Cuzco and Macchu Picchu - day 2

The next day was my big day heading up to Macchu Picchu an Incan town built for the rich and the royalty up in the mountains, actually much lower than Cuzco but to English people very high up. As it is so far out in the middle of nowhere the Spanish never discovered it and so other than a bit of occasional earthquake damage and very slight erosion its almost perfectly intact. My day began very early with a 5:30 pick up in the cold and rain. The air felt very thin as i met up with my bus party in the centre of Cuzco. The bus then followed the mountain roads away from the city and down into the Urubamba valley that the Inca's called the sacred valley (everything was sacred to them). We kept going for about an hour and a half until we reached a large town located by the enormous river - looked like a lot of fun for white water rafting.
We got off the bus and joined the next leg of our journey an hour and a half train ride to a town called Aguas Calientes (Named after the hot water streams located there). The last leg of the journey was then a coach up the mountain. The road up was pretty unbelievable we must have zigzagged across it about 10 times

before we finally reached the summit just in time for the sun to come out as we looked out on the incredible views that lay before us.

The city was absolutely incredible but unlike my photos show was absolutely crawling with tourists. I still find the tour bus way of life very strange, so many people didn't seem to care what was around them and just wanted a picture to proove they were there. We followed a guide around and it was like a conveyor belt where he described a part of the city and then 1 at a time people went and stood there and had a picture then the next. I had heard you could climb the mountain that you see in the background of the pictures of the city. So i asked the guide and he said they only let 400 people up a day and that it is quite a difficult and steep climb. The last entry for this was at 1 and so to go up i had to leave the tour. When i walked top the other side of the town there was a point to register for the track and i was number 391 so just made it. I began climbing up with a french girl i had met who was also going up on her own so we went up nice and slowly at her pace, it was funny seeing everyone coming back down covered in sweat as it was by now pretty hot and the air up there was very thin. The climb was nearly all steps but very steep indeed and the views out over the city and the valleys were even better up there
and it wasnt crawling with people and those up there were really up there to enjoy the place. I talked with a lot of people at various points up the path and enjoyed a bit of climbing (cant help it, surely thats what rocks are for).

Then right on the top i got comfy and just enjoyed the sun and without suncream coz when i had left it had been so cold and miserable i ended up with a bit of a red face which was pretty good going for there wet season. Stayed up there with a girl from Texas until we were the last 2 there and a person came up and told us we had to go back down, guess he must be fit doing that trip every day.

Then came the long walk down and i enjoyed the chance to wander the city which was by now much less busy and i tagged along with various tours i heard in English whilst searching out caves and animals. It had been an incredible day and as i took the first bus back down on my journey back to Cuzco the heavens opened again for another impressive storm.