Day: 414

Since our (primarly mine) forward planning skills are slightly lacking, today for our train ride back down the mountain to Cusco we had to take the pricier ¨Vistadome Class¨ train, complete with clear ceiling and a snack which included a very small sandwich, a cookie, a tiny cheesecake tart, and a cup of coffee. 

Overall, it was essentially a standard train ride for 4 hours, but instead of just pushing the skymall-like cart down the aisle, the poor attendents had to do an ¨Alpaca Fashioin Show¨, which much to my amazement seemed to sell piles of $150 alpaca sweaters.  I think this whole thing left me so dumbfounded that I couldn´t even take out my camera with everyone else and participate in photographing the models/attendents.

Day: 413

With the goal of making our Macchu Pichu day slightly different from everyone elses we have seen, Felicia got the great idea of bringing along a friend with a similar name to make it fully enjoyable.

We were up on the ruins by a little after 6am and enjoyed about 15 minutes of the standard view before the clouds rolled in and the day became a gray cloud. Of course we posed for all our standard MP pics. We we´re thrilled that we managed to see anything and decided to spend the cloudy morning climbing Wayna Pichu (the mountain directly behind all the ruins).  The climb was just as steep as yesterday, but fortunately we weren´t coming up from the valley floor, the bus had done most of the work for us.  After about an hour we made the peak and sat around eating bread and enjoying sporadic views when the clouds cleared for a moment.

Then the clouds decided to stop clearing and we all had to don our raincoats and proceed down the mountain, with its tiny, slippery, Incan steps in the driving rain.  By the time we made it to the bottom, soaking wet, the hordes of day tourists were arriving from Cusco (and would be unable to see anything), and we settled for a bus ride back down to town and a lunch of fine Peruvian-French food.

Day: 412

4:45 We were all awake to catch the “Backpacker Class” train to Macchu Pichu, still an obscene $48 one way for a 4 hour train ride (aka Europe Prices). When we arrived at the station we were stoked that there were only 6 people in front of us in the line where we had to pick up our tickets, unfortunately even though we are paying a premium for the service it doesn’t mean you receive quality service. Ed and I waited 40 minutes to just pick up our tickets while Felicia looked excessively bored watching all the bags.

Finally we boarded the 6:50 train and zig-zaged our way all the way to the tiny town of Agua Calientes (or Macchu Pichu Pueblo) and found a nice young woman who promised us three beds and hot water for 40 Soles a night ($13), she was true to her word, and although we had to hunt her down everytime we wanted to shower, the price was really good for the continents biggest tourist attraction. We headed off and had lunch.

After lunch Ed and I decided to hike a trail to Putucusi that was ever so briefly mentioned in the Lonely Planet as a steep climb and a great view, of course they made no mention of how long the trail was or what to expect other that where the trail begins. I guess it’s too much to ask for a guidebook to actually contain useful information.

Either way, Ed and I set off at 2:40pm and knew the sun would be coming down at 5:30ish so we decided we’d hike until just after 4pm and turn around so as not to be caught in the dense undergrowth with only my weak flashlight in the dark jungle.

The trail turned out to be a hike that essentially went straight up the side of the mountain and at times even had ladders which we hundreds of feet into the air with just steel cable to hold on to. Within in hour we had found we were near the top from some other hikers and but still had a way to go, the mountain reminded me of Hua Shan in China whih I climbed straight up last year. Also I was dying from being out of shape, and completely covered in sweat (which I decided was because South America is too cheap so you stop walking everywhere when you can get a cab for a $1). Eventually (and a few minutes after our 4pm deadline) we did make it to the top for our first view of Macchu Pichu, and even completely drenched in sweat it made for a glorious climb. We knew tomorrow we would be in the ruins themselves.

Day: 411

We all sat around eating, drinking and wandering around Cusco today, stalking up on snacks for the next few days in Macchu Pichu.