Cusco and Machu Picchu

So we arrived in Cusco, our most developed location of the trip so far, and headed straight to find somewhere for breakfast after a long overnight bus arriving at 6am.  We found an Irish/English pub called Nortons Rats, and had a full English- well Peruvian style.  Then we headed next door to Starbucks for a good coffee- so cultural of us.  We later checked into our hostel, booked up all our tickets for Machu Picchu which involved lots of running around the city and queuing.  We also visted a couple of art museums and the really interesting Chocolate Museum!  The day after we took a taxi to Ollantaytambo to connect to our train, Peru Rail.  It was quite a posh train with airplane style safety instructions, windows in the ceiling to get a panoramic view of the scenery and a snack and hot drink, we all got a little too excited but it was a nice ride to Aguas Calientes- gateway to Machu Picchu.  The day after we hiked up from Aguas Calientes in the pouring rain and at a humidity of 85%. We made it in just over an hour to start exploring Machu Picchu for the day- it was just incredible! Hopefully my photos will do some justice.  After khiking back down to Aguas Calientes, which was actually more technical, we went out to a posh restaurant to celebrate Karen´s birthday then early to bed ready to hike Huayna Picchu the next day.

Huayna Picchu is the taller mountain which overlooks Machu Picchu.  The climb was interesting.  The usual Incan steps made an appearance aswell as ropes we had to pull ourselves up, and caves filled with water we had to climb/crawl through.  But it was all worth it, sitting on the precariously pearched rocks at the top, we waited a long time for the mist to clear to get some very brief glimpses of Machu Picchu.  It felt like we were on top of the world!!!  The climb down was pretty scary, with staircases which seemed to go straight into the clouds, and with the rain it was pretty slippery- but we made it!!!  Showering at the hostel, going out for 4x1 happy hour and some food, we said goodbye to Aguas Calientes- the mystical little town covered by mist with the constant roar of the river running through.  Catching the train back to Ollantaytambo we stayed overnight before exploring the Incan ruins in Ollantaytambo, before heading back to Cusco a couple more days!  Cusco and Arequipa will make up my next blog when I have time :)