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Tuesday 28th August
We take the train to Aguas Calientes which means Hot Waters. The view is fantastic as we journey into the Cloud Forest area of Peru which you tend to find at around 2,500 metres. It's lush and green and the variety of flora is amazing.
The train is clean, spacious and comfortable and the windows curve up into the roof so you can appreciate the majesty of the mountains around you. It's like being on an aeroplane as we are served a drink, ham & chesse croissant and black forest gateaux from a wheely trolley.
Aguas Calientes is built on a hill with steep cobbled streets that are narrow with overhanging buildings. It has a great feel to the place. And one of the best things is the ladies walking the streets selling banana cake - yum!
From our hotel it's a short walk to the hot springs so we soak in the warm waters with a beer for an hour, cleaning the dirt off from the last 3 days.
At dinner a Peruvian band plays local tunes while we eat. Back at the hotel later on we're all going to bed early as we have to be up at 5am. Next thing you know there's shreiking from the hall and Jules pulls open the door to find Nicole running past in just a towel. Apparently there's a massive spider in her room - hee hee.
Wednesday 29th August
We take the first bus up to Machu Picchu today. It's a beautiful drive winding up through the cloud forest in the lush green and reminds me of Uganda's impenetrable forest or the rainforest in Cairns.
We arrive and it's misty but you can feel it's a truly magical place. Machu Picchu means Old Mountain and is situated around 2,400 metres above sea level. The architecture is amazing with stones knitted tightly together with a series of locks and there's drains built in to help avoid erosion.
After a tour with our guide Umberto, we decide to cilmb Wayna Picchu which is at 2,700 metres. It's almost straight up - the Inca's must have been monkeys! The last section are the smallest stairs with not very much between me and the bottom of the mountain! They certainly don't believe in installing railings here. We scramble up sheer rock and finally we're at the top. There's a real sense of achievement from everyone.
The mist has cleared so we get the best view back over Machu Picchu and can truly see it in all it's majesty and appreciate what a feat it was to build. The valleys below are immense, the view of the trees, the river and Machu Picchu laid out in all it's glory is really quite humbling. I love it here.
I climb down with Nicole and Angela and the descent is fun in itself. We meet Brett and Shannon at the bottom and walk around with the crowds that have arrived now before getting the scenic bus back to the bottom. I'm so pleased we got here early and could walk around almost on our own.
Genevive, Jenny, Michael and Jules meet us at the train and it's back to Ollantaytambo. On the train we're treated to a fashion show which was just hilarious with "Are you going to San Francisco" playing in the background - how bizarre. You could tell the staff clearly found it embarrassing. Hee hee. Then there was the masked man dancing up and down the carriage which Nicole hated as she's afraid of masks.
From Ollantaytambo we get the bus back to Cuzco and go to a really cool sofa bar around the corner from our hotel for drinks and nibbles.
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