February 6, 2009

Machu Picchu, Day Two

After a fantastic dinner at Feliz Indio (the best restaurant in Peru), we went to bed early last night and set the alarm for 4:30. A breakfast of bread, coffee and bananas was included in with our room and we finished eating before dawn. We walked to the bus station and got in line for the 5:30 AM buses. I was surprised that in the low season, there were 8 buses full of tourists for the first trips up the Hiram Bigham Road to Machu Picchu. We had already planned that as soon as we got to MP we would run up to the "Caretaker of the Funerary Rock Hut" for sunrise. As the official map says: "The hike up the long rigid stairs that lead to the Funerary Rock Hut is tiresome but well worth the effort. Many people choose to hike this arduous trail to the hut and are rewarded by spectacular views that will not soon be forgotten." True.

We sat and enjoyed the sunrise at the hut for quite awhile because it takes the sun a long time to get over the Urubamba Mountains and actually hit Machu Picchu. Then the llamas showed up and posed. The baby was cute but whenever I got close, he would start making very human sounding whimpering noises and Mama would come over to check me out. In all, we spent several hours up by the hut before we started exploring more of the site. We had been able to see crowds at Huayna Picchu, the mountain behind Machu Picchu, and with the binoculars could see people already on top. Tommy wanted to try climbing it so we went over to sign up. They only allow 400 people per day to climb up and you have to sign in when you leave and return. We were numbers 211 and 212, so there was plenty of time for us to climb. First you have to go way down to the bottom of the mountain before you can start climbing up! It was the hardest hike I've ever tried. Harder than hiking back out of the Grand Canyon!! At places the path was so steep and narrow that they had cables drilled into the rock for hand rails to pull yourself up. I kept picturing myself tripping and falling like I did in the Sierra Nevada (and broke my nose), but if I had fallen here, they would have found my body in the Atlantic Ocean! It was a straight drop down to the Urubamba River. We made it to the last terrace where people had told us we would have a view of Machu Picchu. It was a beautiful view but I never want to do that hike again. Coming down was almost as hard as going up!!

We left Machu Picchu about noon to get back to Aguas Calientes in time for some lunch and our train back to Cusco. The train ride was very nice but it was soon too dark to see much. We got a taxi back to our apartment from the train station and I started downloading all of the photos from the past two days.