Los Wiscaminantes: Machu Picchu

Ever since I first learned about the existence of it sometime in grade school, I have wanted to go to Machu Picchu. "The Lost City of the Incas" just sounded so cool. It has truly been a top "dream destination" for me- a place that captured my imagination and didn't let go. Needless to say, once we crossed into Peru, I was chomping at the bit to get there and join the club of the people who have "been there, done that."

You can travel from Cusco to Machu Picchu in a variety of ways. Many people walk the Inca Trail. Reservations need to be made to do so about three months in advance, and we don't even like to buy bus tickets more than a day ahead of time, so the Inca Trail was out of the question for us from the start. There are other multi day hikes to get to the site but the prices of them were not compatible with our budget. There is also an option to take a train but for some reason, I felt that there should be a bit of hardship and adventure involved in our getting there.

Luckily, there is a little known "alternative" route to get there that involves a bit of adventure and hiking. It also happens to be much less expensive than the train. This would be our chosen way of getting to Machu Picchu! On the day of our adventure, we woke early in the morning to take the local bus to the town of Santa Maria, 6 hours away. From there, we transferred to a shuttle van that provided us with a hair raising 2 hour ride along tiny mountain paths through the next town and to the hydroelectric station. From there, all you have to do is walk for two hours, following the railroad tracks to the town of Aguas Calientes, which is the town located at the base of the ruins.

After so much time being cramped on the buses and fearing for our safety, walking was wonderful. It is a really pleasant, flat walk but we were glad we left the majority of our things in storage in Cusco. It made us wonder why we travel with so much stuff!

We arrived at Aguas Calientes around nightfall and went to bed early, because the following morning, we woke up at 3:45am in order to hike our way up to entrance to the ruins. There are shuttle buses that also provide transport to the top for US $7. We opted to hike for multiple reasons: #1- to save money, #2- to be sure to be one of the first 400 people in line in order to get tickets to hike to a place called Wayna Picchu. (I'll explain later) The hike is a little over an hour but it was one of the more challenging hikes I have done in my life. The fact that you are hiking in the dark and cannot gauge your progress doesn't help morale. We made it to the top and discovered that we were about the 50th people in line. Excellent! We had our "in" for Wayna Picchu. Now we just had to wait 45 minutes for them to actually let us in and for the sun to come up.

Sometimes when you really look forward to something, it is a bit of a letdown when you actually get there. That was definitely NOT the case with Machu Picchu. It is without a doubt as amazing and awesome as they say! We watched the sunrise from this excellent vantage point.

Walking around the ruins gave me a surreal feeling that lasted the entire day. Although we were low on sleep and had done some major hiking, we felt energized. I pretty much had a megawatt smile pasted on my face at all times.

After a few hours of walking around and just sitting and staring at the site, it was time for us to climb Wayna Picchu. What is Wayna Picchu? Well, see the tall peak behind the ruins in the photo below? Our destination would be the very top of it!

They allow 200 visitors at 7:00am and another 200 at 10:00am. We chose 10am in order to give ourselves some rest after the rough climb from Aguas Calientes. The Wayna Picchu trail wasn't as steep as our earlier path but some of the stairs were quite narrow. At one point, the path leads through a cave where you have to wriggle your way upwards. It was really fun!

After the cave, you just scale a wooden ladder propped on a rock and you are at the top of Wayna Picchu with 360 degree birds-eye views of the ruins and the beautiful surroundings. It's a pretty amazing place to be.

Below us on our right is Machu Picchu from above. This vantage point really gives you a good feeling for how it is laid out.

More staring was required. It was worth waking up at 3:45am.

After a couple of peaceful hours on top of the world, we decided it was time to climb back down. This was more scary that going up but we took our time and were fine.

Upon our return, we were really hungry from all of our hiking. We bought some lunch at the restaurant just outside of the site and have some sage advice for anyone doing Machu Picchu on a budget: pack a lunch! The prices were insane. A sandwich for $10?!? A full lunch buffet for $35?!? Are the plates made of solid gold? We tried to make lunch quick because we really just wanted to spend as much time as possible in the site.

A cool thing about Machu Picchu is that llamas live there. They do an excellent job of keeping the grass short. The llamas have free run of the place so you can encounter them pretty much anywhere. It's pretty funny when they decide to take off running up a set of steps or across a field. Here is Tim with one that we stumbled upon.

We also made our way over to a place called the Inca Bridge. This photo doesn't quite capture how far of a fall it is off of the edge of the trail. It was high! The original plan was for me to shoot a video of Tim walking across the bridge. He made his way down and discovered a gate and a sign that says you can't go across. I think he was relieved. You can bet he kept one hand on the wall at all times!

We also spent some time photographing each other in "Where's Waldo" type ways. Try to find me in the photo below. Hint: I'm wearing red.

Now try to find Tim. Hint: He's doing Condor Pose.

After more walking around and goofing around, it was time to just sit and soak in the incredible feeling of being there. We stayed until they closed the site.