They only let 400 people climb it, and as I also wanted to see the sun rise at MP, I had to be on the 5:30am bus from Aguas Calientes.
There were already people waiting at 5:15am, but luckily I got on the first bus. The sun had already risen by the time we got there, so I raced with everyone else to the gate where you get a ticket to climb WP. Some guy`s in front of me had got up at 2:30am and run the last part of the Inca trail just to get in the queue!
After an hour`s wait, they started handing out tickets. You could either go straight away, or wait until 10am. I decided to go for the later time, as it was really cloudy at MP, and you could hardly see anything - and one of the people who worked their told me it would clear by 10am.
So I stuck on some music (the MP3 player was on shuffle) and it randomly played some of my favorite tracks while I walked around and got some great photo`s of MP in cloud:
At 9:15 I went to see if I could climb WP - the guy let me through the gate, and the long climb began. Here`s a few samples:
50 minutes later I was at the top, and the views were incredible:
I also decided to do the much longer walk to the Temple Of The Moon, and set off - having climbed down this (much scarier in real life - the vertical drop falls away to the valley floor):
I then came across a 60 foot rotten wooden ladder, and decided to take the much longer route. Again, definitely worth the walk. Here`s a few pics:
Not that many people come here, but when I arrived a got chatting to a couple from Perth, and a Peruvian guy who knew loads about the area. We had a chat for about an hour, sitting out in the sun. Fantastic.After they set off, a couple from New Zealand arrived, and I got chatting with them for a while. I ended up seeing them about five or six times during the day, and had a long chat with them at the hot springs that night.
Having slogged all the way back up the hill - I decided (in a moment of insanity) to walk up to the Sun Gate - which is almost as high again as WP. Definitely worth it though:
On the way down I got chatting to an American guy called Aldon, and we chatted about all sorts of things, including American Politics. I then headed back down the hill - with a definite spring in my step.
It was the best day so far - not only did I enjoy the walking and climbing up the mountains, but I met some great people.
3 comments:
Check this out from the Haworth Web site - silly idiots - I cant remember the last time I experienced any cooperation with the community's of macchu pichu - - well there was that time that Peruvian helped me out painting the fence -
"On Friday 21st October 2005 a ceremony was held to mark the official "twinning" of Haworth in Bronte Country with the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu - high in the Peruvian Andes (!)
Twinning will mean closer cooperation between the communities of Haworth and Machu Pichu - even though they are thousands of miles apart. On face value there might not appear to be much similarity between the two villages, but they are both world famous in their own right and are both significant tourist attractions.
Hey - I know what they have in common...
You have to walk up hill to get anywhere :-)
Does seem a bit odd though...
Having spent a lot of time in local government in Bradford, I can tell you that some councillor (s) probably fancied some paid holidays to that region.
The last time I was at close quarters to a "twinning" certain officials spent an awfull lot of time on extended jolly's to a certain town in Germany. Oh, and I think it coincided with some beer related festival!
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