Machu Picchu - April 2015

Well I'm back from our sojourn to the UK. This post however was written in or over at least three countries, started in England, continued in the UAE and finished off back home in Australia, there was even a bit of work done at 41,000 feet somewhere over the north western part of the Indian Ocean (hard to believe but they have free wifi on the plane), as I waited for my sleeping pills to kick in. Remember in my last post I mentioned the difficulty I was having writing about a trip in the Snowy Mountains of NSW I did years ago while I was sitting in a fluffy robe in London, well it appears that there is a bit of photographic evidence of me suffering bloggers block, thanks for that Sam. On a sadder note I said good bye to my old Scarpa boots in London, these boots had faithfully carried my porky frame everywhere from the freezing cold of Antarctica and Patagonia to the desert's of Australia, the mud of Stewart Island had effectively finished them off last Christmas though. After deciding that there would be no more overnight walks left in my old boots they then performed faultlessly as my 'around town boots', taking me safely through the urban jungle on any number of coffee drinking excursions. It was one of these missions in Soho that finally finished them off, somewhere between a bookshop and the coffee shop I noticed a strange sound coming from my left boot, hmmm.... On closer inspection it became obvious that I'd blown a sole, my boots were ambling their last few kilometres. Returning to our room I decided to leave my boots on the window sill of our room on the 43rd floor of the Shard so they could enjoy the view of London perpetually. Goodbye old friends.

Your blogger, hard at work in London.

Goodbye old friends,

Alright onto this post, I've clocked up another milestone, this is my 150th post. Seeing that its a milestone post I figured that I'd better come up with something half reasonable, Machu Picchu seems to fulfill that requirement I suppose. Now if that last sentence doesn't seem like a ringing endorsement then that's because it isn't, I have some conflicting memories of Machu Picchu. Once again in the spirit of truth in blogging I'll tell it like I see it, I was a little bit under whelmed with Machu Picchu. Now before I'm struck by lightning from the ghosts of the Inca's let me give you a few reasons on why I may have not been as gob smacked as I'd expected. The number one reason I think is that I was starting to get Inca'd out, we'd spent the best part of the last three weeks visiting one stunning Inca ruin after another, so a lot of what our guide was telling us about the site we had already heard on more than one occasion. The second reason was Choquequirao, having been to Choquequirao and spent the best part of two days wondering around the stunning site on our own, pushing through the massive crowds of people at Machu Picchu was a bit confronting, Choquequirao also let us explore in any direction that we wanted where as at Machu Picchu even where you wanted to walk was controlled to some degree. The third reason is probably because I was rooted tired, we'd just finish a fairly tough walk over almost two weeks and had crossed some seriously high passes, I was just ready for a bit of mental health time, by that I mean I just wanted to kick back for a day and relax and not have to think to much. 

Our first look at Aguas Calientes.

The cloud is slowly lifting to reveal the classic shot of Machu Picchu.

The round building is the Temple of the Sun.

These blokes had a harness attached to their ladders, but nothing attaching the ladder to the rock,  first stop would be the Rio Urubamba, 100's of metres below...... and then the ladder would land on your head! doh!

The City Gate.

We had walked into the ramshackle town of Aguas Calientes the previous afternoon after walking along the railway line from the Hydroelectric Station, the locals call Aguas Calientes 'Gringo Town' and we could see why, it appears that its whole purpose was to cater for tourists visiting Machu Picchu. Next morning we jumped on a bus and headed up the seemingly endless series of switch backs to the entrance to Machu Picchu, once at the entrance we were met by our guide for the next 2 hours, he was entrusted to shepherd us around the ruins. After using the toilets for the last time until we came back out of the site (there are no toilet facilities inside the park) we passed through the gates into Machu Picchu itself. It was very early in the morning so our guide decided to take us up to the lookout just above the City Gate before the crowds built up too much, this is the spot where you get the classic 'money shot' of Machu Picchu and we weren't disappointed today, with the cloud slowly lifting like a curtain revealing the ruins in all their glory.

The view down to the Central Plaza.

The Temple of the Sun.

The Temple of the Sun, check out the quality of the stone work.

I won't go into a blow by blow account of our tour (I'll label the photo's where I can) but it was an extensive look at the ruins. Along the way we visited the City Gate, Quarry, Temple of the Sun, Royal Quarter, Central Plaza and the Temple of the Condor among other significant sites. When the tour ended we where free to look around on our own for awhile, with the trail to Wayna Picchu full we decided to head up to the Inca Drawbridge. To get to the drawbridge meant that we and to climb up to the Inca Guardhouse, now the climb up the seemingly endless steps was hard enough but we were going against a sea of humanity coming down the steps at us. Registering at the start of the short trail we headed off along the trail cut into the cliffs, the airy trail seemed to have the advantage though of stopping a few of the punters and we enjoyed the Inca Drawbridge without the crowds, perhaps this is why this spot is the attraction that comes to my mind now when I remember my time visiting Machu Picchu.

The Western Terraces perched high above the Rio Urabamba were used for agriculture.

The Llama's were getting a bit toey!

The Sacred Rock.

After finishing at the drawbridge just after lunch we decided that we were all a bit Inca'd out and decided to head back down to Aguas Calientes and grab some lunch in one of the many restaurants. That left what remained of the day to have another quick look around town before our Peru Rail train turned up in the late afternoon to take us to Ollantaytambo,  the first leg of our journey back to Cusco.

That's the road down to Aguas Calientes zig zagging its way down the mountain.

We've just finished our guided tour now we are heading up to the Inca Drawbridge, first up we have to climb up to the small building near the top of the photo, that's the Inca Guardhouse.

The Inca Drawbridge, a very impressive spot that wasn't overly crowded.

The Dirt.

If all I've written above seems a bit negative then I didn't mean it to, it was just a combination of circumstances that has left me feeling slightly melancholy about the whole experience. I kept on telling myself how lucky I was and what a special place I was in and both those things are undoubtedly true, but I'd be a fraud if I told you that I was totally feeling it at the time. Alright what you need to know about Machu Picchu, well the first thing is it will be crowded, think of big crowds trying to get out of sporting grounds and you'll get the idea. Second is that there are no toilets inside the park and that means that if you need to go you'll have to make your way out the entrance gate, which brings me to point three, its a big area with a lot of steep steps, it can take the best part of an hour to get from one end of the ruins to the other. So go early, plan your toilet stops around your visit, and break out the stair walker before your visit and you should be right.

The mysterious Temple of the Condor.

The wings of the condor.

Back in Aguas Calientes I wandered over to where the locals lived and caught part of a soccer match before we headed back to Cusco, judging by the amount of police at the game they must take it pretty seriously.