Parents Only Vacation: Peru, Day 6 at Machu Picchu & Aguas Calientes

I wonder if people who did not take Spanish in high school or college have a fascination with Machu Picchu. I know my fascination of this place started during my first year of Spanish in high school. The textbook had a huge picture of MP on the front cover, and we spent a little time talking about it. And of of the next three years of Spanish also started with a discussion of MP, albeit a short one The textbook gave just enough information to raise more questions and to keep me wondering about the place.

So you could imagine my excitement when Keith and I booked our Peru trip! We were going to MP! It's like finally getting to scratch an itch you've had for a really, really long time.

And as I've shared with you the last few days, we chose to walk for 3 days to get to MP, instead of the train & bus route. Besides enjoying outdoors, we just felt that it was more appropriate and more of an adventure. We can ride a bus to go see anything else, but a bus to MP? Just not right.

During the 3 days leading to this one we saw a lot of ruins. Some of them small and unassuming, others, like yesterday's Sayaqmarka were spectacularly crafted into the edge of a cliff. And as we struggled through the hike, I started to wonder-will Machu Picchu be worth all this effort? Or will we get there, and it will just be another collection of stone buildings like the half a dozen we'd already seen the last few days? We tried to stay optimistic and open-minded, but as our fatigue grew, so did this nagging question.

And then, it was the 4th morning of our hike. We awoke at 3:30am so we could be the first group at the entrance point to Machu Picchu, proper. Our group woke up, grabbed a hurried bite to eat and went to the entrance point shelter to wait until the gate opened, at 6AM. Yes, we sat and waited a while. You see, the shelter only has room for a few people to sit, and it was raining, so our guides wanted to make sure we stayed covered during the wait. None of us slept that great on the trip, so no one was complaining about the early wake-up call.

A blur of conversations, games and staring down other hiking groups filled the time until the gate opened. As the first group, we went through the gate fairly quickly. Juan had told us that it would be a 2 hour hike to the Sun Gate-the Incan security checkpoint ruin that gets us to MP. What Juan didn't tell us was that he intended for us all to sprint the entire section of trail to the Sun Gate. I'm not kidding, we moved at a clip that was barely below a jog. Thankfully the altitude was lower than previous days so we could breathe and keep up with the group. While I actually enjoyed the fast pace, and was having a good time during this stretch, I couldn't help but remember Juan telling us that next to the narrow trail was nothing. Nothing but a 200-300m drop-off. So maybe he kept us moving fast so we didn't have time to think about that too much? A short 45 minutes later we were at the Sun Gate. Yes, I too remember he said it would take 2 hours, and here we are 45 minutes later. I wasn't kidding when I said Juan moved quickly this morning. Right before we get to Sun Gate we crossed the "monkey steps". Turns out the guides have little nicknames for different stretches of the trail. Yesterday's brutal downhill was called the "gringo killer", and today we'd be scaling up the monkey steps. I've never been so excited and so breathless as I scaled these steps. I don't have any pictures to show you since 1) we were moving too quickly for pictures and 2) it was raining, but the monkey steps were essentially a rockwall with some large step-like edges that you could grab with a hand or a foot. We looked like a pack of monkeys scaling the wall. I was 5-6th in our group, and I watched the first few people go up. Each person raised their eyebrows, muttered something about damn Incans, and then started. This gave me a case of the giggles. I was tired and being tired will make a person a bit delerious, and when I get like that, I giggle. And let me tell you, giggling does not help one get up a wall. Thankfully Smiles & Chair were in front of me, and I could see their feet through my giggling tears, so all I needed to do was put my hands were they did, and I made it up the wall.

So we made it to the Sun Gate, took a breather, and moved another 10 minutes down the path. And then Juan said "here we are, this is Machu Picchu".

And this is what we saw.

I kid you not that this group of 16 adults were all near tears. The raininess had abated by now, but it was foggy. So just beyond the grassy ridge above was a magnificent (so we were told) ruin, and we couldn't see a damn bit of it. Great.

But we're a patient group, so we waited a while. and a few minutes later, we could see a little. Look! It's....something....then clouds would move...then nothing. And then we could see Wayna Picchu, the tall mountain peak that is just behind Machu Picchu. Seeing this peak drew all sorts of oooohs and aaaahhhs from the group. We were easy to please at this point.

And then Juan told us to keep moving along the trail a bit. Turns out the trail we were on was part of the agricultural terraces at MP. And, to make tourists feel happy, the Peruvian government placed some domesticated llamas at the site. So with nothing but fog to look at we stood about awkwardly and took pictures with the llamas.

Slowly, slow enough to be barely noticable, the fog was lifting. Here I am below our group, and I could actually see them, so that's progress. I think here they are discussing how bloody much it sucks that we can't see anything.

It was still drizzling and raining, though, and by now we had been standing around for an hour or so. Spirits, and fog, remained low. We tucked into a shelter and hoped for the best. And we ate our snackpacks the cook had made for us and sent along with us. I tell you, they really took good care of us. Keith was still not feeling that great, and he let me eat most of the candy bar they gave us. Score! My spirits were lifted.

So our guide Juan has been doing trail guiding for 12 years, and he was exceptional at reading the group's mood. After 20 minutes in the shelter he took us down a 15 minute zig-zag trail to the main current entryway to MP Park. Now remember that MP is now a Peruvian national park, and like all national parks here in the US, it's a tourist destination, and has a major entryway. Hundreds of visitors come to MP each day. They take a bus from a little town at the base of the mountain to this point. And to get to the town, they take a train. Lazies.

