By Jamie F., Guestblogger from Cusco, Peru SALUD program
So I finally made it to Machu Picchu this weekend. For all the talk I had heard about it I figured it would be good but I didn’t know how good exactly. Well it definitely lived up to and exceeded all my expectations!!
We were picked up at our houses around 6 en la manana and were taken to another driver who drove us to the train station. The train had huge windows so you could look around the entire ride up. I started off by doing a little studying and a little napping and then just looked around at the scenery. The way to MP is composed almost completely of mountainous terrain so we were able to follow alongside the river almost the entire way there which of course made for even more beautiful scenery. There was honestly one of the biggest rocks I have ever seen in my life in this river (which I believe is actually the Amazon river). I guess that’s how the Incas made their famous rock walls with some of those huge rocks.
We were picked up at the train station and taken to the top of Machu Picchu from Aguas Calientes. We were given an English speaking tour guide and yet again when everyone introduced themselves we discovered there were people from literally almost every country and English was just the common language for all of us. We started up top and had a wonderful view of Wayna Picchu which is the huge mountain seen in many of the MP pictures. We had a great view of the entire site as well as the other side of the valley. There is actually another set of Incan ruins another 4 days walk for us. But, for the Incas they built all their cities a days running speed away. The famous Incan trail starts in Ollantambyo, another huge Incan city and takes 4 days now for people to hike from there to MP.
We had a wonderful tour of the amazing city that was only recently discovered in 1911 and ever since then has been one of the most sought after places to visit. And I assure you there is a reason why it is, it honestly takes your breath away. The city even had schools for both boys and girls to train them to be royalty. The Incas knew how to use their landscape because they built some of their walls into existing large boulders. This city even had some houses with two stories which wasn’t seen as much in the other cities. We looked around for a bit more after our tour and then went to eat lunch at the buffet in the only hotel in MP. We snuck in right before they closed and we ate enough to last us days!! We checked into our wonderfully centrally located hotel in Aguas Calientes and walked around the little town square for a bit before going to the hot springs. They were actually pretty nice and felt so good after hiking for a bit. We spent some good time in there trying to take in all the amazing scenery and stars.
We had another meal ticket so went to grab some dinner even though we weren’t really hungry but we ate a little bit and then just walked around the town before calling it an early night because we were due to get up quite early in the morning. With already having gotten some bites in mp the day before the mosquitoes must’ve smelled my blood because I certainly gained many more bites during the night. Not fun!!! Because of the mosquitoes I woke up before our 4:15am wake up call and got ready for the big day. We got in line for the buses and were luckily in the first two hundred up the mountain. Once inside the park we ran (actually ran!) to the entrance for Wayna Picchu. We made some friends in the line and we became each other’s designated picture takers.
The trek up to the top of Wayna was really intense. Stone stairs that can fit half of one foot and go completely straight up with little support. We continued upward and came prepared with plenty of snacks and water. I had my friend’s nice Cannon Rebel so was able to take some pretty awesome pictures on the upward trek. Every time we turned around to look at the view it was different and absolutely breathtaking each time. We climbed around on the rocks on the top of the mountain and climbed through some pretty narrow caves that we could barely fit through. After resting on the top we found a little path and sat on the other side of the mountain where there was absolutely nobody there, we couldn’t even hear anybody. We rested, took in our scenery and ate some snacks from our box lunch and my supply of snacks.
The descent down was definitely easier on our lunch but rough on our knees. As we were passing the second group of 200 people allowed up for the day (only 400 people total are allowed on the mountain) we were very glad we were in the first group since it was definitely starting to get hot at 10am. We rested and took in the scenery back in the main ground of mp and every step was honestly breathtaking.
We descended the mountain and decided to take a dip in the river after getting 3 liters of water and some Gatorade to rehydrate. We climbed onto the huge rocks of the river and took in yet another amazing area and “iced” our aching feet in the water. Later on we boarded the train after some shopping and headed back slowly but surely on the train back to Cusco.
Click for information on AmeriSpan’s language programs in Cusco.
Click for information on AmeriSpan’s SALUD program in Cusco.
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