Peru: Machu Picchu 2013

Machu Picchu! Known as the Lost City of the Incas; this is why you go to Peru or at least what Peru is known for when it comes to travel. This was the reason why Krista wanted to go to Peru and I'm so glad she did and that I went with her because this trip was amazing. Machu Picchu is this ancient city and civilization that nobody knew about until an explorer found the ruins. All of the facts about this place is speculation. I can't believe I'm doing this but here is a link to Wikipedia for some reader's digest facts about Machu Picchu.

PeruRail
We took the PeruRail from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes. It was a beautiful ride and they fed us breakfast; which we got really excited about and high-fived each other. We bought our tickets ahead of time on their website. Be careful when selecting your trains; our return train only went half way back to Cuzco (we picked the wrong destination, woops, but our solution was memorable and I blog about it at the end of this post).

They just announced over the intercom that we would be getting breakfast!



Aguas Caliente
The only civilized city near Machu Pichu is Aguas Calinete. It reminded me of a Peruvian Park City; not in comparison to the wealth, no not at all, just the idea of having a city tucked up into the mountains. There are no roads to Aguas Caliente and so there are no cars. The only way to get there is by the train. There are busses there to take you up to Machu Picchu so we figured those were brought up on a train. We saw people all over pushing carts and wheelbarrows around to transport supplies and other things. We stayed at the SuperTramp Hostal; haha yes, that is the real name of it. It has a sketchy name but it had great reviews on Trip Advisor and we really liked it. We even met these two girls from Switzerland, who had been traveling through South America for about 6 weeks, there.

The view of Aguas Calientes while on a hike



Mount Putucusi
Since we had spare time on our first day in Aguas Calientes we decided to go on a hike. A friend of mine had told me about this hike and Krista had read about it in her Peru book. This hike was difficult but I absolutely loved it; it was worth every step, every raindrop, every break after two switchbacks... it was worth it! Krista's book said it was a simple hike, ha! Hardly, but again... worth it! The hike started at the base of the mountain with the destination being... THE TOP. Now this mountain didn't gradually get taller, nope, it went straight up, had a hill at the top and then back down again. The first half of the hike was actually climbing these incredibly tall ladders up the side of the mountain. Scary you might ask... nah... It was fun!

At the top

Climbing the ladders

After the ladders we had switchbacks for about 40 minutes. They looked easy but at a higher elevation it was hard. The area around Machu Picchu is about 3 times higher than Salt Lake City. After every two switchbacks we would have to stop and catch our breath. Krista even said, "This is so sad! We are very in shape! You're a crazy runner and I'm an active soccer player!" We had a lot of laughs on this hike. I'm making it sound like we climbed Everest... no, this hike is doable, we just had to slow down and be sure to take breaks.
When we got to the top we walked through some bushes, around some boulders and then... wham! Right in front of you, across the valley, is Machu Picchu! It was such a beautiful scene we were so excited that we both jumped up and cheered!

Machu Picchu is framed between us in the distance

Our preview to Machu Picchu

On this hike we met our second most favorite person on the entire trip: Wellington! He was this 60-year-old Peruvian man from Lima who basically sprinted passed us up the mountain. At the top he laughed at us when we cheered, took pictures of us in front of Machu Picchu and then taught us about the history and restoration of Machu Picchu. On the way down the mountain it started pouring and so he stayed with us to make sure we got down safely. We were perfectly fine but it was so cute how concerned he was for us and even though he kept about 10 paces in front of us, he would patiently wait for us, if we got behind, and then point out a slippery rock or remind us to keep 3 points of contact on the ladder at all times. One of our regrets of the trip was not getting a picture with him. *hitting hand to forehead*

Machu Picchu
We got up at 4am in order to eat a good breakfast and be over to the busses by 5am to take us up to the entrance of Machu Picchu. We were one of the first people into Machu Picchu and we literally sprinted to the lookout over Machu Picchu (once we got there we had to catch our breath for a minute). We first did a run through Machu Picchu getting as many scenic pictures as we could without tourists in them; it was amazing. Once we went through Machu Picchu on warp speed we then went through it again at our own pace and took our sweet time as we learned about the structures and the culture. We referred to Krista's Peru book for most of it but once in awhile we would listen in on other tour groups and their guide. We did have few times where we would guess the facts and stories about things we saw and then later figure out what it really was. Oooooh!

Machu Picchu is quite a maze and so each time we would go through it we would find something new OR we would see an area from an overlook area and have to try to figure how to get to the area we were looking at.

Oh! If you ever go to Machu Picchu, get your passport stamped! They stamp your passport for entering Machu Picchu; I had them stamp it next to my stamp for entering Peru. It's not advertised, you have to know about it and ask; luckily someone told us about it.

Waiting just outside the gates to go into Machu Picchu

The overlook of Machu Picchu

We went up and down a lot of stairs that day, I thought they should be documented.

Here's an example of the cool rocks that were chiseled perfectly to fit together without anything holding them together.

This is a rock that gives scientists the theory that Machu Picchu may have been abandoned quickly because it is just laying there in the middle of production. I was trying to help put it back where it needed to go.

Try and guess what this is!

I guessed a mountain goat and Krista guessed a mountain.

It is a condor and it was in the temple of the condor.

Machu Picchu Llamas

In the area of Machu Picchu where there are a lot of "homes" each home had an alter like this. I decided it was a pulpit where the family would give talks.

While wondering around in the maze we passed this "X" several times and every time I would get excited that it would be a place we could go into and then see the x and I would say, "El Stupido X!"

This crazy rabbit-rat thing we saw

Machu Picchu Giant Centipede

Tourists

This was cool! These boulders are shaped to look exactly like the mountain rage behind them in the distant.

It started raining on us... we stayed for two more hours.

Waynapicchu
Connected to Machu Picchu is the mountain Waynapicchu that you can hike to the top of. In order to hike it you have to get a permit; luckily we got ours ahead of time. This was another steep hike that ended with a rewarding overlook of Machu Picchu. This hike did not have ladders but it did have extremely narrow stairs; so narrow that you had to walk sideways up and down them. If I HAD to choose be Waynapicchu and Putucusi I would choose Putucusi but I'm glad we did both.

At the top of Waynapicchu

While we were taking this picture an old Australian man came around the corner, fist pumped the air and said, "I'm 70-years-old and I just hiked Waynapicchu!" He then asked if we would take a picture of him.

On top overlooking Machu Picchu

Oh yeah! I can't remember where we got our tickets for Machu Picchu and Waynapicchu (if you want to hike Waynapicchu I would recommend getting your tickets in advance because you have to have a permit to hike it) but I know we got them from a website that Trip Advisor recommended; here are two of them:
http://www.machupicchu.gob.pe/
http://www.ticket-machupicchu.com/

Collector Van
As I said above, for our train home we chose a stop before the Cuzco stop by accident, oops. We tried to change our train ride ticket but we waited until it was two late but the train attendant did tell us there would be busses that we could take from our stop over to Cuzco. Long story short, we ended up catching what is called a collector van, instead of a bus (it was cheaper and Krista felt comfortable with it and so I was onboard). It's a van where the driver drives around shouting out their window, "Cuzco! Cuzco!" and then you flag them down and they collect people as they drive through the streets and once they are full they take off to the destination. It was amazing, we would drop people off at these tiny villages along the way and pick more up. My heart ached for these people who lived waiting for something to work out for them; i.e. a car headed in the direction of their home with space in it.
As the car started off the first time, the car took off flying through the streets I said to Krista, "Should we put our seatbelts on?" Then we both said, "Nah!" and busted up laughing... famous last words... right?