29 Dec 2005 – Machu Picchu -> Cusco
It was noisy outside so it took a long time to sleep, but
still got up to the wake up call. It was raining so decided to delay the Machu Pichhu climbing…slept some more. Got up later and went for breakfast, the bag will be
sent to the railway station. The fruit and bread was not that great, but
pineapple jam and potatoes were awesome.
Reached Machu Pichhu by 7:30 am and by 8 am we were ready to conquer
Wayana Picchu. Two Japanese girls got together with us as they did not know
where the entrance was. We have company. We signed in and started the climb.
Little did I know what I was getting into! The trail is about 200 m high and
took about 1 hr. to complete. The steps were all very uneven and made of rocks.
There was rope to hold on to, but not in all places so had to have good balance
to trek.
My bag pack was too heavy for this kind of trail and then I
had to take off my jacket too…an added burden. The climb was steep and I had to
stop at several places to catch my breath. The girls and Bhaiya never needed to
stop…but they did for me. Sweet. I really feel out of shape!
We reached almost the top and walked around the mountain and
admired Machu Pichhu and Urumbura. It was cloudy but the clouds kept moving so all was
visible. We sat and admired all the
scenery before hitting the last few meters of the trek. Oh! Who knew it was
going to be like this. There was a
narrow, dark and low tunnel – it was only a few feet but I had to crawl through
the hole without my bag pack to get through. A little harrowing. And then a
wooden staircase let us to the highlight of the climb….the top of Wayana Picchu.
Wow!! What a view! So worth all the climb. There were some
huge rocks and there were already so many people up there. We sat for a while, walked around, took some
nice pictures. We sat and waited for the
clouds to dissipate for about an hour.
It did get nice and sunny. Then it was time to go down!
We decided to go the other way, not the way from the hole.
The first thing that came was a huge steep rock with some place holds for feet,
but oh Lord it was steep! The only way down was to just sit and slide down, and
that was not the worst of it. Then came the narrow, steep, small steps. The steps were so narrow that I could barely
keep a foot on them and that too sideways. When I saw them, I just about
freaked out! It would need total concentration – sort of meditation, to go
down. It was treacherous. I was facing the mountain and held the rocks with
both my hands. There was no rope! It was such a relief to be down those stairs.
The rest was still rocky and uneven but doable. Going down I did not have to stop. We got back to the gate by 11:45 am. And it just started raining, so all in good time. I was exhausted! I wish someone could carry me to the train. It rained and rained. We sat around Machu Pichhu till 1:30 pm and then took the bus down. (The Adios kid followed again!) There were many kids doing touristy things, like dressing up traditionally for photo ops.
We arrived at Poroy at 6:30 pm from where our guide/driver
picked us up and took us to Cusco, back to the same hotel. It was a 25 min
drive. The hotel did not save us a
double room so they put an extra bed in another room and no phone. Not cool.
We had some tea and went to do some grocery shopping. I
always love going to local grocery shops. Bhaiya took a long time to decide
which cookies he wanted which then did not buy any J. We did buy some juice and plantain chips. I
had some hot chocolate, made by hotel manager, it was great! Very rich.
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