Machu Picchu andthe sacred valley of the Incas!

Hi everyone! FINALLY have a chance to email! Been a REALLY busy couple of days, but it has been GREAT!!!! Last i emailed we were off to the Sacred Valley of the Incas and to the ancient city of the Incas..Macchu pichu!!! Well, we decided not to do the inca trail due to the fact that we would be sharing it with literally 500 other tourists (literally 500..the government has put a restriction on the amount of people that start the 5day hike each day!)..so we decided to do things a little differently..and we are SOOO glad we did! To start at the beginning..we left cusco early in the morning to a town in the sacred valley called Urubamba..on the way we got great views of snow capped peaks which was really beautiful! From there we took a combi to a town called Ollantaytambo where we went to visit the first of the sacred valley ruins..the Ollantaytambo ruins..really pretty, built into the side of the mountain. It was really interesting to see these HUGE stones at the top which they had apparently carried from 6km away..cant imagine how they did that! A whole lot of the local people were practicing on the ruins for the festival "ollantay raymi" which was taking place the next day, which was interesting to watch! From there we took a 4 hour bus ride to a small town called Santa Maria..the bus ride there was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! The road zigzagged up the side of the mountain until we were almost in line with the start of the snow of a nearby peak..really pretty!!!! The road then went right over the top, but as we were going down, we ran into a litttle bit of trouble..a truck had taken the corner too sharp on its way up and was leaning on its side, so our bus couldnt get passed! So we waited around for awhile (in the middle of NOWHERE!) until the bus eventually managed to squeeze passed and we were on our way again! It set us back an hour, but in return we got a view of a AWESOME bloodred sunset over the andes..even the locals were amazed by it..we could hear the words " el sol rojo!"..the red sun ..all over the bus! It WAS SO PRETTY..lit up the whole valley.We are sending a picture of it!!! We eventually arrived at a tiny town called santa maria where we spent the night..we luckily found a hostal after the tourist office in cusco told us that there might not be one!!!And it was only 15 soles (R30!!) for both of us for the night!! Crazy!!! We then left EARLY the next morning (3am!) to catch the 2hr combi to Santa theresa where we were luckily (we thought we were going to have eat chocolates for breakfast!) offered breakfast by a lady whose restaurant was a well-kitted out corrugated iron room!!! (fried egg and onion rolls!). We then set off on our 7 hr hike to the town of aguas calientes (hot waters) at the base of macchu picchu. The first part of the hike was pretty interesting..we had to cross a wooden bridge to get across the river. and then we had to cross back across the river with the aid of a zipline!! The locals use it to get across..a metal and wood big "basket" which we sat in..backpacks and all!!! We then followed the road which followed the river which winded through this deep valley..was like hiking through a bigger version of the drakensburg..SOOO pretty, waterfalls etc! We came around the one corner and were faced woth a HUGE snow capped mountain.....WOOOWWWW! The road eventually ended and we had to follow the railway which came around the back of macchu pichu (we could see the back of it at the top of the mountain) and after hiking over 20kms we eventually ended up at the town of aguas calientes! You see, there is no road to the town..only a train which is SOOO expensive!!!! So there are no cars on the roads, only a few buses for carrying tourists (still dont know how they got there!!! Funny!!) It is in a beautiful setting surrounded by huge mountains, but is such an expensive town cos it THRIVES with the tourists around!! We walked aorund town for a while looking at the stalls and shops (yes, we walked MORE that afternooon!) and the next morning headed off early for the hike up the mountain to macchu pichu (4am!!). there is a LOONNNGGG staircase that goes up to the site, but we didnt expect that it would be LOADED with gringos at that time of the morning, but IT WAS, so, as a more peaceful option, we decided to walk up the road instead. We got to machu picchu just after the sun had risen and were lucky enough to be able to walk around in peace before the hoards of tourists arrived from the inca trail and the tour buses later that morning. The view was BEAUTIFUL..u could see for miles ..we could see down into the valley where we had walked the day before and we could see a few snowcapped peaks around. The ruins themselves were pretty interesting..there were loads of agricultural terraces, an "astronomical observatory" which is built a little higher than everything else, LOADS of steps everywhere, a sun temple, irrigation systems, cermonial centres, a carved stone condor, a cemetary etc ..but it was really tiring walking around cos there are SO many steps! There are about 200 buildings altogether made of perfectly carved big granite stones. They say the site may have been used as a religious retreat and was mostly inhabited by women, children and priests...about 1200 people altogether. It was built in about 1460AD and was only discovered in 1911..it was not destroyed by the spaniards cos they didnt find it which is why it is such an important site in inca history.They also had some llamas walking around which really added to the whole scene! There were also some archaeologists there walking around with a metal detector over one of the patches of grass!We decided to do the climb up to Wayna picchu which is the pointed mountain u can see in the photos behind machu picchu..and what a climb it was!!!! They had a sign as the walk started that said "only for the fit and healthy"!!! It took us just under an hour so we were pretty proud of ourselves..but as we were nearing the top, this granny of probably 70 or 75 years old was on her way down!!!! So we didnt feel so proud after all!!! We wanted to ask her what her secret