I woke up at 2:40 today for an incredible, amazing, fantastic adventure. I waited at the lobby at 3 for everyone, and we were all ready by 3:30. It was completely dark and I didn't know where we were walking, except that I heard (and somewhat saw) the large river to our left. Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the entrance with a big sign stating: Machu Picchu town.
We had made it! There was just one catch... the entrance was closed for another hour. We were all kicking ourselves wondering why we hadn't stayed back and slept during that time instead. But we were there and tried to make the best of it, so we ate breakfast, rested and/or stretched. About 15 or 20 minutes later, Henry had talked with the guard and bribed him: if we all paid a sol, we could get in right away. Of course, we were all more than willing to comply, so we followed suite and entered with 3 other tourists who'd arrived shortly after us.
Again, I didn't know what to expect at all; I just heard we had a 1-hour hike to the entrance of Machu Picchu. As soon as we started, I realized the entire trek was up really, really, really steep stairs. Imagine me with my cold, my fatigue, my asthma and the crazy altitude trying to maintain stamina while enduring the most physically demanding 1 hour+ of my life.
It was hard. It was almost unbearable and, at one point, I didn't know if I could or wanted to finish. I was having a terrible time and had to sit down with Henry (who was really sweet and carried my backpack for me) because I could barely breathe... I was gasping for air and wanted to cry since I was looking forward to the day so much but just didn't know how it would go.
After I took a few minutes to try to calm myself, I stayed with the last people in the group (some others had a competition to see who could run up the fastest... I have no clue how they did it, but I think most of them had gone to the jungle so they'd been doing crazy things the past few days. As a side note, this day made me really happy that I hadn't been able to go with them. I would've given up the first day, and I really do believe I'll have another chance to go to the selva again someday.) and, slowly but surely (actually, it was pretty damn fast when you consider how much we walked) we made it. We were at the top to the entrance of Machu Picchu. And... surprise! We were the first ones there.
I stretched and ate another piece of my bread, then attempted to take some pictures with my camera, which did the view no justice whatsoever. The sun was starting to come out a bit, but we were still mostly oblivious to our surroundings (though I saw a miniscule hint here).
The entire morning was very... I'm not sure if surreal is the right word, but dreamlike, foggy... I was unable to process any of it since I was so tired and I think my body went in fight-or-flight mode. We all fought.
So, we made it to one of the wonders of the world and entered at 5:30 or so, just in time to walk up bit more and see the sunrise. We got out our tickets and went through the line, which, at this point, had a lot more people. I trekked up yet more stairs (just when I thought I couldn't handle anymore, I had to keep going)... most people made it through the next 10 minutes or so really quickly, but I took my time. I went through an underpass of some trees, walked the stairs, turned some corners... just like the hike earlier, I didn't know where I was going or what to look for. I saw the sun turn a light pink, so I kept following the masses until, all of a sudden, I turned the corner and there it was: Machu Picchu.
Oh. My. God. We're here. We've made it and now it's all worth it. This is incredible. I stood there for a few minutes to take it all in (and take a few somewhat unsuccessful pictures, too, since I haven't completely figured out my camera yet and there's no "Machu Picchu sunrise" setting). The following picture turned out really well but doesn't have the town in it:
And here I am soon after we arrived:
I walked around and saw the scene from different angles, then waited for our tour to start at 7:30am.
Again, I didn't know what to expect at all; I just heard we had a 1-hour hike to the entrance of Machu Picchu. As soon as we started, I realized the entire trek was up really, really, really steep stairs. Imagine me with my cold, my fatigue, my asthma and the crazy altitude trying to maintain stamina while enduring the most physically demanding 1 hour+ of my life.
It was hard. It was almost unbearable and, at one point, I didn't know if I could or wanted to finish. I was having a terrible time and had to sit down with Henry (who was really sweet and carried my backpack for me) because I could barely breathe... I was gasping for air and wanted to cry since I was looking forward to the day so much but just didn't know how it would go.
After I took a few minutes to try to calm myself, I stayed with the last people in the group (some others had a competition to see who could run up the fastest... I have no clue how they did it, but I think most of them had gone to the jungle so they'd been doing crazy things the past few days. As a side note, this day made me really happy that I hadn't been able to go with them. I would've given up the first day, and I really do believe I'll have another chance to go to the selva again someday.) and, slowly but surely (actually, it was pretty damn fast when you consider how much we walked) we made it. We were at the top to the entrance of Machu Picchu. And... surprise! We were the first ones there.
I stretched and ate another piece of my bread, then attempted to take some pictures with my camera, which did the view no justice whatsoever. The sun was starting to come out a bit, but we were still mostly oblivious to our surroundings (though I saw a miniscule hint here).
So, we made it to one of the wonders of the world and entered at 5:30 or so, just in time to walk up bit more and see the sunrise. We got out our tickets and went through the line, which, at this point, had a lot more people. I trekked up yet more stairs (just when I thought I couldn't handle anymore, I had to keep going)... most people made it through the next 10 minutes or so really quickly, but I took my time. I went through an underpass of some trees, walked the stairs, turned some corners... just like the hike earlier, I didn't know where I was going or what to look for. I saw the sun turn a light pink, so I kept following the masses until, all of a sudden, I turned the corner and there it was: Machu Picchu.
Oh. My. God. We're here. We've made it and now it's all worth it. This is incredible. I stood there for a few minutes to take it all in (and take a few somewhat unsuccessful pictures, too, since I haven't completely figured out my camera yet and there's no "Machu Picchu sunrise" setting). The following picture turned out really well but doesn't have the town in it:
Most intense hour long hike of my life
Got into macchu pichu in time for sunrise
Walked around starting at 5:30 or 6
Tour at 7:30
Other people wanted to climb waunupichu- couldn’t physically do it
After we’d been there for about 5 hours, some people wanted to go back since food there was expensive and they were tired
Almost went with them, since bus ticket was valid for any time of day
Decided to stay, bought veggie wrap and peach crossiant
Walked around a bit more, wanted to trek to inca bridge but didn’t work out
At 2:00 or 2:30, amy and I were the only ones left, or the only ones to be seen, so we took bus back- realized how much we walked
Got back to hotel, took a nap on the hotel lobby couch til 3:15
Headed out to pool lounge, got a round of beers happy hour 4 for 1
Most touristy ripoff town ever
From bar, went out to dinner- got stuffed avocado, trout with green beans and rice, banana juice
Went back to hotel, waited around til about 8pm to head on train to ollantampa cuzco
Most exhausting wait ever
Slept for hour on train, got off and took bus to town, to hotel
Shared room with Natalie and jenny, fell asleep by about 2am
Up a lot of the time coughing- day was really hard on my lungs
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