Jhonathan took the 3 of us to a hostel and we were so excited to shower. Unfortunately for a town called Aguas Calientes, there was no hot water and so 2 degree temperatures had to do. We had our last meal and thanked our wonderful porters (I almost cried) who are just some of the happiest, jolliest, hard working people I've ever met.
And then we drank. Pisco sours and more and more, chatting laughing and enjoying each other's stories. Great way to bring in the new year, except of course we were in bed by 10:30, beyond exhausted.
The next morning we were up at 5 am once again (6th day in a row) to go up to Machu Picchu and have Jhonathan explain the history and take us around. And what do you know, surrounded by mist! It was gorgeous, looked so mysterious. We were thrilled we got there yesterday and took all our pictures and saw the view from the Sun Gate which is the best part of the trail. We saw people we had chatted with on our trail who got there today and they were so disappointed to not be able to see anything clearly.
The history is fascinating, contact me if there's anything you want to know about Machu Picchu or the Inkas, I am now a pro! We said goodbye to Jhonathan (I almost cried) and wandered around till our train back to Cusco.
We also had to part ways with our Swiss friend and I felt so sad to see her go. She was great fun and I can't wait to catch up on her life when I'm back in England. We then took a super posh fancy train back to Ollayantaytambo, it had windows on the roof so we could look at the beautiful mountains all the way back. We then took a bus back to Cusco, and then picked up our bags and moved to the second hotel called Amaru. I finally had a hot shower and washed my hair with conditioner!
We did it. Neither of us can walk, especially me, I have to hold on to the wall for dear life to get down one step. I look ridiculous. Never in my life have I been so thankful for flat ground. If I never see steps or steep mountain slopes in front of me, it won't be soon enough!
What an amazing start to 2014!
Some interesting trivia: the Inkas could do the entire trail + the 4 hour bus journey in 3 hours. In 2010, the Peruvian government had a competition to see the fastest the trail could be done, starting from km 82 (where we started). The winner's time was around 4 hours. Jhonathan has done the entire trail in 4.5 hours. We took 3 days.
Looking out at Machu Picchu wearing our special tshirts from Iti
'Quit your job, buy a ticket, get a tan, fall in love, never return.'
Beautiful! Its been a dream of mine to visit Macchu Pichu.
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