Machu Picchu

This is a joint blog from me and flo (me in blue and flo in purple!) Photos to follow when uploaded!

Yesterday we caught the train from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes (aka Machu Picchu Village) at 7 in the morning - ouch! We got here at about midday and quickly found that this was actually a bigger place than we had thought with a load of restaurants and hotels - really geared up to the tourists!

We went about trying to meet up with Lars and Courtie but failed, we watched a huge procession in the street and some interesting dancing (jesus based atire was fetching) and then found ourselves a hostel and settled in. We went out for amazing food last night at a place run by a frenchy and bought our tickets for the bus to machu picchu and got san early night ready for the ten to 5 alarm!

Yeah, that hurt in the morning, but we made it to the bus waiting area well in time for the first bus at half 5 leaving for Machu Picchu. The bus ride up was full and pretty unspectacular given that it was dark and all! I'm sure it would have been more impressive by daylight. Anyway we arrived at the top of the hill and through the ticket office and up to the highest point of Machu Picchu to see the spectacular view of.... fuck all. The whole site was blanketed by clouds.

We sat and waited for about an hour for the clouds to clear in which time we amused ourselves with patience (the card game - well we staged a photo of it anyway). Suddenly the clouds began to clear and all around us were amazing views (may not have made it to full amazing status yet but at least were getting there!)! having the attention span of a 5 year old and being a bit of a history geek (flo is playing the history geek card here but when i was lurking to hear what the guides of other groups were saying she was moaning to move on! child.) (That would be the whole attention span thing already mentioned not a lack of interest per say in my little Incary friends) I was very excited by the huge historical playground and just wanted to run around like a big kid. We walked through living areas, temples, prisons, sacred rocks and work shops, and eventually headed for what we thought was the temple of the moon, but in fact turned out just to be an amazingly steep walk with an amazing view. (The sacred rock was an interesting one as some people took it´s sacred and healing powers very seriously and Nick took the piss a little to loudly) (Yet justifiably so!)

We did a good amount of sitting at the top of the hill and it was amazing to see the whole site slowly appear from behind the clouds as the photos will show. And there are lots of photos. We finally decided that it was about time we scrambled down from the top of the hill and check out the rest of the area, actually getting to hear about some of the items from the guides that others had paid for (chumps).

We spent about 5 hours at the site in the end before heading back to Aquas Calientes. The site really didn´t disappoint (as the video will show). To be honest the pictures should really speak for themselves so I think I am going to leave it at that. I know I know no blog for ages and then 3 at ones, we treat you so well! xxx