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Ergh! Fatigue kicking in, another 6am start to the day in order to catch the 7:30 train towards Machu Picchu. Once again we are blessed with beautiful sunshine a miracle really as this is supposed to be the start of the wet season!
The train was pretty plush with windows in the roof to admire the mountains through. We sat opposite a nice English couple of retirees from the home counties who described most of South America as "unfinished" especially Bogota!
At kilometre 104 the train stopped & 6 of us were instructed to leave the train. There was no station just mountain rain forest all around us. Luckily our guide for the day was waiting for us and took us down a small path across a bridge to a surprisingly large check point to begin our hike to the lost* Inca city of Machu Picchu!
*lost in that the Spanish didn't find it which is why it's in such good nick. When the exploring professor from Yale 'discoved' Machu Picchu it still had 2 Inca families living there. Luckily for tourists when the Incas lost a battle with the Spanish at Ollantaytambo, they fled down the valley to the right where they were pursued by the Spanish who set about destroying everything they came across. The Spanish never bothered exploring the valley to the left which contained Machu Picchu.
Anyway. Apart from the altitude making a mockery of our lung capacity, the hike was relatively easy and the group well matched meaning we completed it in record time (according to our guide).
Along the way we stopped for lunch at wayanaka (or similar name) which is a small but perfectly formed mountain terrace village and temple. Keeping the the terrace grass down were some government owned llamas who are preferred to lawn mowers because they self drive and preferred to sheep or goats because they cut grass rather than tear at it, causing less erosion.
As we passed through the sun gate and got our first sight of Machu Picchu we were all stunned. We'd heard the view was impressive but still weren't prepared for quite how impressive! We were blessed with clear skies giving us a perfect view of Machu Picchu nestled amongst towering mountains with rain clouds cascading down far off valleys making the whole vista very atmospheric.
After taking many photos we walked along the path to Machu Picchu to take some snaps at the postcard viewpoint. We didn't explore the ruins properly as we had a guided tour booked for the following day and instead headed down on the bus, accompanied by a host of Peruvians who seem to be very cheerful folk and quick to laugh. We timed it perfectly as the rain started right as we were boarding the bus.
We stayed in the local town who's name I forget. It's wedged in the bottom of the valley around the railway line and overrun with tourists. It did sport some wonderfully grim looking, sulphurous, natural hot pools to relax our bodies in that - best of all - sported pool service to keep our group well supplied with beer until we were driven from the pools by dehydration headaches. A very good day! :)
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