High up Incas

A smoking mountain in the morning
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The much awaited trip up to Machu Pichu finally took place and we did it NEARLY as cheaply as possible.  Although this was more due to the rubbish way you have to buy tickets than any explicit cheapskateity.  So on our second visit to the ticket office we managed to procure 2 tickets on the backpacker nightime train, which has a convenientish price and some inconvenient times.  Although we survived getting up at 4:30 this morning, so it can´t have been too bad.

We stayed in a nice enough place whos name escapes me in the French ski resort style town of Aguas Calientes, and then got up early to catch the bus up to the ruins.  Although had to rush to buy an entry ticket, for some reason not available at the ruins themselves, and we only realised just before stepping on the bus.  And the tickets are now crazy expensive, apparently they will go up more soon, but at the moment 20pounds seems like a lot.  And you even have to pay for the toilet when you get there.

Alex fell asleep...dreaming our ruins and llamas

What else to do at one of the new 7 wonders than play cards
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Our early start was designed so that we could miss the crowds in the morning, but I think this is impossible, as it was absolutely heaving when we arrived at just before 7.  It was much nicer later in the day, when most people seemed to have gone home.

As you can see from the photos it was a bit cloudy to start with.  Alex was awake most of the night worrying because it had started to rain (for the first time since we left the monkeys) and she was nearly right to worry but in the end it was quite nice and spooky to start with, and the sun came out just after lunch to improve the photos, speaking of which, Alex and I took 104 photos yesterday, which makes it our official best day of the trip (running El Calafate (93ish)) into second place.

Another trapeziod window, this time with a boy in it
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As we were way too badly organised to do the Inca Trail PROPER we decided we could probably muster the energy to walk up the sacred mountain of Huanai Picchu (or some such spelling).  Only 400 people are allowed up a day, but thanks to some kind of ticketing mistake they let us up too, and for the first time since we´ve been at altitude we felt quite fit as we walked up the mountain without stopping for breath too much.  Although Alex´s toes hurt now, so maybe we went a bit fast.

Alex in her pyjamas
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Machu Picchu is an amazing site, and probably deserving of being voted as one of the worlds NEW 7 WONDERS (TM).  There are lots and lots of people up there every day, but other than the nice Italian man who called me ´very stupid´ every time he saw me after I walked in front of his video camera (he was filming a narrow doorway on one of the main paths around the site), most people seemed pleased to be there, and there was quite a relaxed atmosphere.

Further to our doing Machu Picchu on the cheap we walked back down into town (about 400m down over 3 or 4 kms) saving ourselves a bit 3pounds each on the bus.  Which we were going to spend on tea, but Alex fell asleep after our visit to the murky hot springs at the top end of town, dreaming of ruins and llamas.