May 5th, 2019
Today is Machu Picchu! We had the option to take a bus to the top or do the final hike and walk the 1800 stairs to reach the entrance. Although the bus option sounded really nice, our whole group felt after we hiked the whole trek to get there, we couldn’t not do the last part and wimp out on the 1800 stairs. We got up at 4:30am and started out.
It was a 30- minute walk from town to where the stairs began. On the first section of stairs I thought ‘okay, this isn’t bad’. The stairs were not steep and sometimes there was a step or two between them. After about 5-10 minutes of the easy stairs, the ones came that I was worried about, the BIG steps going up. All the stairs were made of rock and they are different heights and distances. If there was a step in between the stairs it was a big incline step.
I kept thinking of my former boss who would do the stair master every day before coming to work. I was thinking that I should have also done that. One step at a time and we all made it to the top. It was hard, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was grateful we did this climb at the end of the South America trip. I would have struggled much more if it had been in the beginning before we had hiked so many miles and gotten stronger. We were at the top around 6:30am and waited until 7am which was on our entrance ticket.
There are many people that visit Machu Picchu. You are given a ticket with the entrance time printed on it so they can stagger the amount of people walking in. Once in, we got the breathtaking views of the ancient city. What I loved about it was how the clouds moved around up there. For most of the time it was clear, but a couple of times the clouds rolled in and covered the entire city to where you would not be able to tell it was there. Then as quickly as they rolled in, the clouds would roll out and reveal the city once again. It felt magical. Nico took us on the tour of the city and explained all the amazing components of it. The stonework for the temples and sacred places within the city was just incredible! I couldn’t imagine a better way to end our journey in South America.
After Machu Picchu, we were going home for a few weeks before the next leg of our trip beginning in Australia. After our time in the city and learning of its history, we said goodbye to our wonderful guide Nico.
We began the hike back, down all the stairs. We opted for the cheaper bus option instead of taking the train back to Cusco. This meant that after our decent from Machu Picchu we had a 3.5 hour walk to the bus station. We had lunch once we made it to the station and then got on a long 7-hour ride back to Cusco. When we got to the bus (which was actually more of a shuttle), I began regretting not spending the extra money for the train. The bus seats were all really dirty and someone had left all their trash in the back pocket of the seat in front of me. That really grossed me out. There were also dingy, yellow curtains on the windows and one of those big black flies kept buzzing around my head and thumping into the glass window over and over. Once we started moving, the fly finally buzzed somewhere else. It was an extra $75 per person to take the train.
The beauty of the landscape filled my mind, becoming a complete distraction from any filth or discomfort I had on the bus. I was then grateful we saved the $150 dollars for a ticket that could be used to a different location and another adventure. The ride back to Cusco was beautiful. After the sunset I let my eyes close. We were very tired from the previous five days. We were told that once in Cusco we should get off the shuttle at a certain Plaza and walk to an address we were given to pick up our bags. This was the part we had been nervous about the entire time. We knew at 11pm on a Sunday night, if the person wasn’t actually there, we would be out of luck getting in touch with anyone else from the office of the tour company. Once in the city we got off at the Plaza after some confusion of where the Plaza actually was, and went to the address we were given. Someone was supposed to be waiting there for us but of course they were not. We had their WhatsApp number and tried calling several times only to get a busy signal. Our flight to Lima was early the next day and it was imperative for us to be able to get the bags tonight. We messaged through WhatsApp and to our great relief finally got a response from the guy who was going to meet us. We waited about 30 minutes and he finally came and let us in the building where our bags with all our things were. We had not booked a hotel on this night because it was almost midnight and we had to be at the airport by 4am the next morning. We had gotten quite use to crashing at airports. After picking up our bags, we got an Uber to the Cusco airport. We got there only to be turned away at the door as this airport ‘closes’ and we would not be able to get in until 3am. I was so tired I told Brendan we could just wait on the benches outside the airport as it seemed too late and too exhausting trying to find a hotel for only a few hours. He was sensible and pointed out how I was already freezing outside so we needed to find a room. We got on the phone and found a place with “24-hour reception” and made a quick booking. To my dismay, I had to go to the ATM to pull out more cash for the taxi and room (most hotels only take cash here).
We had planned it perfectly; to be out of our Peruvian Sols when we left the country. It cost so much money to exchange currency with all the fees we always tried to leave with nothing to exchange. After the ATM, we got a taxi and went to the hotel with 24-hour reception to check in. The hotel was locked and no one was there. No one in Peru ever seems to have currency change. Our taxi driver could not break our 50 sol bill for the 10 sol ride. I’m not quite sure how you can only take cash and not have change. He impatiently waited as we knocked and continuously rang the doorbell waiting for the 24 hour reception person to let us in. A neighbor noticed we were there with all our stuff trying to get in and attempted to help by yelling up to a room with a light on in the top floor. After his yelling did not work, he found little rocks and started throwing them up at the window. Eventually, a woman came down carrying a crying baby and let us in. We paid for the room with cash but of course she didn’t have change either so she had to go back upstairs to get her wallet to get 10 sols for the taxi driver so he could leave. She said we could pay her back in the morning and that someone would be there with some change. It actually turned out to be a nice little room and we FINALLY made it to a resting place. I looked online to check us in for our flight and was elated to see our flight was delayed in the morning so we could actually get a couple extra hours to sleep. We didn’t have dinner so we rummaged through what was left of our hiking snacks. We had some smashed crackers and shared a Snickers bar before passing out after a very long day.