Thursday, 4 August 2016

15th May: More Machu Picchu

Despite the previous night's revelry, people were up and about at 5am, noisily making their way along the corridor to catch the first bus up to Machu Picchu.  The day before I had spoken with a young girl from Los Angeles who said that the queues were so long she had missed the view at sunrise, which was the main objective.  This was evidence enough for me not to attempt the same thing, so I rolled over and enjoyed another 3 hours sleep.  Superwoman Louise was up early and went for a walk around Aguas Calientes.  On her way out she heard hotel staff calling 'Oscar Ping, Oscar Ping!'.  Louise, whose imagination was in overdrive, was thinking 'What an exotic name, I wonder whatever has happened to him?' Later, Detective Louise had an 'ah-ha' moment.   They were saying 'Housekeeping!'

We had another 'do your own thing' day.    Ian took a one-to-one guided tour and was particularly thrilled to photograph many hummingbirds.  Richard took a walk around town and, knowing my penchant for ethnic jewellery, bought me a beautiful pair of Incan-inspired earrings. Louise & I went back up to Machu Picchu for a last look.  Louise recommended going half-way up to the Sun Gate, where there was a look-out point that afforded a better view than slogging it to the top.  Even so, there were a hundred steps to negotiate, it was very busy, and I kept thinking how much I had enjoyed the previous afternoon, when it was so much quieter and cooler.  Eureka - the aerial view of the citadel was stunning and I tried very hard to assimilate the vista into my memory banks, to be retrieved on life's duller days.  We found a new route around the back to explore, taking plenty of stops to cool and breathe.  We did a bit of people watching and played 'Guess the nationality before the people speak'.  The Americans were the easiest!  We tried to sneak another moment at 'my' meditative bench, but it was full to capacity and so we faced up to reality and took our leave of the spot on the planet that in 24 hours had found a place in our hearts.  We boarded the bus for the hairpin ride back to town and met up with the men, had lunch and then mooched around town before resting in the town square.  This contains an over-the-top Catholic church, a tourist welcome model thing, scraggy dogs and backpackers sleeping it off in the sun. The trumpet flowers and bougainvillea went a long way towards brightening the scene.  The Vistadome was just as picturesque on the return journey, pepped up by a double rainbow arch over the Andes. 

Already tired and weary when we got off the train,  the minibus took a further 2.5 hours on a treacherous road to get back to Cusco.  There was a national festival and people were out in their droves. Every village square had speakers blaring dancing music and makeshift trestle tables laden with food and drinks.  When we saw an accident involving 3 cars and a motorbike I wasn't at all surprised.  Louise was impressed that I managed to catch a nap whilst the bus was bumping and swerving.  We finally arrived back at Hotel Las Portales and were reunited with our luggage.  On our last day at altitude Richard was almost acclimatised.  Due to the clash between the exuberant local crowds and our travel weary mood, we decided to eat in the hotel.  What's more, even though we were dusty, sweaty and a bit smelly (I blame the 5kg restriction on clothes) we skipped the wash and brush-up and went straight into dinner. Had we morphed into backpackers?  My diarrhoea was getting drastic and I resorted to the dreaded Imodium, in addition to the malaria tablets, pain killers and Biofreeze for aching joints.  Junkie! My bed was a welcome sight.


Aerial view of Machu Picchu

I loved being there

Isn't it stunning

Not really ruins as it's almost intact

Pretty trumpet flowers
Humming bird © Ian Phipps

Tacky tourist

2 old blokes, sitting on a bench...
Entertainment on the return Vistadome journey 




No comments:

Post a Comment