Maccu Picchu

Once again, its another pre-4:00AM wake up for a hike. We got dressed, got our snacks and water, and began the 2 hour journey to the ancient Inca city.

This walk is a common one, but it doesn’t feel like that this early. We were the only headlamps we could see for either side, as we followed the road to Maccu Picchu. It was lightly sprinkling on us, and we hoped as the sun came out, and the rain would clear.

We made it to the Urubamba river crossing, and unbeknown to us, and other more ambitious tourists ahead of us, this bridge doesn’t open until 5:00AM. We took shelter from the increasing rain under the security booth, taking down a breakfast of oranges and granola bars. At 5:00AM, a group of 25 or so tourists had accumulated at the gate. We were all scanned for tickets, and let through to the second half of the hike.

The next part is straight up. 1700 stairs made of rocks of varying heights and slopes. It cuts through the large switchback road the the busses take. This hour-long staircase separated hikers from casuals. Much to our surprise, we kept up near the front of the pack for the journey up.

While climbing the staircase, two weather related events occurred. The first was expected. The sun rose, and we could all hike without our headlamps. The second though. It started really raining. Hard. Fog and clouds kept coming in. This wasn’t exactly expected in the forecast. We were drenched by the time we made it to the top. My rain jacket had completely soaked through. Silver linings from the rain though, is that there is no sun, and no bugs.

One benefit of hiking up to Maccu Picchu at 4am is that you can get the place to yourself for a little bit. We were within the first 5 people to enter the site that day. Maccu Picchu is massive, and unfortunately, you cannot explore it all in one ticket. There are 4 different types of tickets you can buy, that break down into mountain side or sun gate side, long or short. We had a mountain side long ticket, route 4.

Over tourism is a huge problem at Maccu Picchu. Due to the weight and the vibrations of the busses bringing 2,500 tourists per day to the site, part of the mountain that Maccu Picchu is on is collapsing. There are gaps forming in the terraced stones that were not there before. According to a guide we overheard, UNESCO is recommending that no buses go to the top, and instead a gondola is made so people can view it from overhead. An interesting idea. We think people should slog up the 1700 steps if they want to see it.

And there’s a reason for that. Between the hike up to Maccu Picchu, the rain and the fog dominating the landscape, and the distinct lack of anyone else in our (admittidly small) sightlines, the morning had an air of ancient jungle explorer to it. We leaned into this angle, as being cold and stuck in pouring rain with wet everything is a lot less fun. Our explorer names (Cam disputes this) were Enrique Explorador and Squish McGubbins.

As part of our ticket, we had the option to climb Huayna Picchu, the nose mountain you see in the iconic Maccu Picchu photographs. After half an hour of deliberation waiting for this gate to open, we decided against going up. We were cold and wet sure, but you go to the top for the view, and there were no views to be had that day. Every worker we asked gave us very little hope that the clouds would clear in any sort of decent time (Oh Pachamama, they would say). We opted to cut our journey a little short then, and slowly headed back to the entry gates.

Maccu Picchu itself is amazing though. The set paths are a little annoying (although I get why they exist). But your ticket takes you through a combination of cliffside farming terraces and near impossible stonework of old temples and buildings. The Inca did not have a written language pre-colonization (That’s why Quechua uses the Latin alphabet). The tour guides all claim they know what each building is exactly for, but we see no way how that knowledge was not lost in the 300 years that Maccu Picchu was. Everywhere you look there is something interesting to see. It was a really memorable and enjoyable morning.

We took the bus down. We wanted to get dry and warm. A guide on the bus with a couple of tourists was taking about how hard the hike up the stairs that we did that morning was. So that made us feel good, cause it didn’t feel too bad. Luckily for us, we arrived back at our hostel before the checkout time, so we could have hot showers and change out of our wet clothes.

We spent the afternoon wandering around Aguas Calientes. The town is 80% hotels and restaurants, with a large artisan market in the middle. It exists only to cater to tourists. We had a nice bagel sandwich at a café for breakfast, then checked out the artisan crafts for a couple hours.

Our ride out of Aguas Calientes was the train to Ollantaytambo. The train ride was mostly uneventful. We were seated near a group that just finished the Inca trail. The dichotomy from that group and the people we met along Salkantay was very interesting. Without bashing them too much, lets just say we felt even more elite in our hiking accomplishments. The fancy expensive train passed us on the way, and we learned that for $600USD your 4h train ride from Cusco includes dinner and a band.

We arrived in Ollantaytambo, too tired to continue our journey up the sacred valley. We booked a hostel on the train, only to learn that it was closed. So we found another down the road. Ollantaytambo was a nice little town. Small. It has Inca ruins too, but we did not attend. We had sleep for dinner, and crashed.

For breakfast, we went to a nice little café, and had fig toast and a chicken sandwich. They were delicious. We killed time trying to plan our next travel moves, before deciding that we just wanted to go to Cusco. We found a colectivo, and took our journey out of the Sacred Valley.

Cusco is our last stop in Peru, before we head to other countries! We will see you there!