Machu Picchu - the backpackers way

  Machu Picchu, Peru
Sunday, August 13, 2006

I have returned from Machu Picchu and wow, what an adventure! It was absolutely amazing!!!! I'm so impressed.

A Chilean poet Pablo Neruda wrote the following about Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is a trip to the serenity of the soul, to eternal fusion with the cosmos, there we feel our own fragility. It is one of the greatest marvels of South America. A resting place of butterflies at the epicenter of the great circle of life. One more miracle.

Here is the story:
After much consideration, I decided not to do the Inca Trail for 3 reasons.
1 - Its US$400
2 - You need to book months in advance
3 - Ive done more than enough hiking in the last 11.5 months.

So, there are 2 Alternatives. The first, is to catch the train, which costs around US$100 for a round trip, or the second option, is to take a round about way and get to Machu Picchu the backpacker way, having loads more fun on the way. All for about US$5. So naturally, I took the budget option and it was unreal. I had an amazing time which went like this:

-----------------The hike to Machu Picchu----------------

From Cuzco at 8pm, I caught a bus to a place called Santa Maria with Anat (Israeli girl) Adam (English) and Ryan (American), all whom I met in a crazy party a few nights ago. We bonded well over a few beers and decided to travel to Machu Picchu together. We rode 8 hours through winding roads where the bus got stuck on a train track. We had to get out and push it across. Classic South American standard. We arrived in the dusty village of Santa Maria at around 3am. We boiled water in the plaza and made coffee and an hour later, we were all in a Minivan, heading 2.5 hours towards another tiny town called Santa Teresa. We ate breakfast and then started the real adventure to Machu Picchu.

First up, the River crossing. Its fairly primitive over here, so instead of a bridge, these people have hooked up a metal cable and a few pulleys. You sit in a bucket and pull yourself across a raging river. It was damn scary, the bucket was swaying about and there were rapids below. It wasn't a promising site when we saw 3 crosses waiting on the other side. Many people have fallen from the bucket into the hungry river below.

Waiting on the other side of the river crossing was a camion - big truck. We climbed into the back, with a few other gringos but mostly smelly locals without teeth. The ride was like a roller coaster, taking tight corners like it was on rails, speeding downhill and then taking the climb at a super speed, leaving our stomachs all over the place.

After the short truck ride, it was time to hike it to Aguas Calientes (the tourist town below the Machu Picchu Mountain).

It was a hot day, around 30 degrees, and we had a 4 hour walk along the train lines to get to Aguas Calientes. Me, Adam, Anat and Ryan entertained ourselves on the walk by crushing coins on the train track when the passenger train from Cuzco came past.

We were hot and exhausted and crashed on rocks by the river and swam and ate avocados and oranges and bananas that were growing on the nearby trees. After a feed and a rest we legged it to Aguas Calientes and had and early night, preparing for a super super early start to conquer Machu Picchu the next day.

-----------------------Machu Picchu--------------------
We reluctantly rose at 3am the next day and started the insane climb to the gates of Machu Picchu. It was straight up. A long steep staircase that took around 3 hours of up up up and finally we arrived at the entrance gates to the Incan City. I was the first person for the day, number one in the line and the first to get into the city at 6am when the gates opened. (After we paid our 118.50 Peruvian Soles to get in (around 50 Aussie bucks). I couldn't't believe I was finally there, staring at Machu Picchu. Definitely the koolest, breathtakingly stunning thing I have seen so far. And to think, I almost didn't come here.

Its just like the postcards. Every bit of it, but you just have to see it. The city is stunning. What a location, perched in the cradle of a mountain, hidden from below, offering incredible protection from anyone that may be stupid enough to try to storm the place.

I spent an hour wandering around in awe, in the pre-dawn light, wondering how and why and how again. The stonework is the most mind boggling thing. How the hell they were able to fit these 12 (or more) cornered stones into place, with bare hands. Still to this day, archaeologists are unsure of how the stonework was able to fit together. They were amazing people these Incans and every corner and every new building of the city leaves more and more questions. Stones are placed together without the slightest gap between them.

I climbed Wayna Picchu, the tall mountain that looks over Machu Picchu, (more climbing) this time on my hands and knees up an insanely steep Incan staircase. Where at the top, I was rewarded with the panoramic overview of the amazing city below.
It looked like this;


Then I hiked down to the temple of the Moon which the full moon shines into and the light is reflected all over the place by gold plates. Then I had a huge hike back up to Machu Picchu.

Wandering around the site is great, but there are just too many questions and too many things to take in, so I decided to find a guide. Which I bargained down, with the help of Anat (there is nothing like the bargaining power of Israelis) and we got a cheap 2 hour tour through the city where we were shown all the things we missed. Such as the temple of the sun. Where perfectly aligned windows tell the months of the year. Specifically the summer and winter equinoxes. At the exact second on the exact day of the summer and winter equinox, the sun shines through a particular window and lights a plate of water, illuminating the room, and apparently, shines off golden plates, illuminating rooms through the whole city. This is the kind of Incan stuff I came for and ate it up. We were shown the temple of the Condor next, where the funerals take place and the condor carving on the floor is offered blood and a sacrifice is made, carrying the body into the afterlife. The aqueducts were fascinating too, carrying water into the city from a far away mountain. I could go on and on all day about these awesome Incan masterpieces of design but ill just say that the site was more than I imagined and I'm going to spend hours on the net researching all this stuff.

I was the first person in at 6am and had to be dragged out at 6pm when the site closed. I considered going up again the next day but after thinking about the ridiculous staircase I would have to climb again at 3am, I decided one visit was enough and the 3 of us returned to Aguas Calientes down the same staircase we climbed many hours before.

--------------The return to Cuzco-------------------

What an adventure. Everything has a way of working itself out in South America, but you may get a little stuffed around in the process.

So, to get back to Cuzco, we just had to reverse all the steps we had taken the 2 days before, or at least we though it would be that easy.

We were up before the sun for the 4 hour hike down the train lines, once again, crushing coins on the track as the trains went past. We waited for the truck to pick us up, it came but it was full of garbage. We decided not to sit on bags of human waste and legged it 2 hours back to the bucket. Terrified, we hopped into the bucket and pulled ourselves across the river, surviving once again. Arriving in Santa Teresa we waited in the blistering sun and caught a minibus back to Santa Maria, only to be told that all the busses back to Cuzco were full for the next few days. Oh no! It was a terrible town to be stuck in. A dust bowl, with nothing but a few smelly Chollas selling kebabs of sheep stomach.

More and more gringos turned up and soon our group was 7. All stuck in this pathetic dust bowl of a town. We resorted to the trucks, to take us back. Begging and pleading to sit in the back with the cargo, 2 hours later, we were on our way to Cuzco! Wooohooo

Sitting in the open air in the carriage of a huge Mach truck hauling empty bottles. The ride took 8 hours and we almost froze to death. I had every piece of clothing on, and was in my sleeping bag, with a blanket of boxes. I was worried about sleeping for fear that i would never wake, hypothermia setting in. I keep saying that I have had the coldest nights of my life in every place I go but I really think this one takes the cake.

We managed to sleep... 7 gringos all curled up in the front corner, covered in cardboard. The truck stopped and finally the wind stopped and we slept soundly. Only to wake 2 hours later to find that we hadn't moved an inch in those 2 hours. We had arrived in Cuzco 2 hours ago. The truck was parked, the driver was gone and there were 7 worried, and stupid looking gringos, rising from a cold sleep that could have left the coldness of the truck 2 hours ago. Idiots! haha

So thats it. Now I'm back in Cuzco, recovering after a very intense adventure but wow, it was amazing.