Machu Picchu

This weekend Beverly, a friend from the Yanapay hostel from Britain, and I did the somwhat trying but unavoidable Machu Picchu journey. I booked the whole trip through Jesus, a spanish teacher at Yanapay, who also runs a tourist agency. I think we got a fairly good deal but it was a little frusterating following along blindly with some set tour. The hotel room, bus and train transport, guide, and entrance fee was $150. It is amazing the amount people pay to see this wonder. We left very early Saturday moning and had most of the day to just space around Aguas Caliente, the small base camp city for Machu Picchu, and rest up. The town was very touristy and fairly rustic, with half finished looking apartment buildings, no cars, and a railroad running through. It was nestled next to a roaring stream and towering mountains on all sides. After a few unexciting meals we went to bed early and waited for our 5am wake up call the next morning. The Sunday morning arrival at the ruins was a zoo of tourists but I slowly eased into the day and the beauty of the site. The most picturesque moment was the clouds rolling over the mountains and the Inca grounds. After our tour ended, around 9:30am we had a packed snack, rested, and then Beverly and I hiked up Winapichu. This is the mountain you can see towering in the back of Inca ruins. It was a very tiring hour long climb, mostly up rock stairs in the mountain face, but well worth it for the view and experience. I am now back in Cusco and happy to be settling in to my hosel and volunteer routine again.