We woke early this morning and left our beautiful sanctuary in Ollantaytambo to take a train to Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu. This wasn't any ordinary train. It was the Vistadome. Beautiful train. It has Cedar hardwood floors, large windows next to you and above you on the rooftop! It even had a huge window in the front of the train so we could see where we were going. They were even playing rainforest-y sounds/music. You know, the kind of peaceful music they used to play in that store Natural Wonders. It was truly mystical and surreal to take the train through the valley. We even got fed even though we had breakfast at our hotel before we left! We rode next to rivers and past dozens of waterfalls. We saw sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, not to mention the rolling hills and mountains. We rode through clouds, small remote villages and the sides of steep mountains. When we arrived to Aguas Calientes, people didn't want to get off the train!
Once we got off the train, a person holding a name plate with William's name written on it escorted us to the bus that would take us up the side of a mountain to the entrance of Machu Picchu. This program was so awesome! Whenever we reached a new destination it was the same drill. But it made us feel special and like Carmen Sandiego. When we would arrive at our destination someone would be holding a board of some sort and it would always read, "Mr. William Warshauer." When we'd approach them, they would take us to a car that was waiting for us. The car driver would take us to either an attraction or a hotel, usually the latter. Once we'd arrive, a representative from our tour company would be waiting there with a huge smile on their face, refreshments, and full knowledge of the English language (most refreshing of all!). They would greet us, make sure we didn't have any problems, pay our cab, and sit us down. Over coffee or tea, we would get a layout and agenda for the next few days and the destination we were at. Usually we'd receive an envelope filled with any tickets we needed and an itnerary, including information for transportation and where we would be getting picked up. We'd end on talking about where we had come from and restaurant recommendations. The same happened when we arrived to Aguas Calientes. After meeting for a few minutes, we were escorted to the front of the long line to our bus. We got great seats and sat back to start our Machu Picchu adventure. 30 minutes later we arrived and entered the grounds. When you first enter, you don't see MP right away. You see a few cottages and naturally you want to go up to them to see what's in them. Once you get to these cottages and realize it's just more ruins and nothing is currently stored in them, you look up and....... TA DAAAA there it is! Machu Picchu looks amazing, even with clouds on it and in the morning mist. I had read on several sights that the best time to see MP is on a misty morning where everything looks lush and dreamy. Since the clouds were literally on the grounds of MP and it was a bit drizzly, it truly felt like a dream. We began exploring the grounds, but didn't go in too deep because we had a private tour in 45 minutes. We were provided a boxed lunch, so we stepped out to take that because we totally needed as much energy as we could get to handle the hike that was ahead. Our hotel in Ollantaytambo did a great job packing us a lunch. It came in this super cute box and it had two sandwiches (William and I had our own boxes so each of us got two sandwiches!). One sandwich had brie, mayo, and grilled zuchinni on ciabatta. The other sandwich had some sauce and grilled chicken on ciabatta. Then it had a homemade protein bar of some sort (yummy!), a fudgey brownie, a toffee chocolate chip cookie, an apple, hard candies for later, and a mango drink. It was freaking awesome! I was so excited to see all the things they packed.
Once we ate it was time for our tour and the sun had come out in full force (William got sunburnt of course). Our tour guide's name was Frida. She had an extensive knowledge of Machu Picchu and explained every part thoroughly, and wondered why we didn't have any questions for her. Afterwards, we were free to explore the grounds on our own. Here we decided to take a trek to the Inca Bridge. It was grueling and pretty high up, not to mention, behind the mountain facing MP. When we got to the bridge, it was pretty anticlimatic. The views and rainforest-y feel of the trek and cliff was much prettier than the bridge. The view down was amazing and really scary. I cam to realize that MP is the scariest place ever. There are cliffs and drop offs everywhere. There are uneven steps and jagged rocks. There were no elderly, young, obese, or handicapped people there. Good thing too because this place is a challenge to explore. People drop like flies because of the elevation and I'm sure leg and ankle injuries are very common. If you go there, plan on getting great shoes and medication for elevation sickness. Also, don't take your parents or your children.
Machu Picchu itself was the most beautiful place I have ever been. It was so large, I can't even begin to explain how expansive it is and how little of that you can catch on camera. They need to make a 3D Imax film of this place! After doing multiple hikes and getting totally pooped out, we headed back to the bus and then the Vistadome to return to Cuzco.
The train back was peaceful. I ended up sleeping, eating, and blogging. Once we arrived back in Cuzco we went straight to bed because we had to wake up and go to the airport to head to Puerto Maldonado to continue to our last destination, The Amazon Rainforest.
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