Machu Piccu

So Saturday evening I made my assualt on Machu Piccu. The train tickets were outside my price range. So i decided to slip in by the back door. I left Cusco by minibus for 4hrs to Santa Maria.

In Santa Maria I needed to take a cab to hydroelectrico. I arived in S Maria around 10pm walked over to the cab but the driver need three people to make the trip worth his while, and the next group of busses didnt get in until 2am. Fortunately i had a good book for the wait.

We finaly found two other people to ride along and set off. The cab driver was crazy. He drove like he getting ready for a race with ken block, steering with the gas and pegging the brake for the turns. All this on a one lane dirt road, carved out of a cliff, with music blasting from the car’s speakers. It was amazing.

At the hydro electric plant you are supose hike 4 miles along the train tracks to Aquas Caliente (the town near Machu Piccu). Unfortunately I followed the wrong set of tracks which dead ended in the jungle.  however where the track ended were near the correct one. It just required hiking through the jungle at 4am by flashlight. The trail was created by other lost travelers and i guess they had other thinks on their mind besides creating a good trail, because the trail was crap. So after getting lost a couple of times, i finall made it to the correct set of train tracks. And started my hike to aquas caliente. 

This is a photo of something durring the night i dont know for sure, but i think it is taken from the taxi on the dirt road of death/awesomeness.

I arived in Aguas Calientes around 7:30am. And bought my ticket to Machu Piccu.

Machu Piccu was pretty cool. Due to looting before Bingham discovered it in 1948 it’s not know exactly what the purpose of the city was, but dont worry, this detail allows tour guides to alter the theories with very entertaining twist. A virgin housing project, and a agriculture laboratory were among the few i heard.

It was cool seeing the different stone building styles throughout the ruins.

Some of the stones were cut identical, and stacked like bricks.

Having pulled an all nighter, i found some shade to share, and took an amazing nap, the view was pretty good too.

In the afternoon i returned to Aquas Calientes, and crashed in a hostel for the night. The next morning started the return journey to Cusco.

The views that had been obscured durring the night were amazing.

Five and a half hours latter, i arived back in Cusco.

Take it easy,

Paul

Ps: When napping in the shade make sure you are completely sheltered from the sun, it’s difficult to explain one sun burned eye brow.