign, Katherina Bryan was written clear as day. The hotel had come! We didn't have to struggle through the dark to find our Hostel after two days of traveling. Warmth spread throughout my body, and my soul, was finally at peace. Until we were trudging up a hill three minutes later after being at sea level for a week and gaining 6,693 feet in altitude in one day.
We took showers and made preparations for the following day. There are two choices for getting up to Machu Picchu: a hair-raising bus ride (by far the most used option, but one I wasn't looking forward to), complete with sheer drop offs, near death experiences, and lack of guard rails...anywhere, or, climbing 5.2 miles and gaining 1,279 feet in altitude up the staircase built vertical up the mountain. Our original plan was just to take the first bus up and get there at the 6 am opening, but after hearing some people talk about the hike up, we thought it could be for us. They had done it a couple of years ago, and said it took between an hour and a half and two hours, depending on how fit you are, and can be done even by people who aren't in the best shape (our hands rose here). And we thought, "Yeah! What a great idea, we'll get up early, experience the real climb of the Incas up to the mountain, and then at 7 climb for another 2 hours to Huayna Picchu (the mountain we were scheduled to climb at the top), no problem, were young!" What the hell were we thinking????!?!?!? So first, we leave our hostel at 5:05 thinking we'll get there at 6:30 and there shouldn't be too many people. At that point it was full dark, and guess what, there isn't a lighted path up the mountain. Strike one against us: no flashlight. We stumbled through the dark until we came across two other couples walking up with a flashlight, and stuck close to them for a while. Eventually the sun started to rise and I attempted to take the first picture:
My guess is that the dots all over the camera was from the morning dew. At the time I was hoping that it wasn't water damage from snorkeling with the supposedly "waterproof" camera. At this point we were about 20 minutes in and had just then gotten to the bottom of the mountain. We were feeling good, thinking so far that the brisk morning walk was really setting the mood for the start of the day. By this point we came across the bottom of the stair case leading up to the top. My feelings changed around 3 minutes later. Ever been on a StairMaster at the gym? EVER BEEN ON A STAIRMASTER FOR 5.2 MILES, WITHOUT BEING ACCLIMATED AND RISING 1200 FEET IN ELEVATION???? Not to mention that the stairs are slippery, uneven in height, and are hundreds of years old? We stopped every.... I'd say 2 minutes....to catch our breath, and of the couple thousand people who went to Machu Picchu that day, we came across about 10 that climbed to the fricken top from AC. And of the ten, we were the only two that then climbed Huayna Picchu 20 minutes after we arrived. For the next hour and a half I was close to tears every time I heard a bus full of cheery tourists pass us by, slapping bugs off the bottom of my calves and drowning in my own sweat. But when the light started to illuminate the valley, it started to feel worth it:
The worst part is you can't tell how far away you are. In this picture, I'm thinking were maybe....15 minutes away. We were another 45:
I know it looks like Alex is springy and refreshed, but he just barely grudged up a smile for this picture. I wasn't going to lie to my audience by plastering a smile on my face.
This will give you an idea of what the stairs look like. But don't be fooled, this set were the nice, small stepped ones, rolling peacefully up the mountain into the beautiful scenery. All of the others were the equivalent of me taking 2 or 3 steps at a time, straight up, no relief.
About an hour in we heard some people ahead of us, and I thought, we've made it! Nope. Just another 2 people who decided to climb to the top, parked on the side of the road drenched in sweat and looking like they've just been told they have an hour to live. We soldiered on, and when we heard the sound of a bus backing up, we knew, we had finally made it!!!!! Here's the view from the top. That little river below...yeah that one, way down there....that's where we started:
A lot of people will tell you that the hike up isn't worth it, you don't see much, there's still so much walking to do at the top, and it doesn't add anything to the experience. Alex and I fully disagreed. Yes it was strenuous, and yes, it was by far the hardest hike I've ever done (save 20 minutes later, ha), but there was nothing better then seeing the valley below after making it to the top. It also gave us a great understanding of the magnitude of building something as incredible as Machu Picchu at the top of such a great mountain.
