Day 7 was the actual day to Machu Picchu. It was also my birthday and Justino knew so he had Reynaldo bake me a birthday cake (or perhaps he chose to himself). We had that at breakfast which was at 4:30am. We had toast and pancakes too. They made me bite the cake directly after blowing out the matchstick candle. I was amazed how good a cake he could make with just camping equipment. He even did intricate piping of the frosting which seemed a bit overmuch for me. He did spell my name Tomas instead but I was fine with a more Spanish spelling.
After breakfast we had to hit the trail for its opening time at 5:30. Basically everyone at Winaywayna all piles up in line to get to the last part of the trail which is opened by a checkpoint with park officials. No one can enter the trail to Intipunku (the Sun Gate) until 5:30am. We did not get to the very front of the line because Justino said we would wait far too long that way.
It was about an hour's climb to the Sun Gate. Justino had promised me that the view to Machu Picchu would be cloudy in the early morning but it was totally sunny which I had promised to him instead. I explained to him how a made a trade with the sun god for the rainy day 2 days before. We didn't stay long at Intipunku, mostly just to snap a few pictures, and finished the rest of the hike in under an hour. Justino gave us a 2 hour or so tour of Machu Picchu, explaining history and the purpose of many of the buildings, after we checked our bags at the main entrance to the site (which we had to cross through the site to get to).
Machu Picchu is truly amazing and gigantic. It is unbelievable unless you see it for yourself. When he finished his tour he wrangled us tickets to hike Wayna Picchu (only 400 tickets are given each day but we apparently "gave offerings" of 5 soles per person to get tickets though the day's allotment was apparently already given out) which was very steep and at the very top I had to stop for how narrow the steps were. I saw people climbing the last set of steps to the very top hand over hand and I just couldn't do it with my dislike of sheer drops and high ladders. The rest made it up there but I started down before them because I knew that the some of the steep points of the climb were going to get me a bit and wanted to take my time through them rather than rush to keep up with them. At the worst point a Venezualan couple were coming up and the wife, Mary Carmen, decided her knees couldn't take any more and we decided to travel back down the rest of the way together. She was very nice and funny and actually she was born in Peru but had lived in Venezuala for the last 30 years or so. She said it was her second trip to Machu Picchu but her first time trying to do the Wayna Picchu hike. They took the bus up rather than hiked the Inka Trail. Brian passed us on the way down but near the end anyway and we met back at the starting point where Brian and Cindy eventually caught up with us. They all said the top of Wayna Picchu was very crowded and it was probably just as well that I didn't go to the top because the view was as good at the base tier as it was up there.
We wandered Machu Picchu a little bit more then caught the bus to Aguas Callientes to Hostal Viajeros to shower before the last provided lunch. I don't think I've ever felt this gross on a vacation before. The day turned out very hot and I was covered in sunscreen, deet, sweat and dirt. I actually believe this shower was even more welcome than the shower on day 3 of the hike.
After cleaning up we met downstairs for lunch provided by the tour. Lunch was a buffet which had some really good looking food but for some reason I wasn't very hungry so ate lightly. We gave Justino his tip and he started on his way back to Cusco. He would have 2 days off then he was doing a 2 day Inka tour. After lunch we split up for a bit with the thoughts of going to the hot springs later which we ended up doing and meeting Bill and Cindy's friends Steve and Kelly there. By coincidence it was also Kelly's birthday and they went to Machu Picchu too, but by bus instead of the hike. It was my first time to any sort of hot spring. The water was cooler in most of the pools but we found what was probably the warmest of them and settled there. As the afternoon got later the tourists began to vanish and the place was overrun with Peruvians, especially kids. We made an exit at about 6:30 when the place was becoming far too crowded.
We got back to the rooms and I showered again before we headed to dinner. The hot springs water didn't have a full on sulfur smell but there was obviously something there. The long soak was nice though and I was happy we did it after all.
We went to dinner at Inka Wasi (which means Inka House) but I still wasn't feeling fully hungry so I had a bacon pizza and we all split a couple pitchers of sangria. Some of the dishes had ornate garnishes cut in the shapes of animals. We think they may reuse them since no one ate or destroyed them at any of the table s though I tried to convince Steve to destroy his to see what happened. Since it was also Kelly's birthday they got the waitress to get each of us a piece of cake with candle and sang happy birthday. All in all it was a terrific birthday to have, and one I'll remember for a long time.
I was very exhausted by the time I got back to the room and went to sleep immediately. I did however wake up a couple times in the night with stomach problems unfortunately. It probably explained why I wasn't so hungry during the day. I am usually not prone to such things but I woke up about every two hours to visit the porcelain. I suppose many people get it worse than that though.
No comments:
Post a Comment