mudslides, cliff driving and a sleepless journey to MachuPicchu!

I guess our journey for Machu Picchu began when we landed in Cusco, but we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We started by visiting a few of the many travel companies centered around Machu Picchu. It is hard to walk anywhere in Cusco without being constantly harrassed by someone attempting to sell you everything from ciggarettes to messages to 5 day adventure tours ending with Machu Picchu. We went into a couple of places to check on prices and quickly realized that it was going to cost us much more than we had planned in order to visit one of the wonders of the world. After spending money on plane tickets, we were not in the mood to spend hundreds of dollars to get to the ancient Incan site. The main way people visit the landmark is an hour or so cab/bus ride to a nearby city. From there you take an hour and a half train to the town of Aguas Calientes. The train ticket cost around 50 dollars. Most people spend the night in overpriced hotels and in the morning take a bus up the mountain. The entrance alone is around 40 dollars. Machu Picchu was one of the things we both wanted to visit before arriving in South America but we did not realize just how expensive the trek was going to cost us.

We asked around and was eventually were told about the back way to travel to Machu Picchu. We had planned on leaving in the morning, traveling all day to Aguas Calientes and getting the cheapest place to spend the night. We would visit the mountain top site in the morning and then head back to Cusco.

Wednesday morning we were hiking up to an old battle site near our hostel when we ran into two girls traveling from France. They told us they were planning on doing the same thing, but they were leaving that evening at 3. We decided we would attempt the same in hopes of visiting on Thursday. This way we would not have to spend the night in the neighboring town.

We made our way to the bus terminal and bought our tickets for 15 soles(about 4 bucks) even though we were told it was only 10 soles until time to pay up. haha. We made arrangements to leave our big backpacks at the hostel in Cusco and got back to the bus station about 230. Better safe than sorry right?... We should have not been in any hurry to get back to the terminal because our bus driver ended up being 2 hours late and we did not end up leaving until 5 that evening. I did not feel great about the trip because I was afraid that we would not enjoy the trip as much if did not get any sleep, but we went for it anyway. The driver stalled out in the middle of the road as soon as we pulled out and blocked traffic. This was a feeling of relief after the late start haha.

I attempted to get a little sleep early in the trip and apparently the bus was held up a while by a large flock of goats, but Ben could be lying to me about this. ha. About 3 hours into the trip the bus suddenly stops on the side of the road and I imagine that the bus has broken down, was out of gas or worse, we were getting stopped by a group of men who were going to rob of us. haha. All the guys on the bus began getting on and off the bus and eventually we realized there had been a massive mudslide up ahead and guys were attemting to move the large rocks out of the way and dig enough of a path out for cars and busses to pass. It was a very intense thing to witness in person, especially when you could hear the mountain above. Maybe it was my imagination, but I was just waiting for more to fall and possibly hurt people. Bad news... Luckily after about an hour or so cars were beginning to make their way over the mud and on their way to their destination. Men cheered everytime a pass was successful. Our bus was the first to try to cross the muddy path between the large rocks that had fallen. There were about 30 guys throwing small rocks into the mud for tire traction while others attampted to move the larger rocks.

Our driver eventually lined up the bus into possition and went for it. we got about halfway before he slammed on the breaks and the bus rocked back and forth a little bit. I would like to think everyone on the bus was as nervous/excited as I was, but I am not sure if that is the case. One of the great things about South America is that everyone is a backseat driver. Everyone attempts to help the driver out by yelling driving suggestions at him. Multiple men outside watching yelled at the driver to go left, right, faster, slower and who knows what else. The driver backed out and went for it again... another failed attempt. This continued about 4 or 5 times until he finally got the bus through the scary obstacle course. Everyone cheered as we made it through and Ben stuck his head out the window to celebrate and cheer with the workers.

We were finally on the road again and Ben and I attempted to get a little more sleep on the windy Andian mountain roads. We slept for a couple of hours when we were awoken by a stop in a warmer climate. The surroundings had totally changed in the few hours of travel. At this point it was after 12 and we were not even sure when we needed to get off. We were hoping that one of the employees would let us know when we arrived in the town of Santa Maria. This did not happèn, but luckily we were sort of awake when the bus arrived in the town and we knocked on the door to let the driver know this was our stop. It was about 1am when we got off the bus in the empty town.(i should probably say in the empty street, because thats all it was ha)

We get off the bus and looked around a little bit and walked toward the only building with lights on. There was some sort of traffic officer/police officer there and we asked him if we were in the right place and what we needed to do about Machu Picchu. We didnt really know what he said back to us but he did not seem to be suprised that we were there so that was a relief. We knew that we needed to catch a bus about 4 in the morning and he told us just to wait around. We walked around a bit until we finally had a seat in the grass to the side of the building he was working in. Seemed to be the safest place at the time. About 15 or so minutes later a bus came through town and the french girls got off. They did not see us and walked toward the same building that we had just left. They spoke to the officer and he probably told them what he told us. They came back and told us that we could sleep in these vans that were sitting in an empty parking lot. I walked over to look into them and noticed there were 5 or 6 people sleeping in one of the vans.

