Machu Picchu

It hadn't even reached midday and there was still much to discover within the historical site of Machu Picchu. Unbeknownst to many of the visiters, including those that arrived with oxygen tanks because their aged lungs couldn't support the altitude or the pensioners who made up the majority of the tourists with their expensive hiking brands and hiking sticks, Machu Picchu is not the original name of the site.

No one knows the real name and so people have adapted Machu Picchu, whereby Picchu actually means mountain and Machu means big. It is the name of the enormous mountain behind the historical ruins. Huayna Picchu to the side means New Mountain and third mountain facing the site is called Old Mountain.

As my fellow traveller couldn’t possibly climb anymore, I made friends with an American and a Canadian couple and together we paid the $5 each to climb up the tallest mountain, Machu Picchu Mountain. It took us roughly two hours to make it to the summit where we were the only 5 people around. 

Below us, Huayna Picchu had halved in size and the ruins were barely visible way down below. Above us, a giant indigenous flag flapped in the wind. The flag was composed of horizontal lines of bright, rainbow colours each representing some aspect of nature.

With a fantastic 360 degree view of the surrounding area, it was definitely worth every tiring step up. We could see the river, which had flooded not long ago, flowing across the valley and a little town off in the distance. We could also see just how far we had come from Aguas Calientes and now we were in what seemed like heaven in the clouds. We took turns to sit as close to the edge as possible just to get the best snap with our cameras. 

It only took us an hour to descend and it must be noted that this activity was rather scary as the path was very narrow at times and one nervous mistake would mean you would meet with the sheer drop to ground. At the bottom, I raced to meet my friend and we made our way back down to Aguas Calientes. We ate lunch and were going to visit the hot springs when our host sprang a surprise on us and told us he had booked the early train out of town. 

We had to run to the station and we were straight into the carriage and on our way back to Ollataytambo, still in our stinky, sweaty clothes. Once back in town we waited for what seemed like forever for someone to collect us but no one came. Eventually we rang our hostel in Cusco from a public phone and they told us to take a taxi.

The taxi then proceeded to wait until it filled up but with no luck we eventually started on our journey back to Cusco. 20 minutes in and the taxi driver picked up 2 strange men from the side of the road, one of which feel asleep on my fellow traveller's shoulder. She was not amused.

Back at Loki hostel we got the same dorm, this time without the drunkards (or at least we hoped). It was to be another early start tomorrow but I lay awake for a while, hardly believing the day I had just had.