Machu Pichu

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  Lima, Peru
Saturday, July 5, 2008

Hello all, its been a fairly busy couple of weeks since my last entry, the highlight was trekking 5 days to Machu Pichu, other than that, I´ve hopped on a bus to Lima, where I am now, I´ve also been doing a wee bit of exploring Cuzco, I mean a wee bit...
After a couple of days chilling out at our hostel and mentally preparing for the trek, the time had finally come to say goodbye to Jen and Rita as they set off for their trek. I was on mine the day after with JP. I was quite excited and a wee bit nervous the day before, not sure what the craic was there, well I know what it was, it was drink finally coming out of my system from the previous nights partying. Our tour company picked us up at 4.30am the morning of our trek and we managed to get a few hours kip on the way to our starting point, the little town of Mollepata. We caught up with the rest of the group who were all very nice. After a large breaky and a brief from Will our guide, we began on our journey that would take us 5 days, 4 nights and a total of 61kms

Day 1

. We had heard that the 1st night was going to be cold and it was freezing, 3 or 4 layers was required that night and I was out like a light, in fact I woke up the next morning to be told I was snoring my head off, good nights sleep! The 2nd day was the hardest for me, we climbed 4680 to Salkantay pass, one of the highlights of our walk, amazing views over the pass greeted everyone when the finally made it to the top. We all felt an enormous achievement having climbed such a steep incline at that altitude. Most of us just collapsed at the top completely exhausted by it. Will informed us we still had another 5 hours walking which as you can imagine was greeted with moans of disapproval.
From there on we began our descent to Huayracmachey and Andenes Challway for our 2nd nights rest which was a lot warmer. Day 3 we moved to the little village of La Playa, lovely little place nestled in the middle of large mountains with farm animals roaming the streets and Andean ladies working their stalls. We rested here for a couple of hours before heading to some outdoor thermal pools for a couple of hours. It was so so nice to relax in the warm pools and give our feet a break from the rigors of walking the past couple of days. Day 4 was another tough one for me, Will failed to mention the mountain we had to climb that day, it was a 5 hour walk before lunch and we were to catch a train to Aguas Calientes that afternoon. The trek up the mountain was a grueling one, each corner I would see in the distance I hoped it would be the top, once I got there I was greeted with another steep incline, I pushed on

Day 2

! Finally we arrived in Aguas Calientes and enjoyed a much deserved lunch and hung out for an hour or two before the train arrived.
The next morning at 5.30 we caught the bus up the Machu Pichu from the town centre. We had originally planned to walked to Machu Pichu but we were all so tired we decided against it. When we arrived at the site, I must admit not to be overwhelmed by the place, but as the time passed and we walked around it I was really absorbed by it all. It truly is a remarkable place, incredibly beautiful with an unsurpassed location. Winay (small) Pichu towers over its larger sister Machu Pichu with the distant glacial summits that are dwarfed only by the huge blue sky. I sat there in amazement, gazing at the site for a couple of hours just taking it all in before the hoards of other tourists arrived by train from Cuzco. It is hard to believe that the Inca´s built this fortress in the early 1500's, the sheer scale of it has to be seen to be believed. I thought the last couple of days were tough but it was all so so worth it to finally reach our destination. We trekked with a company called www.lamapth.com and I couldn't recommend them more, they were excellent, the food was amazing, guide was funny and encouraging and the rest of the staff always had big smiles on.
We headed back to Cuzco on the train and for the next couple of days I just chilled out. We caught a bus to Lima which is where I am now. Jen and Rita are off back to Brazil and JP is off to LA in a couple of weeks. I´m now with a friend of Aridas, Clodagh and were going to travel to Columbia together for a couple of weeks. We fly to Cartegena on the Caribeen coast this evening. I´m looking forward to some beach time again!! I will upload some photos in the next couple of days. Thanks again for all the messages and mails, keep them coming. Until next time, take care.

Mark
                                       
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Day 3	Day 4	Machu Pichu	Machu Pichu 2
Our team	Our way up to 4680 metres	Salkantay Pass

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