We were sort of scared, but eventually one of the french girls pulled open the door to another van and we climbed in. It seemed safer than just hanging out beside the road. We all went to sleep till about 4 in the morning. Ben and I heard a bus coming through and before we knew it we realized that all the people sleeping in the other bus was jumping on the bus. We had missed our opportunity! We looked around and noticed that there were a few people awake in the town and a local store was open. There were  a few taxi drivers awake and they said they would take us to the next town for ten soles each. about 3 dollars for an hour and a half ride. We did not know when another bus would come through so about 5 a.m. we hit the road for Santa Teresa.

The taxi ride started out fine, but we were soon on a small dirt road in the middle of nowhere. I am assuming it was a short cut that busses cannot take, but I think I will stick to the bus next time, even if it is a longer ride. We quickly climbed up the side of the mountain and continued to ride around sharp curves with a drop to the left that seemed like it was atleast a million feet, maybe more... We drove through creeks coming off the mountain and eventually were stopped by a flat tire. This was no suprise considering the road we were driving on. It was like 4x4 offroading, except in a little taxi.

Around 7 a.m. (i think) we arrived in the town of Santa Teresa. There was a small cambi/mini van loading up for Hydro Electrico(sp?) when we were dropped off, but we decided we would eat a little breakfast before venturing off. We ate a couple of egg sandwiches and drank some sort of juice that was warm but pretty good. After eating breakfast we tried to get a ride to Hydro Electrico but were told that no cars could get through because of another mudslide. We found out the walk was only about 2 hours so we took off.

The view from the city looked like a scene from a Andean jungle documentary or from a postcard. I pulled out my camera and took about 20 pictures i think. We walked down some steep steps and ventured across the river on a newer looking bridge. We passed a school on our left that was only reached by a walking path. It was a nice way to start our journey on our cheaper Incan trail. We walked by the mudslide early in our hike and it looked like they almost had the road cleared. There was enough room for cars and trucks to get through. We hitched a ride for about a mile with a truck that was delivering orange juice to a near by mine. not sure what they were mining, but it looked pretty sketchy. We thanked the guys for the ride and continued to walk, eventually passing some amazing waterfalls. We took some pictures and continued to walk and walk and walk somemore.

After about 2 hours we made it to Hydro Electrico. I am not really sure what is there, i assume a there is some sort of dam or turbines for electricity but all we saw wasa police? station we had to check in at to pass on to Aguas Calientes. From there we were told it was another 2 hour hike along train tracks. We were pretty exhausted at this point in the hike but we were determined to make it to Machu Picchu that day. We had already left the French girls in our dust. Sorry ladies, it was nice knowing you. After 2 to 3 hours of walking we finally made it to the town of Aguas Calientes. There was nothing there, but overpriced hotels and restaurants. It reminded me of any vacation spot in the United States. No one actually lives in the town, everyone just comes in to work.

We bought a train ticket back because we could not handle another 5 hours of walking that day and caught a ride up the mountain for the great Machu Picchu. The round trip bus ride cost $14 dollars!!! This was rough considering we had been paying about $4 a night for our hostel in Cusco, but we just could not hangle another hour and a half of walking.

We had finally made it to Machu Picchu, one of the "new 7 wonders of the world". Not sure who decides on that list, but I will take it. Despite the fact that we were completely exhausted and the backs of Ben´s feet were bleeding from the walk, Machu Picchu was everything the flyers make it out to be. It is much larger than i had expected and the location is unbelievable. It is hard to imagine how it was even found in the early 1900´s. I imagine that without the help of locals it may still be undiscovered. The bus ride alone up the mountain was impressive and pictures just don´t do it justice. It felt like i was sitting on top of the world up there and attempting to walk up all those steps made it feel even higher. haha. i was struggling.

After taking 10000000 pictures and walking around for hours we decided we would head back down the mountain and wait for the train. We were so tired at this point the train ride was a blur. We were on the backpackers train though, the cheapest of the group. It was interesting to see some of the people riding with us. Backpackers are weird, dang hippies! The train ride was about an hour and half. then we caught a taxi with a traveling couple from somewhere in South America. We were so tired that conversation was non existent at that point. Our taxi driver kept picking up people on the way and having them sit in the back of his station wagon. It was not too interesting despite the fact that it made the ride back to Cusco longer, but the guy sitting between Ben and I kept getting really mad and screaming at all the people that were sitting in the back of the car. Apparently they were sitting on his bag and jacket. Instead of simply holding his bag in his lap he just yelled at everyone that sat in the back. I have no idea what was said, but I did recognize a few bad words and thought there was going to be a fight at times.

We finally made it back to Cusco and crashed for the next 12 or so hours. Woke up, explored and then went to a few clubs that night. Cusco was a good time even though it hurt our pockets a little bit. Now we are back in Lima and leaving for Trujillo in the morning i think. Another day, another story.

I apologize as normal for the horrible grammar and spelling.