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The guy at the hotel had seemed surprised that I was going immediately to Machu Picchu - not quite sure why. When I asked how long it’d take, he said the walk would be around 1 1/2 hours. Google maps had said 2 1/2, so it was a relief that I could get there faster. When I had walked for about 10-15 minutes, I got to a bridge where I had to show my ticket, and only then realized that Google maps had calculated the time it took to walk the up the road, but there was a path for those walking. The road was zig-zag, because it was too steep to mount straight up, and the walking path was straight up, on the side of the road, only occasionally crossing the main road. The path was zig-zag too, but with much smaller “zigs” - and stairs, the entire way.
When you’re at an altitude of…+3000 metres, and you have a 1 1/2 hour pretty much vertical walk…basically it was tough. As I mentioned, the forecast had said it’d be hot, around 28 degrees, but it was definitely hotter, and when I got home I saw that it had been 34 degrees that day.
You start believing you’re in awful shape when you feel like taking a break every 5 steps. Literally. Not just did I need to slow down, like all the time, but drinking breaks and snack breaks when I started getting hungry/thirsty also slowed me down. I wasn’t up until in two hours. The last 45 minutes or so more and more people that I met that were going downhill started encouraging you, saying there was just a tiny bit left - but it definitely didn’t feel like a little bit.
When I finally, finally, got up, there were locals selling ready-made sandwiches. There was a huge queue as well, and I wasn’t quite sure if they were for the bathrooms, Machu Picchu or something else. I first bought another bottle of water though, for 8 soles (very expensive for Peru) - but hey, I guess we do that at home too; sell stuff super expensive when there’s no other option. Then I got into the queue, until I found out it was for the bus going down again. On the other hand there was no queue to Machu Picchu. I had to show my passport and ticket, and I was in.
I don’t know what to tell you…once past the gates, it was quite hard to realize which way to go. There were three different paths or so, and no indication of what to do first. So I went for something called the Sun Gate after having caught a glimpse of the Machu Picchu village. I was getting sick of all the people who were pushing me around, and annoyingly saying ‘excuse me, could you please move?’ so that they could take a photo. So apparently they had priority because they were having photos taken, while I wasn’t allowed to enjoy the view. It was mostly the locals (or Latin Americans or wherever they were from) that were particularly rude.
The path to the Sun Gate…well, lets put it this way: if I had known how long it was, and how it was, I would have not started out by going there. It was basically another hour (or maybe even hour and a half; I didn’t check the time) uphill - and I didn’t even know what the Sun Gate was, or how far it’d be.
Basically, it was on the other side of the mountain, or another mountain top/wall even, from where you could see Machu Picchu ‘all the way down there’. It was beautiful, but I was getting hungry, having finished my Pringles, and having left my chocolate bar back at the hostel. No food was available. For sure, I should have got a sandwich outside, but I just didn’t think of it at the time.
I headed back down. I met some people quite far down who asked how much more - and I told them with all honesty that they still hadn’t even reached half. It was a harsh truth, but I wish someone had told me when I started walking - but I suppose I hadn’t asked.
After that I went to the Inca Bridge. Along with the people that arrived at the same time as me, we all seemed surprised to hear that it was only about a 10 minute walk to the bridge. I think we all came straight from the Sun Gate, so 10 minute seemed almost unbelievable. You had to sign in though, with name, and hour of entry. I think it was because the path was quite narrow (there were both warning signs and the man at the check-in had warned against it), so that they would know at the end of the day that everyone got back safe.
The path to the Inca Bridge was not very long indeed, although I may have taken 15 minutes to enjoy the ‘risky’ view of the valley; if you fell off the narrow path it’d be a pretty long and steep way down… It was both scary and intriguing.
You couldn’t access the bridge itself, and I’ll be thankful for that. It looked…not very reliable. It seemed like part of the path, but you couldn’t continue to the next part of the path unless you crossed the bridge. Obviously it had been closed though, so after the 15 minutes or so, I started going back.
