Getting Picchy With It
Trip Start
Oct 30, 2005
1
122
Trip End
Ongoing
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Machu Picchu,
Peru
Sunday, October 8, 2006
Glenn had organised to go paragliding in the Sacred Valley, near Chinchero (and Christie was coming along as we were continuing on afterwards to Machu Picchu), but on meeting up with the paragliding instructor at 8am, it was bad news. "Sorry, the weather is no good... come back in 1.5hrs..." Not a good start.
Returning after the time expired, the instructor decided that we were good to go, and with another group of 4 young girls going, we set off. The jump off point was a "mirador" (viewpoint) that we had passed on our Sacred Valley tour, but it was overcast there (meaning no thermals) and with no wind either. We waited there for another hour, before the instructor decided to try another spot that "he knew" which hopefully had better conditions for flying. The views at the Mirador were spectacular, so we weren´t too disappointed, but were worried about the quality of the flight that we might get today.
A bit of 4 wheel driving and we were at the next mountain, again with panoramic views over the valley. The weather was supposedly a bit better here, but again with no thermals, we were relying on wind, and there was hardly any of that there too. One of the girls took the first flight and it looked pretty poor - they had hardly any elevation and ended up circling a lot not that far off the ground to get 10mins in the air - well short of the supposed 45min flight time (minimum 15mins). The next girl got a bit more elevation at first, but again, spent time "fluffing" at the bottom, so when the weather turned black - with crazy storms, Glenn wasn´t too disappointed that he missed out his turn.
Machu Picchu (01)
He wasn´t looking for a lame "fluff" for his first paragliding flight. We got a refund, so that was good, especially since he provided lunch as well, and they dropped us off at Chinchero, with our daypack stuffed with gear to last us a few days.It was raining, and it put a bit of a dampener on our sightseeing interests, so with not much point in hanging around, we caught a bus onward to Ollantaytambo. Our train to Aguas Calientes was at 8pm that night, so we had a lot of time to kill.
We had previously visited the ruins of Ollantaytambo on the Sacred Valley tour, so this time we decided to walk around the town itself. The town was also constructed by the Incas, and quite well preserved, with only the second stories being added since the Inca times. Some of the doorways were fascinating - trapezoidal doors and lots of construction taking into account earthquake resistance.
The town was actually quite impressive, with wonderful views and kids playing in the streets. After wandering around the town, we decided to find where the train station was and made the long walk down. It was still way too early, and with the town done, the only other way to kill time was to eat! We decided to head back uphill but when Glenn spotted a Peruvian "moto-taxi" - basically a tuk tuk, he just had to have a go! We jumped in and loved the experience again - noisy and polluting yes, but what fun! We both had big smiles on our faces when we jumped out at the top. We picked a restaurant (with them all trying to outdo the other) and were really surprised and impressed with the quality of meal we got.
Machu Picchu (02)
It was a fantastic dinner!We headed back downhill and waited for the train. Of course when it arrived, we were waiting at the wrong spot, but getting on it we were relieved - by now we were very tired. Even though it was dark, the views outside were still quite beautiful, but squinting through tired eyes was tough and we soon nodded off...
The train arrived at Aguas Calientes, the town nearby the ruins of Machu Picchu, at around 10pm and the station was absolutely crazy with people, touts, and general chaos. We pushed our way through the crowds, ignoring all the touts and ended up in the main square. It was here we spotted our hotel (that we had the sense to pre-book) - too easy, and the lady at the door was even expecting us! We settled in and were in bed by 11pm. We had a big day planned for tomorrow!
Glenn was interested in hiking up to see sunrise, but on learning that they wouldn´t open the gates until 6am, we decided instead to get the first bus up there, which would get us there at as the gates opened, but without the 1.5 hour hike uphill!
We got up at 4.30am (yawn) and queued up at 5am to get tickets for the 1st bus up to Machu Picchu. Glenn was a bit bitey due to the lack of sleep and at a few comments by another tourist about pushing in the queue he snapped - but when it was clearer that they were talking about the girls in front, he apologised... oops... bit grumpy at this hour of the morning!
We arrived at the ruin site just as the gates opened and hiked straight up to the watchman´s house for the classic view of Maccu Picchu sprawled out in front of us, with "Huayna Picchu", the sharp peak immediately behind the ruins, peeking out through the fog that was trickling over the site.
Machu Picchu (03)
The view was simply amazing. The fog which would at times encompass the whole site and then open to leave peepholes views of the ruins - it made it so atmospheric.
We spent a lot of time at this viewpoint, having a few pictures taken with the llamas that decided to join in and watch the sunrise.
While here, we saw the Inca Trail hikers arrive and were happy to see our friends Barbara and Henrik who we had met in Cusco arrive from their hike.
We continued to explore the ruins and then decided to climb Huayna Picchu - yes, you can actually climb the big mountain behind it! And yes, Christie did join Glenn in climbing to the top! The climb was a little tough at times, even going through a small cave on our hands and knees at one time to continue the climb, but the views were pretty amazing. It is a VERY different view of the site from behind the mountain, to the famous one from the watchman´s tower. Really - it looks completely different. But it was interesting to see the amount of terracing that was around the site, which is not evident from the famous view.
With storm clouds threatening a thunderstorm and a down pour of rain, we opted for the sensible option to get the hell down the stairs quickly (actually Christie had to drag Glenn down who just loved being "on top of the world", and climbing the inca stair cases which had sheer cliff drops below).
We ended up walking around the rest of the ruins and got another chance to take some good pictures with the afternoon light setting in...
Machu Picchu (04)
by this time we were exhausted.Instead of the bus, we ended up walking down from ruins along the trail that Glenn originally wanted to climb. We are glad that we took the bus up, because it would have been a tough slog up in the morning. The walk down took a bit longer than we thought (1.5hs!) so we were pretty stuffed when we dragged ourselves back to the hotel. All in all, we spent about 9 hrs at the site!
The next day, Glenn left Christie to sleep in bed and climbed up another mountain (Putukusi) with a view over Machu Picchu. Yes, one was enough for Christie (slightly more sensible). It was a 5am start again, and the information that Glenn managed to get was that there were a lot of ladders to climb. First thing in the morning, it was indeed a tough climb (2hrs) up 5 ladders (almost vertical and with quite alot of rungs... these were to get up the cliff faces!) and climbing steep paths. Glenn finally got to the top, soaking wet from the humid weather and effort, but was a wonderful spot for breakfast.
Back in Aguas Calientes, there wasn´t a lot to do for the rest of the day - they had hot thermal baths (where the name comes from), but with the weather hot enough, we weren´t nuts enough to go in. With a wander or two around town, including the touristy part and non-touristy part (quite an interesting difference!) we had an early night, as it was yet another 5am start the next day to get the train back to Ollantaytambo!
