Machu Picchu

Day 9: Machu Picchu

For the most part, I am going to back off and let the videos do the talking.

After waiting in a line of hundreds down in Aguas Calientes at 5 am-ish, we snagged a spot on the 5th bus headed up the long switch-backing road to the entrance. Once there, it felt like a mob scene. Hundreds of people packed into a very tight space, all trying to be the first into Machu Picchu when it opened.

The sun began to rise, the opened the gates, and off we went...as if chasing the white rabbit of unspoiled views first thing in the morning.

Janet shows off my fleece, which will only grow larger as our trip goes on. On more than one occasion, I am forced to pull my entire body inside it, huddling for warmth in the fetal position.

It was easy to let your gaze wander off into the surrounding mountain peaks, and down long ancient corridors, so I don't have much to say about Edgar #1's tour. I immediately knew I wouldn't retain anything he said, so I instead spent my time memorizing the experience.

A small number of stamps (400) are given away each day for the side hike to Wayna Picchu, which I did on my own. The rest of the group had already left (yes, they spent around 2 hours at Machu Picchu, and then headed back down early to wait for their afternoon trains), and Janet was not excited to make it a 4th consecutive day of strenuous hiking.

I practically ran up the steep trail, hoping for a nice workout, and wanting to return to Janet in record time, who would spend this time pining and writing love poetry in my absence. Look for her upcoming memoir So I Married a Billy Goat.

Near the top, the path leads you through a narrow corridor of rocks:

Here is my monologue from the top...I'll let the views speak for themselves. The giant city of Machu Picchu looks tiny from the top.

The trail was steep. Seemed more dangerous coming down...

For the most part, there were hoardes of people spread out around the grounds. Still, it is large enough that I was able to sneak this serene panorama in the middle of the day.

One final shot, the Machu Picchu money shot...an angle that you'll recognize if you have seen pictures of it before.

The long opening act for Machu Picchu

Day 8: Lares -> Aguas Calientes

Today was a simple 2 hour hike downhill to the hot springs in Lares, and a relaxing end to the hiking portion of the trip.

A few noteworth items about the hot springs:

• Each pool was a different temperature
  
• There were private rooms, which sat empty until you paid for them. Sadly this was bad marketing, as the baths looked pretty disgusting when empty.
  
• Shortly before taking this photo, one of our guides discreetly peed in the corner of the lawn, 20 feet from a free bathroom. He didn't realize I could see him from my perch on the other side of the river.
  
• We accidentally spent most of our time in what appeared to be the unofficial make-out pool.
  
• The changing rooms had no curtains. Since there was no door in the entryway, people bathing could just look in and see you naked, seemingly defeating the whole purpose.

The building anticipation of tomorrow's early morning visit to Machu Picchu made the rest of the day drag a little, or rather, perhaps everything just took longer than Edgar had indicated (he has a habit of doing that). We left Lares on our mini-coach bus, winding along the only dirt road out of town. Many of us on the left side of the bus, Janet especially, had a hard time looking out the window without peering down the steep mountainside just inches (and no guardrail) away from the bus. Closing the curtain put that sight out of mind.

The trip was incredibly scenic, most of which was climing the winding road up one side of the deep open valley, and then over the pass and back down the other side. Every few miles there would be a tiny mud brick house, surrounded by hilly farmland and boulders, with snowcapped peaks in all directions. It was a full hour and a half before we saw another car on this one lane road.

We arrived at a "local bar" to a bevy of tasty snacks which would ultimately lead to our snacking downfall. All over the country you can find what we started calling chicha, because we could never remember the second part (chichasala?). Basically, it's like giant kettle corn, but a little less sugary. Buy the end of the trip, we were buying in bulk.

The bar did have some cute inhabitants:

Our next stop was the ancient city of Ollantaytambo. I won't bore you with the historical details, but they can be found here. The coolest thing about this tiny little town was the streets. Each was cuter than the last, narrow, with high stone walls, many of which were still original.

The central plaza downtown had these really neat trees with bell-like white flowers hanging down. I'd never seen them before:

With enough time to sit down and order a tasty pancake, that's just what we did, at a cute lonely place upstairs whose ambience was ruined by the blaring TV (which I shut off as soon as the other table had cleared out and the owner stepped into the kitchen). We told him: "Solemente tenemos viente minutos" (we only have 20 minutes), to which he replied, "Viente? Puedo hacerlo en dos" (20? I can do it in 2!).

