Day 5 - Aguas Calientes - Machu Picchu – Cusco

The big day, the one for which we’ve spent 4 days sweating like never before, was finally coming!

Contrary to most tourists we didn’t have to get up before sunrise. Most people rush to the site entrance very early in the morning to obtain a precious ticket to climb Huayna Picchu. This summit is higly recommend because it offers an amazing view of Machu Picchu. Still free of access until a few years ago, only 400 people are now allowed everyday. Despite some people of our group complaining, Jorge (our guide) won the argument: no Huayna Picchu for us! He gave as an excuse the view that you get from the summit is not as spectacular as one says. I rather think that he wanted to stay in bed longer!

Anyway…around 7am, we were making our way to Machu Picchu. There are lots of sharp bends to get to the top. The driver would want to manoeuvre them well! Euh… we wanted him to anyway. Obviously, once on top of the hill, it was impossible to see anything: it was raining llamas and guinea pigs! (Getting up at 5am to enjoy the sunrise would have been completely useless, at least there was nothing to regret about that!) So we put our ponchos on and we started praying for a sunny spell. Considering the thickness of the fog, we were quite sceptical.

It was planned that Jorge would give us a tour of the site for about two hours before leaving us on our own to walk around as we wished. So we followed the group and listened to Jorge telling us about the history of this incredible place. Clouds started to lift which lifted our spirits! Well we would have enjoyed some rays of sun but I guess 'less clouds' was good enough so far.

Machu Picchu might have been the residence of Pachacutec, the emperor who pushed the huge Inca empire forward. Others claim that the site was used as a religious sanctuary. This sacred city, forgotten for centuries, was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century by an American historian, Hiram Bingham. Well he found it by chance; he was actually looking for something else… Unlucky him

What is to be said about the lost city? After hearing so many people talking about how great it is, we were expecting a lot from this day. No picture seems to really capture how huge Machu Picchu is. What we saw there will be engraved in our memories forever. There’s no way we’ll capture it in words or in pictures, so you’ll just have to visit it yourself someday! Go! Go ! Go !

After following Jorge for almost 3 hours (the site is much bigger than we thought) it was too late for K., Ciaran and I to climb Machu Picchu (the mountain). We had to be back to Aguas Callientes to take the train at 5pm. The second group could leave at 6pm. So we decided to go to the sun gate (Inti Punku) instead. Our greek friends joined us and 45 mn later we reached the summit from where we got an amazing view of Machu Picchu in the distance. We sat with our feet dangling down and we ate our sandwiches silently, happy to be the only ones around to enjoy the show!

After 30 mn of pure happiness we had to turn around and get back to Aguas Calientes. Because of heavy rains earlier this year, some parts of the rail tracks collapsed, it is not possible to go all the way to Cusco by train anymore. After spending one hour and half in the train, we were asked to get off and to wait for a bus to pick us up. Imagine 300 or 400 tourists lost in the middle of nowhere waiting for a MINI-bus (yes MINI!)! It took forever for us to get in one of them. What a night! Our 5 days ended up memorably.

Once in Cusco, we tried to recover from this intensive trek and planned what was to come: Puno and lake Titicaca...

PS: I can’t resist sharing a little story with you which we had a good laugh about : ‘the sick sister’ known as well as ‘the Bermudian’ dared to admit that she was very surprised not to find a shopping centre at 4600m above sea level, in the middle of nowhere. She had planned to spend her money once on top the mountain!!!...

PS 2: to be forgiven for being malicious (long live Bermuda !), I have to confess that I got my own moment of shame. I fell on the ground in front of everybody just before leaving Machu Picchu. K. obvisouly took delight in immortalizing this moment!

More pictures here