was!!!! Anyway, the view from up there was AMAZING, probably one of the best views i have seen and will ever see in my life..there were a whole lot of more ruins too which we couldnt believe had been built so high up..!!! We sat on a rock right at the top and sat for a while taking in the view..until we were sharing our spot with about 30 other gringos, so we started our way down!! We decided to go and visit the sungate called Intipunku which is the last site on the inca trail before it comes into macchu picchu, but it wasnt that great..the only reason we were glad we went to visit it was because as we were sitting admiring the view..a Coati mundi (racoon like creature) came out of the bushes!!!!!! And we even managed to get a photo!!!!!Rich also managed to see and Inca wren there too (how ironic..and inca wren at machu picchu!!). We ended up spending the whole day there just wodering around, doing the hikes etc, and eventually set off back down the hill to town at about 4pm. We unfortunately made the mistake of not bringing enough water for the day and had to buy some from the shop up at machu pìcchu..at R22 for 2 and a half litres!!!!! EVERYTHING was SOOO expensive there cos its so isolated..i mean, even for food..the usual 3 course meal which rich and i buy for dinner is like 6 soles (R12) in the rest of peru, but 12 soles in aguas calientes..its a "menu turistica" which is basically a soup, main meal of either spagetti, meat (chicken, beef, alpaca, pork ribs etc) and chips and rice and salad, pizza, or something else traditional and a dessert which is like platano con miel (savoury banana with honey). The money exchange places also tried to rip us off my giving us 9c less than the usual rate (and wouldnt accept some of our US$ bills cos they said they were OLD!), and of course, the souvenir prices were RIDICULOUS!We even had to walk around a while to find a decent priced hostal! The bus was even charging $12 each just to get up the mountain to machu picchu (10 min drive)..for that price u usually get a 12 hour bus journey somewhere! The people in the town also werent that friendly which was surprising..they have promoters bothering u outside every hostal, shop and restaurant which becomes SOOO irritating cos they NEVER recognise that they have asked u before..even if ur walking passed for the 4th time in 10 minutes!!! We managed to get a restaurant down to 8 soles for one of our meals..and in return, for dessert they gave us a quarter of a pancake!!! A quarter!!! U should have seen richs face!!!! What they did with the other 3 quarters i will NEVER know!And then they still would not give us our correct change cos they said some money was for "service"!! Rich also almost got into a fight (in spanish!) with the guy selling the entrance tickets to machu picchu cos we sat down and waited for him to finish what he was doing so we could ask for our tickets and he looked up and said "do u want tickets or what, im busy!"..! So we were happy in a way to leave town!! We decided not to do the walk back the way we came through santa maria, but rather took the train (2 hrs) back to Ollantaytambo the next day..we managed to find a "backpacker train" which was only charging $20 one way instead of $66, so we took it, eventhough we AGAIN had to get up at the crack of dawn (4.30am) to catch it! It was quite a pretty ride, watching the sun come up over the mountains..we arrived in ollantaytambo at about 6am, caught a bus to urubamba and then to the town of Pisac where we visited the pisac ruins in the sacred valley..they were quite impressive..they covered a huge area with agricultural terraces etc and then we caught a collectivo taxi to catch the bus back to cusco. We dropped our bags off at the hostal and then it was off to visit the tambomachay ruins, puca pucara, Qenqo and Sacsayhuaman (say "sexy woman"!) ruins just outside cusco. Of the four of them, sacsayhuaman was definitely the best..they say it was an old fortress used to defend against the spaniards or was used as a religious centre..huge stone block walls parallel to eachother zigzagging for over 400m where the HUGE stone blocks have been fitted together perfectly so that u cannot even fit a knife blade inbetween them! We then headed back to town and ended off our trip with a "menu turistica" and some coca tea at one of our favorite restaurants here in cusco (mainly just because it has a fireplace!!!). We were DEAD tired after all the walking (think we must have walked the comrades in 3 days!!) but it was a great to experience and learn a little about the inca culture.We have bought a book "the conquest of the incas" by john hemmingway which gives a great account of the defeat of the incas by the spaniards and their way of life, also gives a bit about the sites around cusco so we can learn more about them. Well, today we set off on a LOOOOOOO NNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG 28 hr bus journey to the town of Puerto maldonado back in the amazon jungle. We are lucky, i suppose, that it is only 28 hrs, cos they say in the wet season it is about 40 hours!!!!! Crazy! We are going to work as guides again at a lodge called Wasai lodge on the tambopata river..the lodge is 4 hrs upriver by motorised canoe from puertoo maldonado. Dont know when we will get a chance to email again..we dont get a vacation there (we were spoilt at sacha!)..only one day off a week. We are going to be training for 15 days and then we wil probably only work there for another 2 months and then its off to Chile and hopefully Argentina and Brazil if we have enough money! We are hopefully going to see freshwater dolphins, giant otters, tapirs, jaguars (and hopefully some other cats!) and kapybaras, and also save up a bit of money for the next part of the continent now!!!!!!! Hope u guys all liked the photos we sent, we unfortunately couldnt take many photos of the ruins as i very cleverly forgot the battery charger in our bag at the hostal in cusco!!! Very clever, i know!Anyway, hope u like the ones we did manage to get!!! Sounds like everyone is doing well from the emails i have been getting which is great!Wish us luck with the bus journey, keep smiling! Lots of love, us!