After several pitiful attempts at altitude climbing in Ollantaytambo and my absolute dread of the Inca Trail, we decided to sack the whole thing off. Elated was not the word. So instead of the 3 day Inca Trail with Machu Picchu at the end, we just got a 1 day ticket to visit Machu Picchu and travelled by train. Our theory being, why have 3 days of hard slog just to get a prize at the end, when you can just have the prize!
You can pre buy your tickets on the MP website, which is the worst, most unreliable site I have ever used. It worked once out of aprox 45 efforts and we wasted hours on the internet waiting impatiently for the time it would decide to work. There are 3 options of tickets: 1. Just MP. 2. MP & Huayna Picchu – the small peak in the MP pictures that most people climb. 3. MP & MP Montana (mountain). As the Huayna Picchu tickets had sold out we went for the Montana ticket, despite not knowing what it was actually for. It cost about £35.
For all you train geeks, you know who you are:
We caught a PeruRail train at 6.10am from Ollantaytambo, arriving at in Aguas Calientes (the town below MP) at about 7.40am which cost about $80. As Aguas Calientes sits around 2,200ft below Machu Picchu we were hoping for some transport but had no idea how to organise this or what to do, as we weren’t part of an organised tour. In a stroke of fate, just copying the other tourists buying a bus ticket resulted in a nice lift for £4 up most of the mountain. Seeing other tourists walking up the mountain, we decided that we’d have paid whatever they’d have asked.
The bus dropped us off at the Machu Picchu entrance, where the famous expensive hotel is – which has no view by the way – and we walked for 15 mins or so uphill towards where the ruins supposedly were. However, they were completely shrouded in fog, so we had no idea they were there, walked right past them and proceeded to climb the biggest mountain on the MP complex. As no one really talks about Machu Picchu Mountain we assumed, wrongly, that it couldn’t be as hard as Huayna Picchu – the small pointy mountain in the all the photos that everyone always climbs.
Turns out that was quite the error. Since climbing the massive mountain I have read up on it and found this out: The Machu Picchu citadel is bookended by two sacred peaks. Mt Huayna Picchu marks the north end of the site and to the south stands Mt Machu Picchu. Both offer spectacular views, but while Mt Huayna Picchu turns away would-be visitors, the summit of Mt Machu Picchu nearly always stands empty.
The reason may be the difference in height. (NO SHIT!) At 1,640ft, Mt Machu Picchu is more than twice as tall as Mt Huayna Picchu. But the reward for the climb up flights of ancient stone stairs is the most incredible view that can be achieved (short of a helicopter) of how Machu Picchu was carefully integrated into its natural surroundings. (ACTUALLY, IT ISN’T)
It took us over 2 hours to get to almost the top; step after massive step. It was like 2 hours solid on the stepper machine at the gym. I took the earphones out of my ipod and cranked the volume up on my ‘Gym Mega Mix’ so we could motivate ourselves through the mode of music.
As an additional bonus we still had absolutely no visibility of the ruins at all, just fog. At some points we were actually IN cloud because we had climbed so high and couldn’t see more than 15 feet in front of us. At this stage we were pretty relieved we hadn’t done the Inca Trail; if we had done 3 days solid trekking just to NOT see MP we’d have been pissed off.
We stopped short of going right to top because we met an American guy who was walking down and he said it took him another 30 mins to reach the top and it was just fog, no view. We gave each other a What’s the point look. Unlike the American, we were not particularly concerned about a sense of achievement. Instead we thought – fuck it, let’s go back down. We trotted back down the mountain far more quickly than we did the ascent, veritably skipping down the 1,640 feet of stairs. We paused on route to do some dancing to Mark Morrison’s Return of the Mac and Bananarama’s Na Na Na, Hey Hey to lighten the mood, as we had been feeling pretty downhearted about not being able to actually see Machu Picchu and essentially walking up a massive mountain for nothing.
Bored of walking, but got to see a little bit of Picchu as we descended…
Once we got down to the bottom of the Machu Picchu Mountain we noticed that the fog had completely lifted down there and there were the ruins, right by the entrance! So for anyone who wants to see the MP ruins, get the cheap ticket for just MP as there is actually no need to climb ANY of the mountains because you get the best pictures by NOT climbing the mountains and it is a foggy mess until about midday anyway, so you can even have a lie in.
These pics were taken near the entrance, you can choose to go down into the ruins if you like, which is probably worth it if you have a guide. As we hadn’t got a guide, we couldn’t be bothered.
To celebrate finally seeing the views we did several more dances much to the delight of the other MP visitors. PJ & Duncan’s Let’s get ready to Rumble received a good effort but our personal favourite is Thriller:
VIEDO: This is how we roll click here
We left Ollantaytambo yesterday and headed to Cusco. Now that we are experts we used a ‘collectivo’ (shared taxi) for 2.5 soles/ 75p to Urabamba and then a shared mini bus for 7soles/ £1.75 to Cusco. We headed to the bus station to get a bus to Arequipa in the South West. However, despite everyone’s protestations in Ollantaytambo of ‘yeah you can just rock up and get a bus, no need to reserve’ – all the buses were sold out until the following evening. Marvellous. We looked at everywhere else we could go, by bus, train, plane just so we could get out of Cusco. We decided to book a flight to Lima for the following morning with StarPeru, who are like Easyjet.
We needed a bed for the night, so we headed for the main backpacker strip in Cusco. Pirawani, the hostel we had been recommended was full, so they directed us to The Point further down the road. Also full. We ended up in the Wild Rover hostel, run by some Irish guys. THE WORST hostel I have ever been in in my life. It was like an 18-30s holiday house. Great for people who just want to re-live University and not actually see any of the sites of Peru.
To our utter horror, they had an open mic session from 7pm until 2am for all the pissed people who’d been drinking all day and all night in the Irish bar on site. I mean, WHY ELSE come to Peru? An Irish bar is certainly top of my list! We finally fell asleep at around 2.30am and then were up at 7am for the 9am flight.
We are currently in the air, flying to Lima where we will be catching a bus to the desert town of Ica. We are staying for a few days before either heading south to Arequipa or back north towards Ecuador.
Terrible Machu Picchu booking website: www.machupicchu.gob.pe
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