Day 67 - Inca Trail, Peru

We wake up to torrential rain this morning that had been non stop all night. It makes us so pleased to be waking up in a warm dry bed as opposed to a wet campsite. We meet at 7am and get the bus back up to Machu Picchu for our two hour tour. Ponchos at the ready.

It's really cloudy when we get to the top. We have Machu no Picchu. We feel sorry for the poor 4 day trekkers who having endured an awful night on the mountain would have not seen anything from the sun gate.

Our fantastic luck continues though and it starts to clear within half an hour of us being there.  There's Picchu! The huge mountain in this picture is Wayna Picchu which is what we are going to climb to the top of after our tour. 

Fantastic panoramic view. 

The tour was awesome and once again Marceleno was fantastic. So passionate and knowledgable. Machu Picchu is actually surrounded in a lot of mystery as the Incas never developed a form of written communicationso there are very limited records of what actually went on here. Marceleno talks us through theories of why it was built here, mainly because the Incas worshiped the mountains, the sun and the moon and this has a superb location for all three and the added bonus of avoiding land slides which are really common. The design is staggering, not just the terraces and the buildings but even little things like the drainage system and 16 natural springs that run through the city that are still fully functional today. 

The scale and the work that went into building this place is mind blowing. Every stone was found on the mountain, maneuvered into place and then chiseled into shape to a staggering degree of accuracy and precision. I have no idea how long it would have taken to create even one of these. Look at the detail and craftsmanship in this wall - all built perfectly around a natural rock. 

Next we are in for a real treat in that we can see the glaciers of the mountains to the back of Macchi Pichu. Now this is apparently a very rare event as they are always covered by cloud. I have never seen a guide as excited as ours. He has been here hundreds of times and yet suddenly turns into a tourist asking us to take loads of pictures of him in front if it!

It's then time to say farewell to our guide as we need to head to Wayna Picchu for our 10am appointment to climb it. They only let 400 people climb it per day and you need to book well in advance. 

We are literally 10 mins without our guide and we already go the wrong way!! A quick reverse down some crazy steep steps. 

We finally get on the right track and begin our climb. It is supposed to take an hour to get to the top but we do it in a respectable 45mins. It is the most challenging and exhausting hour ever. At times it is so steep it feels like we are climbing up a ladder. Well worth the climb though as the view is fantastic. We get a 360 degree view at the top. 

It was at this point shortly after taking this picture that Nat suddenly develops a bad case of vertigo and a slight panic. Not the best place for this to debut!

You can really see the landslide down the left hand side of the windy roads from here. On the third bend from the top is where it goes through the road and the road is now closed. They are so lucky it didn't go through the centre - it's a long trek up!

It is so cool at the top with everyone posing and chilling out in ridiculous places. 

It then gets even more crazy when we have to crawl through a tiny little tunnel that was even smaller than the cu chi tunnels in Vietnam. Luckily I man up this time and get through it fine, if not a little wet. Nat going in. 

And the exit the other side. 

Another squeeze and we are nearly at the apex of the mountain. 

Can't stop taking pictures of this amazing place. 

Top of the world!

Apologies of all the pics of me bit at this point I am struggling to get Nat anywhere near the side for a picture. 

Now for the really tough part. Getting down! Some of the steps are utterly ridiculous. They would never allow it in the UK. I am surprised there are not more injuries up here. Great fun though (for one half of the Beans at least!)

One hell of a stair case. 

Last one I promise. Even I'm getting bored of uploading these now! ;-)

Then for the most ridiculous bit. These steps were only about 15cm in depth.

A very satisfying climb to think an hour ago we were top of this. 

As always, after any sort of endurance activity in he mountain time for Après! At ski prices too!

We then get the bus back into town, go and get our stuff from the hotel (so glad we did not have our back packs today!) and then go for a nice lunch. 

We find a lovely restaurant right on the roaring river called Toto's House for a pizza and a nice glass of vino tinto. 

The view of the river from our table are amazing. We could watch it all day. 

The weather is gorgeous again now. 

What I find crazy about Aguas Calientes is that the railway line runs straight through the middle of town as a bus would. Here is it going past the front door of the restaurant. 

Our train back is at 16:43 so we have a revolting but impressive looking desert at somewhere near the train station and then head to the station.

The journey back takes four hours in all. Unfortunately the train doesn't go straight to Cusco due to the high risk of land slides this time of year so we go to a village a couple of hours away and then need to get a bus back to Cusco. We get back to the hotel at 10pm absolutely knackered. It's been a cracking few days. As we are so tired and have an early flight we just drop the most fetid, disgusting smelling back pack back to the shop, check back into our hotel, have a nice shower and hit the sack. What an unbelieveble couple of days that will certainly stay with us forever. 

Ps. Best thing is that you get new passport stamps on the Inca Trail!