Cuzco. (Sorry, got lazy here and didnt update my blog) Although I did meet a great to be around girl from England who I spent these 2 days with. Fiona who was new to the backpacking scene and was keen to get all tips and tricks to backpacking from me.
around the market in Cuzco with mummified dried llama babies to boot.
Waking at 4 in the morning isn't my favorite thing to do but for us to reach the site of macchu Picchu for sunrise but it had to be done. I was told the record for climbing the countless amount of rock steps was 35 minutes, I managed it in 37, not a bad effort.
After watching the sunrise beside these inca ruins you can understand why macchu Picchu is one of the 7 wonders of the world; it was truly spectacular, we had all day to explore the site and the surrounding other attractions including an inca built bridge and two mountains you can climb to get superb views, I decided to hike the highest one where I was told it was going to take 2 hours, I managed to do it in an exhausting and sweaty 45 minutes. Reaching the summit of the mountain that towered over the Inca sight and where the panoramic view of the my surroundings were almost unbelievable to behold, well, until the clouds came in and ruined it all. I was able to get a panoramic in but it may not be posted below for the pure reason because I am very lazy to put it together and edit it.
I stayed at the summit of Machu Picchu mountain for a while chatting away to a Swiss French girl who didnt really speak english so we communicated in broken spanish – when most of the people left to get away from the rain she handed me her camera to take a pic of her bare backside with the view in the background.. a little unusual but unfortunately I have no proof – that picture would have been fun to post up on here.
My ticket to the ruins didnt allow me to access Wana Picchu (the mountain seen in all the postcards and pics) as it is limited to so many people each day although this didnt bother me so much as my legs were shot from running up crazy mountains all day.
I bumped into Simon and Emma who I first me in Quito here too... I have a feeling ill run into them quite a lot as they are headed in the same direction as me.
After I exhausted all the touristy sights and had taken my fair share of photos for the day I headed back down the hill with this Swiss girl and one of her friends.
Because things were so expensive around Machu Picchu I go some food back in agua calientes where got some beer too. One beer led to another (like always) and like always we found drinking in the street by far the best thing to do – meeting all the passersby and simply having a laugh.
I had a train to catch in the evening so I got ready but unfortunately I didnt have any more clean clothes and I almost certainly was releasing a foul odor around the train... meh, not much I can do.
Anyways on the train I sat across from a US/Israeli couple who I could not believe they were a couple at all. I felt so sorry for the guy as his wife just walked all over him, poor guy. Maybe it was a greencard marriage?
Exhausted, smelly and falling apart I finally made it back to the hostel in Cuzco where I again checked in and went to bed.
Drinking last night was a bad idea because not only was it a shitty bar we went to but also my hangover was terrible, it's true that the older you get the worse hangovers become but also drinking the Peruvian fake equivalent to tequila really was a terrible idea.
Our group was divided in the morning as some of us went to go zip-lining over the forest canopy between two mountains which is what I paid for, this was fun but compared to bungee jumping recently it didnt give me the adrenaline rush I was looking for this sickly feeling to go away.
This tour so far has been good but there have been a few things that have been a little irritating like for example the portions of food were dismal, water and snacks had to be bought, our guide Ebert wasn't very knowledgeable about the area and the history behind it as he refereed to pictures and notes from a book.
We walked another 3 hours today pretty much following some train tracks to Agua Caliente meaning it wasnt at all difficult in comparison to yesterday but my $20 shoes bought from Walmart didn't help all that much to cushion the rocks that I stepped on, the view however was very impressive with enormous cliffs towering above us.
Arriving in Agua Caliente in a pace better than most with even Ebert having difficulty to catch up with us I went to the thermal bath which the ticket office was strategically placed away from the baths for good reason - they were not very clear, they were filthy and packed full of people.
I napped the afternoon away as I was ruined after the days activities until dinner where straight after eating I went back to bed – its a 4am start tomorrow for Machu Picchu which im sure is going to be one of the highlights of my trip.
Hiking towards Agua Calientes along the train tracks and some stuff in-between