I digress. This entryway is below the ruins, so we walked down (reluctantly, because we knew we'd have to go back up later). At the entrypoint we took a few minutes to get tidied up. All the girls pretty much beelined for the bathrooms. Proper bathrooms! Whoooo! Of course, you pay a few soles to use it, and when you pay you have to take some TP off a roll at the entrace, which is odd. How do you know how much you'll need later? Papergoods really are hard to come by in Peru. Anyways, we freshened up, marveled at toilets that flush (bathrooms on the trail were the hole in the ground variety, with the two little grooves for your feet to be placed on), and for the first time in several days saw ourselves in the mirror. Oye. Not a pretty sight, but not that bad considering.

Anyway, we regrouped 20 minutes later, and everyone's spirits were noticably lifted. A little group shot. The guy acting a fool is Juan. So much energy.

Even Keith was feeling better. Check out the MP beard on him.

And then, as we were worried about earlier, we had to walk back up the switchbacks. Oh. The. Aching. Bodyparts.The.Knees.Oh. See Keith? He's second, just behind Podcast.

And more up.

And then we went in between some buildings, and I heard everyone at the front gasp. Really. Honestly, first thing I thought was that Keith had passed out. He was near the front, remember?  And I was way back in our group, so I had to fight my way forward. I do remember grabbing one person by the backpack and shoving them a bit to get by. Sorry person, but next time perhaps you'll listen when someone says "excuse me" loudly and repeatedly.

And then I saw Keith, upright, so I could relax. And behind him I could see why they gasped.

The fog/clouds were breaking up, and we could see Machu Picchu! Or most of it. You bet we all lined up for a photo opportunity. No telling how long it would stay clear. This picture remains my favorite photo of the trip.

So for about 20 minutes there were several rounds of "will you take a picture of us here". Below British Tom Cruise took a picture of GoodVibes and Veggie.

The fog lifting did for the group what a Panera half decaf/half Hazelnut coffee with a Splenda and skim milk does for my mood. Instantly lifted it. We survived the hike! And, we were at Machu Picchu. And it was early in the day so we had lots of time to spend there. Sort of. It was 11am, so relatively early, but late if you consider the 3:30am wakeup time. So we started a walk through the ruins to get some learning done. We are walking across one of the agricultural terraces here, towards the residential area ahead. A few things you should know about MP: it was never completed because the Incans abandoned it when the Spanish invaded Peru, and it was re-discovered by a british professor, with the help of locals, in 1912. And now, up to 3,000 people a day can visit the site.

While we were the first group to get to MP, the busses were quickly bringing groups of lazies and as you can see above, people were all over the place. For the most part this did not take away from the experience for me. Before our trip several people warned me that it was touristy and crowded, so its likely their warnings helped set up my expectations.
Juan gave us a tour of the site. Up more steps to look at a few things.

Oh, and what do you know. Down some other steps. It sure does look like I'm walking funny, doesn't it? I am. This sort of sideways stepping was to make sure that my legs don't just buckle out.

It was easy not to focus on our sore and tired bodies, though, because the views were spectacular. I loved the fog drifting around the site, it just added a mysteriousness to the experience.

The things sticking out of the wall here was where the Incans tied the thatched roofs onto their buildings. Keith took a picture of the one building they've added a roof onto (for tourists to see), but I did not upload it. Sorry folks, you're going to need to use your imagination.

Way up there you can see the hut where we were huddled during the rain and fog of the morning. (where I took the closeup of Keith in the blue poncho).

And we toured, learned from Juan and gazed around.

And stopped for photo ops here and there, naturally.

Incan irrigation canals.

And rooftops.

And flowers.

I believe I've mentioned the construction of buildings before. Here we are, behind the Moon Temple, and you can see how perfectly these buildings were made-perfect straight lines, and no mortar in between. This was the hallmark of a building made as a temple or as a residence for an important person. If you glance back at the walls behind everyone's heads you'll see the walls of a non-important building, made more ruggedly made with mortar holding rocks in place.

Juan likes to mess with us. We're gathered around the sundial here. The sundial was important in deciding harvest cycles, and for deciding when religious rituals would be performed. And some wacky tourists come here thinking that the rock gives off some sort of energy. And for a few minutes Juan had us all believing that it does give off energy. So he brought us here and said "pur your hands out, guys". And we stared at him."No really" he said, "put your hands out and feel it". And slowly, after looking around at each other, most of us did. Below you see Blondie and Jester with outstretched hands, while Helsinki and Stripes are still not so sure. And then Juan laughed and said there's no energy. Haha. He's so funny, that guy.

And after learning about the sundial, we took a few last photos and we said goodbye to David the guide.

But not until after a good group shot with Wayna Picchu in the background.

And after this, we walked around Machu Picchu on our own. Took LOADS more pictures, rested and ate the rest of our snack. And we hiked all the way to the top for the typical MP tourist picture, which I can't believe I neglected to upload. Tomorrow.

And an hour or so later, we got aboard the bus that would weave us down the mountain to Aguas Caliente, the little town where we'd spend the rest of the day. It felt so odd to be sitting in an air conditioned bus after 4 days of hiking and being sweaty.

Aguas Caliente was a very cute little village. It's basically a tourist stop and overnight area for people going to Machu Picchu, but its got a bit of charm. And a gorgeous river, right next to it.

And several stalls with wares for sale. Keith is an excellent barterer, fyi.

We were on our own for most of the afternoon, and had several hours to kill before our train & van ride back to Cusco. We were so tired. And, after warding off a cold/flu/sometypeofilness for 4 days on the trail, I lost the battle and started to feel very sick. And sunburnt. No one thinks to put sunscreen on at 3:30am, ya know? So we sat and had a cafe con leche and people watched, with a sunburnt nose, puffy eyes and congested sinuses and all.

So there you have it. We made it to Machu Picchu and lived to tell about it. It was a hard journey, but is was so worth it.