Once at the exit, I signed out by writing the time of exit. There were some older, but healthy looking Brits there, speculating to themselves if they could do another walk; again, probably just having come back from the Sun Gate. So despite having my music on, I overheard them, and told them most of it was downhill.
‘Downhill?! Really? Oh thank you, you made our day!’ one of the ladies said, just as surprised as I had been when I had heard it was only 10 minutes - and then they gladly checked in.
After having taken some more photos of the Machu Picchu village from various platforms and places, I finally descended down to it. By that time I probably had around 30-50 photos of Machu Picchu from various angles, heights…it’s just so beautiful.
There would probably have been more to tell from the village itself if I had had a guide…but in a way I was glad I hadn’t, at least when walking up to the Sun Gate; that I could just do it at my own speed. I probably could have anyway, but I would have felt bad for stopping all the time, and showing my awful stamina.
The village contained…lots of houses (ruins of houses obviously), with lots of rooms, and a couple of sacred stones here and there that you could overhear other guides talk about. There were also some llamas walking around some of the places.
It was good timing, because when I started heading towards the exit there was about half an hour to closing time. I got the Machu Picchu stamp in my passport, like I had done at Lake Titicaca, at the exit, and was going to get a sandwich from those local sellers, but as it was late it seemed they were gone for the day. So I had to go down, not having eaten anything proper for about 12 hours.
The down was obviously so much nicer and easier. But it was still quite far, and I wasn’t down in Aguas Calientes until an hour later. The first thing I did was buy another small package of Pringles, and a coke. I don’t usually drink soda…but I thought after not having eaten anything for so long, I needed some sugar.
Then I finally ‘checked in’ to my room; a four-bedroom room, but I was the only one who had arrived. So I took a shower, quick, before anyone would come in. When I got out, I had a message from one of the Americans asking if I wanted to catch dinner; he didn’t mind what or where. Not having any other plans, and having had a good time the previous two nights with them, I said I’d message my parents first and then message them.
Messaging my parents took a bit longer than expected, since I ended up doing a few other things as well, but eventually I got out the door. I asked the receptionist for recommendations - but the answer was something along the lines of ‘all restaurants are good’…
So I went looking for places, checked if they had a set menu (as they would usually be super cheap and very price worthy compared to a single dish), if they had Peruvian food…price obviously. Wifi was a huge bonus (if not necessary) since I would need to Whatsapp the American about where I was.
I ended up in the main square, where there was a parade of some sorts, with people exiting the church with statues of, I’m guessing, Jesus or some saint, with a small marching band, and explosions (small fireworks on the ground - but that were quite loud and shocking before you realized what it was). After having enjoyed the random festivities, I took the place that seemed to have the most people. It was on the second floor, open out to the square (no windows, but not really a balcony either).
I asked for the wifi password so I could message my new friend, and awaited his arrival while deciding what to get. We both ordered stuffed avocado for starters, I think I had some meat while he had some chicken, cooked in a Peruvian way, and I had a banana juice, while he had a lemonade - which is apparently ‘lime’-enade in South America; he doesn’t like lemonade. And by ‘he’ I mean that he came alone since his son had got diarrhoea.
I think it was only around 10 PM when we left, and said bye, this time knowing there’d be no more dinners. Back at the hostel I went up to the bar which had looked fun (and I had a free welcome-drink voucher, but which was only valid for alcoholic drinks - so I obviously didn’t use it), hoping to maybe meet some new people. But it was more dead than I thought and the few people there seemed to already be engaged in Scrabble or pool, so I ended up messaging with the French guy I had met in Arequipa before going to sleep.
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I had a less early (though still early) train back today. It left at 8AM would would only take an hour and a half, as I was not going straight to ‘Cusco’, but a town called Ollamtaytambo. It had been cheaper…and strangely, transport between this place (too long and hard to write again…) and Cusco is both more frequent and cheaper, despite being around one and a half hour drive from Cusco (as opposed to the 40 minutes to the other train station).
