Machu Pichu!!!

I've been to Machu Pichu. That seems so much more incredible now that I'm writing it down...I knew that would happen. At the time it felt like standing in a ginormous postcard and I didn't really feel like I was there. It really is a beautiful place and its incredible that they could've built a city so high up....like a little world in the sky, amongst the clouds. I wish our guide knew anything atall about the place, but hye didn't say much and he seemed to be making up what he did say.





The whole trek was full of mind-blowing scenery and Machu Pichu was no exception, but honestly, seeing Salkantay knocked me off my feet more. I think it's because there are so many tourists at Machu Pichu and it's a picture you've seen so many times before that the experience feels more unreal, but being at the foot of Salkantay, I was alone and it was quiet and I felt like....not of myself anymore, it was wonderful.

Nevertheless, I've been to MachuPichu and it was beautiful.

When I think of Machu Pichu I'll always think of the funny, odd and wonderful people I was there with. I love my Salkantay buddies!

On the road to Machu Pichu

This little cutey was in what seemed to be the one house in a 'town' called hydro-electric (named after the water treatment plant there). She was very sweet. I gave her some sweets and a pencil with all the times tables on it.


Here she is 2 seconds later sat with the pencil creating a masterpiece.


Walking the tracks to the train. We got the train from Aguas Calientes. It was great to travel for a bit by train and watch the scenery go by. The train has to climb teh mouintain first and in order to do this the track zig-zags up the mountain so for a while the journey feels quite bizarre becasue you go one way for 5 minutes and then you stop and go back the other way for another 5 minutes and so on for half an hour, you feel like you're going nowhere.


I took this picture from the window of the promised land....a hostel in Aguas Calientes (the twon next to MAchu Pichu)....with a real toilet with a door, a hot shower and a bed! All these things seemed so luxurious that day...to be clean and the process of becoming clean became a past-time in itself. We arrived there at the crack of dawn, had breakfast and then started on our way up to Machu Pichu at 1st light.

Down by the riverside

On the 3rd day, we arrived at camp, tired and very dirty. There was a river nearby so we went for a dip. I washed my hair in that river behind me and it was absolutely freezing!!
It was a really fast-flowing river, very clear and very cold.

Down the mountain

The camera is no good at perceiving depth, but these dirt tracks were very steep, very slippy and very close to a very big drop! Another woman that I met recently did the same trek this week and sadly on the third day one of the horses that was carrying the bags slipped on one of these tracks and fell to the river below and died. I can really see how that can happen, we were slipping all over the place and we were scared we'd go over the edge because it was hard to stop yourself once you started slipping.




This photo doesn't really show how beautiful it was there, but it was really idyllic.



This was the scene of our second camp site and a welcome change to the night before, sun-drenched grassy planes framed by mountains with the sound of the river running nearby. Perfect! And to top it off the amazing staff that did everything but wipe our bums for us, had already prepared a vat of peach juice for when we arrived!


We shared our second campsite with a variety of animals, but the chicks and the pigs were my favourites.

They're spooning! Aaaaw!

This is a shot of the hot pools that we visited in the afternoon after we arrived at camp on the 2nd day. Two natural hot-springs that offer the most unexpected pleasure, that in the middle of nowhere (there were no roads till the 4th day of the trek) you might have what feels like a hot bath....heaven. This is the view of the hot springs from the hillside opposite as we left on day three.

Passed Salkantay and beyond

After passing by Salkantay we walked on towards the never-ending horizon. This surely has to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth. The proof of this is that I was silent, I walked for hours on my own not saying a word. It was perfect in its isolation and I disappeared.



This was where we camped the first night. This shot was taken the morning of the second day just as we were about to set off again. We got up in the dark and as you can see the ground was frozen over. I've never been that cold. I looked like a Michelin woman with all my layers on, but still I was frozen through and through. I can well understand how pre-incan and the incan civilisations worshipped the sun, it really feels like its breathing life back into you and the landscape when it rises in the morning.

As we walked on the second day it only took about half an hour to go from desolate mountain-side to lush green valleys, flourescent butterflies and fast-flowing rivers. It's such a varied landscape; mountains, dirt tracks, jungle, valleys, hot-springs...the list goes on....



My poor hat served me well on this trek. Walking in the mid-day sun I never got burnt once becasue of my trusty hat. Unfortunately, the perils of being packed in a back-pack every day were too much for it in the end and when I returned to Cusco it passed away. May it rest in peace x

The mighty Salkantay

This is the might Salkantay Glacier. I have never seen anything so spectacular and dumbfounding in my life. It is magnificent. I sat at the foot of this glacier as big clouds of mist floated by and I couldn't say anything. There were deep rumblings as you could here mini-avalanches, like it was stretching and moaning. I felt very small and very unimportant. It was impossible to take a picture of that scene, but I have some others here that give you some idea.












At the Salkantay pass it is traditional to build a pile of rocks as an offering to the God of Salkantay and make a wish. The bigger the wish, the bigger the pile. The whole place is full of little stone molehills.



I reached the pass after a long, long climb uphill and did the lion pose for Jackie




This is my little pile of stones....I made a wish, but its a secret.

The first day

There ain't no sun getting anywhere near me!

This is where we stopped for lunch on the first day. After a punishing hike uphill for what seemed like 3 hours, but was probably one, we walked over a bump and discovered this scene.....mountains,a small pond, a table, already laid, bowls to wash our hands in and the lunch already waiting for us. Hot soup and then quite an amazing dish with trout stuffed with herbs....I still have no idea how these chefs managed to make such delicious food, so quickly, in the wilderness, incredible! It was so surreal though, I said at the time that it felt like we were in Alice in Wonderland, sat at the mad-hatters tea party.