To make a long story short, 18 minutes (and several urgings) later he brought out the pancakes (one for each of us, even though we ordered only one), giving us two minutes to eat before our bus was leaving for the train to Machu Picchu. We ended up scarfing down one and politely demanding some method of taking the other with us, so we cut it up and put it in a plastic bag and he gave us his worst metal fork. (The fork accompanied us until the second to last day of our trip, where it was confiscated by airport security). We made it to the bus on time, but surprisingly, no one else on the trip wanted to take a few bites of my pancake in a bag?

After an uneventful train ride in the dark with a bunch of rowdy highschoolers, we arrived at Aguas Calientes. This is a tiny little tourist town that exists mostly as a place to stay before you visit Machu Picchu. But it was hard to get a good sense of it at midnight. This little guy was having a blast though, sliding down the steep streets on a flattened plastic bottle.

Despite having to ask for directions 4 or 5 times, Edgar #1 eventually found our hotel. Basically you walk through town until you get to the railroad crossing, then walk along the tracks, past six consecutive pizzarias (no, I am not exagerating), until there is nothing left. There on your left: El Continental.

The check-in process was smooth, except for the part where the guy told us he needed to make copies of our passports, and then left the building. He came up to our room 10 minutes later and dropped them off. Phew.

After devouring one of the local granola bars (which are like ours except without all the goeyness and sugar to hold it together, meaning by the end of it you are basically covered in what looks like birdseed), we went to sleep, eager to meet the group at 5:45am and avoid the crowds.

Photos from the Lares Trek, Day 2

(click through to see larger versions)

The Lares Trail: Peru's Energizer Bunny

Day 7: Lares Trek - Part 2

After lunch, we sat with a local woman who showed us how she cooks potatoes in llama dung, virtually the only source of fuel up in the mountians. I know it's been a while since you've seen a waterfall video on this site, so I'll end the tortuous wait:

As we continued down the narrowing valley, we passed several farms. The children would see us coming and sprint all the way across the farm just to stand at the side of the trail, watching us curiously. And if I haven't already mentioned, Peruvian children are SO well behaved. You never saw one whining or being scolded in public, a common occurrence in the states.



Fooled by the Spanish phrases they had learned to parrot back to travelers, we would wave and attempt to chat with them, not realizing they only spoke Quetchua.

After hours of downhill, the trail began to climb slowly upward as it clung to the increasingly steep mountainside. It seemed an inappropriate route for humans, generally only the width of your feet at a standstill. Rounding the corner, the trail steepened as we headed up into the next valley.

Here we saw another trekking group in the distance - the only other "outsiders" we would encounter on the trail. No one was excited to be heading back uphill, and we finally rested at a small lake. Surrounded by scattered tiny boulders, with the clouds hanging low above us, we voted on whether or not to continue over the pass, or camp here and wait until morning. Although everyone was nearly exhausted, we agreed that it would be better to get it out of the way now, shortening tomorrows hike considerably, and allowing more time at the hot springs.

However, we might have changed our minds if we knew exactly what we were in for. The next 45 minutes were straight upwards, the steepest part of the entire trip. To make matters worse, we had caught up to the other group, whose 30 or so members continually slowed us down in one way or another. Halfway up, the thin air was too much and John needed to be carried up the rest of the way on horseback.

We finally reached the summit, all of us now ahead of the other group, let out a quick celebratory group cheer, and headed quickly down the other side. Totally engulfed amongst the clouds, there was nothing to see anyway, and we wanted to reach camp before darkness set in.

Care to know the difference between llamas and alpacas? Observe:



The trip down was much longer than expected (for no reason other than Edgar #1 liked to over and under exaggerate our expected hiking times), almost 2 hours, and arrived at the campsite ten minutes after switching on our headlamps.

There was a raging debate as to how far we traveled that day, but Edgar #1 insisted 30km, almost 19 miles! There along the stream running down the valley, it was easy to relax knowing tomorrow was all downhill, and the hot springs awaited us.