I was very interested in taking a detour on the way back to Cusco, to the Salinas de Maras, and some other ruins that were on the way, but after having consulted a taxi driver upon arrival I decided it was too expensive. Not that it was super expensive but…being the end of my trip I was starting to feel like I had spent enough money. I had also tried finding some people to share the ride with, but the people I had sat with on the train were all hurrying back to Cusco to catch flights or something - so they couldn’t afford the time. I couldn’t really afford the full tour either, but he had said we could cut some things out - but it just wasn’t worth it somehow. I still had some things in Cusco I had missed - and I needed to repack my bag (again…) to account for my flight and the 34 dying degrees in Philadelphia…so I headed straight back.
By the time I had decided to take collectivo (a special type of South American collective traffic thing), all the people who were going back to Cusco had already left - and they only drive when they’re full. So I had to wait for the next train to arrive. In the meantime I bought a (really crappy) empanada and a small carton of juice.
I almost regret not having filmed when the next train arrived. It was almost brutal to see them ‘recruit’ passengers to the minibuses; it had to happen fast (as in before they disappear/continue/choose another option), efficiently, friendly (help people, on my bus only locals, with the luggage/boxes they had)…and obviously before the other drivers had caught them on. Yet all the drivers seemed to be friends with each other and had been talking before the train arrived. Nevertheless, as I said…it was freaking brutal, maybe more for the tourists who are unused to the extremely fast-paced approach. I don’t know how I didn’t notice when I myself arrived. I was thinking they maybe only did this extreme thing to the locals, and approached tourists in a slightly more relaxed manner.
The drive back to Cusco was really beautiful as well, with both villages, mountains and more sandy mountains. Under normal circumstances, I would probably have fallen asleep, but there was no sense of personal space, to the man that was sitting next to me was rather sitting ‘into me’ when the bus turned; he did absolutely nothing to hold on to the van to not come crashing to the left on the right turns.
Back on Cusco I started by re-packing; the lightest clothes and things I’d be the most likely to wear and need in the US in the most accessible part of the backpack. The rest in the back. It was also hard to decide what to wear now; I was definitely wearing too hot clothes (I had needed to wear double, since I had worn that on the way to Aguas Calientes - and thus didn’t have space in my bag to pack it on the way down), and I was about to spend 21h on a bus to Lima…and you never know if the aircrafts are hot or cold…and as I said, I’d fry up in Philly either way. I went for my jeans, and a t-shirt. One cardigan around the waist, and the fleece in carry-on.
I spent the last 1 1/2-2 hours in town going to the local market to buy quinoa, for my friends and myself. I would have bought so much more but having just repacked, I knew that the space was getting quite limited… So I ended up with half a kilo of normal quinoa for myself, as well as 500 grams each of red and black quinoa in bags of 250 grams; one bag of each for myself (I’ve never tried coloured quinoa…!) and the other two bags to my flatmate in Philly and my friend in Denmark with whom I stay way too much.
Then I went to the Sun Temple, or Qorikancha as it’s properly called, which is obviously some sort of Inca thing, but had also been used by the Spanish at some point…so it had mixed architectural influences, but was really pretty from the inside court. Then I walked back, packed the quinoa, and got a cab with the help of my host. Apparently the best/safe cabs are not labelled…but I’m unsure how they recognize the cabs then, because several ‘normal’ taxis, with a sign, had driven past, before she said ‘there’s one’ and waved in a normal black car with no sign or sticker whatsoever.
They only had cama on this bus; I think maybe because it’s so long to go to Lima… At least I could choose both first and second floor, so I figured the entire bus was cama. I went for a window seat at the back on the first floor. It was a single seat, so I’d have the aisle between me and the next passenger. The other side had two seats.
While waiting to board, I bought another empanada and a cereal bar. I had seen there’d be food on the bus again - but you could never be sure it’d be enough, at least not for 21 hours. Then we boarded, while a videocamera on a tripod was recording us while our carry-on was being checked for dangerous goods. Second to CCTV, huh? And genius me had forgotten they went between seats to film everyone and was real ‘sexy’ blowing my nose just as he came. Not that I care, but, retrospectively, it was a quite funny moment, made even more awkward by the awkward smile I was trying to make to make myself look better in front of the camera before he continued to the next passenger.