And we were awarded by our first glance after entering the gates:
We reached the top at 6:35, taking us exactly 1 hour and thirty minutes to get to the top. Not bad for all the whining and groaning expressed on the way up. So now came the real test: Huayna Picchu. When you buy tickets to Machu Picchu, you have the option of upgrading and also getting a pass to climb Huayna Picchu (if you look at the picture above, its that looming peak in the distance). Only 400 passes are issued a day, with 4 different times to climb, the earliest at 7:00 (supposedly the best time). This is where high priests went up to sacrifice a couple of virgins and get even closer to the heavens, and as far as I heard, another unforgettable experience. But a word of caution, and one that I did not heed, it's not easy. A lot of people had to turn around, but if you're in relatively good shape, it IS doable. But give yourself a break if you just climbed up from Aguas Calientes. When we initially left early that morning, we thought we would have our half an hour rest and that would be more than enough to them climb to the peak of Huayna Picchu When we got through the gates of Machu Picchu, we realized that the entrance to climb H (hence forth, its H), you had to RUN ACROSS THE ENTIRETY OF MACHU PICCHU TO GET THERE). So we had around 5 minutes rest before we were lining up with the first group to climb to the top:
Here we also found H is also referred to as Waynupicchu. When we went through the gates we had to sign in, in case they have to come looking for you if you don't sign out by closing time:
And there she was looming in the distance:
Stairs, again. The best part was that, instead of cutting up the mountain, it was more winding up the side, so the sheer drop off on either side made for quite a wake up call:
Now look how far we've climbed: I think at this point we were about halfway up:
Machu Picchu, far below us:
This wasn't the top yet. Yeah, I know:
This was the top. I'll tell you now, I have been terrified for months of doing this climb. I'm terrified of heights, like dizzy on a step stool kind of terrified. There's no one there to guide you up, and there were more than a couple of points where if you slipped and fell, you were done for, no joke. When we finally reached the top, I was surprised as hell by how easy getting over the height had been. Your surroundings are so distracting, you don't have a lot of time to think about how far up you are. But don't get me wrong, there was definitely a shriek here and there:
So now for the climb down....another sight to dread. Climbing up, while physically challenging, was definitely the easy part. You're looking up the entire time, wondering when you'll get to the top, and if the pain was really worth it. Once you start down, that's what you're doing, looking down for two hours. After rounding the corner from the top, this was the first staircase to start the descend:
Off to my right is at least 1,000 feet drop, if not more. No coming back from that. It makes my toes curl and fingers shake just looking at the picture. There were quite a few parts that I took crab walking and scooting down on my ass. I'm not ashamed in the least (considering that Alex was one of the only people taking them standing upright and not quivering with fear).
Earlier, on our way up H after a good half hour, we had rejoiced at the sign that said the summit was 25 minutes away. We naturally looked for the sign on the way down....and 25 minutes quickly turned into an hour of slow going until we finally reached it. It was definitely an accomplishment photo:
We reached the bottom of the mountain and were back in the Machu Picchu area at 10 am. Meaning we had been hiking, non-stop for 5 fricken hours, gone through two liters of water and 3 granola bars plus breakfast, and I was still considering ripping off the face of a cute alpaca standing next to me to regain sustenance. Instead we left the park for a bit, bought more water, paid a ridiculous price for a terrible sandwich, and sat for a long time before we finally got our legs working enough to get back to exploring Machu Picchu. The best part was....more climbing!!!! Since Machu Picchu itself is pretty much built up the side of the mountain, we thought the best plan of attack was to climb up and work our way down. I actually suggested that we skip it and go home. I'm sorry, I don't think you understood me there. I SUGGESTED THAT WE LEAVE WITHOUT GOING THROUGH MACHU PICCHU TO GO BACK TO A HOTEL ROOM TO REST. I'm sure that will let you know how tired I was at the time. Alex just about slapped me across the face to get me moving again, and we took it one step at a time to get to the top most part to the left of the ruins:
Well, kinda. There was another hike that you could do further up, and we both said screw that and walked on.
Panoramic view of the valley:
Alex hanging off the side of a cliff:
And we spent the next 2 hours exploring everything there was to see. We finally left around noon, 7 hours after we had started that morning, and took the bus down to A.C. Sure we paid top dollar for the bus tickets at the top of the mountain, but boy, that was the sweetest (and yes most terrifying) bus ride of my life. We reached A.C. by 1:00 pm, and had 3 hours to burn before we left back to Cusco. We tried trading our tickets for the 1:30 train, but were told that it was booked up (duh) so we went to a place recommended to us by some friends we met in The Galapagos, where they had the best lemonade, and Jenga!
We explored the market where I had bought my alpaca sweater the night before (for 15 bucks, hells yeah! I almost bought one just like it in Tahoe a year before for 40 dollas. Suckas) and Alex bought his obligatory shot glass. We finally left A.C. at 4:00, got to O at 6:00, took a collectivo to Cusco arriving around 8. Got in another sketchy cab that didn't know where our hotel was and dropped us off where it was supposed to be. We walked around freaked out for 20 minutes until we figured out that the street numbers were not even close to being in order, and found our hotel and the comfort of a waiting reservation. We were welcomed with apologies about the airport pickup, and a nice room that we paid half price for, plus, a new episode of The Big Bang theory that wasn't dubbed. Yes!
So we've done The Galapagos and Machu Picchu, what could possibly be left? Well, two days in Cusco, then on to Puno and the floating islands on Lake Titicaca, a three day hike into Colca Canyon, and exploring the two largest cities in Peru, Lima and Arequipa. And on we go!
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