We met up with our English boys in Cusco at a hostel called Loki. We were soooo excited to see our boys, we missed them so much! Unfortunately they had already taken the train up to Machu Picchu so we didn’t get to do the tour with them but we spent a lovely day watching Lord of the Rings and eating tuna melts! They took off to Arequipa the following morning and we booked our Inka Jungle Trek. The trek consisted of mountain biking 55km from an elevation of 4300m to a town called Santa Marta, staying the night and then waking up bright and early to trek 15km along the rail road track to the town of Agua Calientes, which sits 20mins south of Machu Picchu. The bike ride and trek was a blast!
I assumed that I would be holding David up a bunch because he bikes to work all the time and well is just a heck of a lot more bicycle inclined than I but David proved me wrong yet again! As we were going down the highway we came across a semi… he was going a tad bit slow for my liking so I went to pass him, I rode past and as David came to follow behind a van had appeared coming from the other direction, so he swerved back behind the semi but overcompensated and went straight into the ditch! A few bloody elbows, broken front break and sore knees later David appeared down the road! Hahaha what a tard! The problem was that we were only half way there so David rode the rest of the way with no front break and his chain kept slipping off of the gears so he pretty much just coasted uncontrollably down the rest of the way! It was sooo much fun though and the country side was beautiful. The road is in the process of being repaired so the last two hours of our journey had to be in a stuffy van to Santa Teresa. The tour group that we were placed with was awesome though so the journey was great. There were 4 Chilean boys, 2 Argentinian guys and a Brazilian couple. We got to practice our Spanish and learn all about the countries we will soon be visiting! 
Upon arriving at our hostel in Santa Teresa we realized why we were warned that everything might not run smoothly when the owner of the hostel couldn’t be tracked down and we had to switch to another location! It was all good though and we were able to walk around the little town, watch a soccer match and the kiddlets chase a monkey through the streets. Dinner was great that night as well, no guenie pig but we enjoyed a beautiful quinoa veggie soup and Lomo Saltado. We had a lovely sleep apart from the 4am rain storm on our tin roof room which awoke all of us just in time for me to sing happy birthday to David! My voice definitely made for a peaceful 2 more hours of rest! 
Even though I especially asked for a sunny day on David’s Birthday it started off pretty miserable with rain and clouds above but thankfully when we finished up breakfast the clouds broke off just in time for us to start our trek. The scenery could not have been more perfect. It actually was ironic that we watched Lord of the Rings right before our trip because that is exactly what I would describe it as! We trekked for about 4hrs until we arrived in a town called Hydro Electrica. The water plant is pretty spectacular. The whole plant is situated inside a mountain! We for sure have to do some research on this place cause it blew our minds! After a nice lunch we continued our journey down the rail road tracks for another 3-4hrs. David made the observation that we were spending his 28th b-day in hot water (the town of Agua Caliente.) After getting set up in our room we made our way to the hot springs which was really just luke warm, dirty water, over filled bathtubs. Great way to spend the afternoon! At 7:30pm we met our group for dinner and our guide explained the itinerary for the following day.
Day 3- In order to climb Waynapicchu, the mountain situated north of Machu Picchu you need to be the first 400 people to the front gate of Machu Picchu. In order to be the first 400 people to Machu Picchu you have to be the first 300 people to the base of Machu Picchu mountain. In order to be the first 300 people to the base of Machu Picchu, you have to wake up at 3:30 run to the bridge which is located 20mins north of Agua Calientes. Honestly, I didn`t even really know what Waynapicchu was, all I knew was that David and I had to be there for the race! We woke up at 3:25am, got changed and ran down the stairs to check our bags and make our way to the bridge. There was one key on the lobby desk… the race was on! We turned our flashlight and began our run! We passed a few couples on the way and arrived at the gate at 3:40am. We were blown away when we got there to see about 100 people ahead of us. At 4:15am a huge pack of people showed up behind us! It was nuts! The gate to the base of the mountain opened at 4:40am. At first it was pretty orderly, everyone was keeping the line, walking up the road to the start of the trek… that was until one rowdy guy decided to get his run on and that`s when it started! Dave and I sprinted to the trail head! We literally ran up the entire mountain! It still blows my mind looking at what we accomplished! About 30mins up, I thought I was going to pass out, I told David to go on without me but after 2 people passed me I gave myself a huge kick in the butt and forced myself to carry on. I passed a few more people and when I arrived at the top, about 15-20 people behind David we were only about 50th in line! I was so proud of David! He sprinted the entire way! He`s a crazy fool! At 6:00am they opened the gates to Machu Picchu and we got our tickets stamped to Waynapicchu!
The first sight of Machu Picchu was spectacular! I have never seen anything like it and even though I gave David such a tough time about wanting to come to such a touristy place, I`m soooo happy that we did! The city is actually relatively young, only about 600yrs old. It was rediscovered in the early 1900s by a North American professor who was told by a farmer that there existed some ruins at the peak of Machu Picchu mountain. On the journey up the mountain the professor met a young boy whose family actually lived in a house in Machu Picchu and farmed the land. The boy led the explorers to the archaeological remains. The official date of the scientific discovery was July 24th, 1911. 
The following year the professor returned and started to uncover the site. Today 70% of the ruins are in their natural state which is pretty incredible! No one is 100% sure what Machu Picchu actually was but think it may have been a royal retreat. They can estimate that because of the water system that is in place that the city could sustain 500-700 people. Not really sure why they all left the site though, some say they were made aware that the Spaniards had invaded Cusco so they cleared out but who knows? Either way it was crazy! We had a tour of the city and then a nap in the sun before making our way up Wayna Picchu at around 10:30am. Can I just tell you that once I saw Wayna Picchu I wanted to shot myself? I was sooooo exhausted from my morning sprint and kinda wanted to die! The mountain was incredibly intimidating and everyone that was coming down kept going on and on about how hard it was but after popping a few coca energy mints in my mouth I decided we had to do it! It was soooo worth it! The view was amazing! There were also some ruins on top of the mountain as well so that was neat to see! You get a real appreciation for the site looking down though and are able to see the shape of the condor. We stayed up there for about 2hrs and then walked back down to check out a few more sites. We headed back down the trail at about 4:00pm which was neat because most people had already left so we had the city all to ourselves. When we arrived back in Agua Caliente David decided that he deserved some cold beers and pizza so we treated ourselves to a nice bite to eat. Our train back down to Cusco departed at 5:30 and somehow we lucked out and got put on the 1st class section which was really nice! The journey was long and hard but so far one of the coolest things I’ve seen. We’re now off to Bolivia to take on some jungle trekking and death road mountain biking! Should be fun! 
No comments:
Post a Comment