The cama was a bigger seat than semi-cama, with in-seat entertainment systems and even some damn new films, including the Martian, the Revenant, Spotlight and…what’s it called - Sea at Heart? First thing I thought to myself was ‘damn, I won’t even catch any sleep!’ They also had music and e-books. The only thing that was less ‘cool’ than semi-cama was that these seats didn’t lean nearly as far back as semi-cama. First I thought it was just my seat, since I was seated at the back, but while stopping in some other town - since there was nobody else on the entire first floor - I tried a different seat, and it was the same. Quite strange. Except for the in-seat entertainment, I actually preferred the semi-cama…
I had started watching Spotlight when we got dinner. My only problem was that the film was in Spanish, with English subtitles…and I get motion sick of reading…so yes, basically I got motion sick after some time. Which was a bummer…; all those films! So after dinner I decided to go to sleep.
Day 35: Transport, transport, transport
I’d wake up occasionally, and spent one stop in another city to go to the bathroom; I thought it’d both be easier and slightly better at least to use the station bathrooms rather than the ones on the bus. Secondly, you’re not allowed to do ‘number 2’ on the bus. Not that I needed to do that, but I’m just wondering on a 21h bus ride…surely they must have had someone who needed to do number 2? I’d also spend the time at the other cities to continue watching Spotlight, and would watch when we started driving, until I felt like it wouldn’t be good anymore. Then usually I’d go back to sleep to get rid of the nasty feeling which, of course, was entirely my own fault. Breakfast arrived early morning, I think it was around 8 AM, or even sooner. At around 11 AM some other tourists eventually joined me on the first floor. Only two of them though, so it was still fairly nice and quiet. They got breakfast then.
The landscapes were insanely amazing pretty much the entire way. Just desert, sand, sandy hills and mountains…a bit of rock. It was just so desert-y. Some places there’d be a few houses though. I meant to shoot some of it, my I had turned my phone off to save battery (I thought I was hardly going to use it since I wasn’t listening to music, and could do so on the entertainment system - but obviously not realizing the camera function might have been fun to have), and I think I was afraid of getting motion sick if I started digging up my camera. I had both my cereal bar and my empanada before arriving in Lima though - so definitely didn’t regret those.
In Lima I meant to go to Miraflores, which is like a tourist area of Lima, and - I read - consequently also one of the safe areas to be. So I meant to leave my bag at the bus terminal, then head there, see it, have dinner, come back for my bag, and then go to the airport from there. But my plans certainly changed when they didn’t have any luggage storage - and the super fancy hotel close by (having walked about 15 minutes with all of my bags) only allowed hotel guests to store luggage… At least they were kind enough to give me a wifi sign-in though…so after some research I found that there was a hostel in town that allowed you to store luggage for 10 soles. It was literally the only thing I found…and it was in the opposite direction from Miraflores - and quite far away…so I ended up taking a taxi there, and decided to hang around the city center instead;
I walked to Plaza de Armas, saw the cathedral and other churches, another square…caught Peruvian noodles at a fast food place. On my way back to the hostel I bought some sugar-coated nuts, since they cost nothing and are super yummy, and was then, apparently, lucky that there was a taxi driver at the hotel, right as I wanted one.
Driving to the airport was, according to TripAdvisor, the only safe option in Lima, and would take about 40 minutes. It took almost an hour though, or more, because of traffic. But the driver and I talked (in Spanish of course) almost the entire way. I told him in Iceland and he kept saying/joking that he needed to go to Iceland to work because we got paid so much more. I said it didn’t last as much as it did here though, since everything was also more expensive.
At the airport I was super lucky that there was a 3 for 2 offer on coca caramels - and it fit exactly with the cash I had left. So I thought it’d be a fun thing to hand out to friends for whom I didn’t have souvenirs.
Our flight left at 23.40 and was estimated to approximately 5 hours.