CLUB . . . You're wrong and you don't even know it !

Yesterday was an exciting day visiting [Machu Pichu], the stronghold of the Incas.

It started pretty early at around 8:30 when I had to get up to have breakfast - some horrible Peruvian bread, hot cross buns, cheese and some ham which tasted pretty normal.

The hotel had managed to get me some tickets to Machu Pichu returning to [Ollayantaytambo] rather than [Cusco] though because there were no seats left on the Ollyantaytambo - Cusco section of the journey. No problem, I could either stay another night in Ollyantaytambo or catch the same buses as I had come on back to Cusco.

The train ride was quite spectacular, the track runs beside the [Urumbamba River] which is the same river skirting Machu Pichu. It is quite a big river and very fast flowing with lots of rapids. I am going rafting on this river tomorrow. On each side of the valley are huge steep hills with some fantastic snow clad mountains and glaciers just behind them.

The train arrives in a place called Agua Caliente which even I know by now means hot water, alledgely there are some luke warm springs here somewhere but I couldn't find them anywhere. To get to Machu Pichu from Agua Caliente you can either a) walk for 1 and a half hours up a dusty windy road avoiding coaches or b) catch the bus. Being as it was already 12pm by now and I don't like walking much, especially upwards I decided to catch the bus.

Whilst waiting to get a ticket for the bus it occured to me to check how much money I actually had, I had been assuming I had plenty until I began to add up what I had been spending since Cusco. As it turned out I had about 130 soles and no chance of getting any more until I reached Cusco again. The bus ticket was 30 soles so I was hoping that Machu Pichu did not cost too much to get in to otherwise things would start to go horribly wrong.

The bus goes up a very steep winding road dodging other buses coming down for about 20 mins, you can see the railway station disappearing below you and towards the top can see some brick work and walls of Machu Pichu.

At the top there are 100's of people milling about and tour operators calling out names trying to marshall the people in their groups, looking at the admission prices I saw that it was going to cost me 80 soles to get into Machu Pichu which only left me 20 soles to get back to Cusco, or not, with. Most hostels cost between 15 and 30 soles and meals can cost between 10 and 20 soles. I decided that I would worry about getting back to Cusco later and just go in.

Having taken a few of the postcard pictures from the entrance - views over Machu Pichu to Huyanopichu ( the big green mountain rising above the town ) I decided I might as well climb to the highest point first and then spend the rest of the day going down, unlike what a lot of the tour groups seemed to be doing. This turned out to be a good idea because after spending 30mins climbing up lots of steep staircases and terraces I found a really nice [Nice Terrace|vantage point] far away from the nearest where I could sit down and take some good photos of the whole town.

I spent a while sunbathing there before going into the actual town, without any guide book or guide to tell me what was what it all looked like a lot of [Inca Houses|houses] without roofs and crumbling walls to me. I photographed everything so when I have the chance and can find a reasonably priced guide book I can work out what everything was.

In the middle is a kind of pyramid, kind of, called the [Temple Of The Sun] with a large weirdly shaped stone block in the centre of it. At this point it was impossible to avoid [Tour Groups], as soon as one left another would arrive. The guides seemed to be getting [Silly Tourists|everyone] to hold hands around the stone and then hover their arms over it. Goodness knows why. I had some fun here taking photos of people doing this in an attempt to embarrass some of them into a realisation of what they were doing. I think in 1 or 2 cases I may have had some sucess. People certainly looked a bit uncomfortable anyway.

Shortly after that I got bored of the buildings, the view of the surrounding mountains is much better and went pretty quickly through the rest of it.

Back in Agua Calientes there is a kind of shooting gallery of stalls and shops between the bus stop and the station where the locals attempt to suck as much cash from the tourists as possible. I had got back about 2 hours before the train was due to leave planning to look around Agua Calientes a bit.

Being as I had so little money I couldn't really afford to get anything to eat and therefore sit down anywhere so I spent an hour looking at the town which involved walking for miles up the main street which is a really steep hill in the vain hope their may be a bank or something somewhere on it. There wasn't so I walked back down again. The rest of the town is huge building site with nothing really to see at all so I just went back to the station and sat around there for a while until the train came.

On the train I was trying to remember what time the small buses stopped running to Urubamba and then Cusco, these only cost 5soles all the way back to Cusco so I could get on these and have something to eat. I suspected though they may stop running from Urubamba a while before I got their and I didn't fancy being stranded at a bus station with no guide book in some strange town. The alternatives were to either spend all my money on a hostel and starve for the night or pay loads more money and book in to the only hotel in the place which took VISA which didn't seem like a very good idea. The other problem with staying in Ollyantaytambo was that it was Easter Sunday the next day I wasn't sure the little buses would be running and I certainly could not afford to spend two days there or afford any other way of getting back to Cusco.

As it turned out the small buses had stopped running but there were millions of taxi drivers offering rides back to Cusco, after a while of milling around aimlessly I caught a taxi with 2 brazilian's for 10 soles which was quite exciting and very cheap considering 10 soles is about 2pounds and it's a 90Km journey. During the taxi ride I spoke a little to the brazilian who spoke a bit of English but mainly watched a huge thunder storm ( which is carrying on today as well ) whilst the brazilians and the taxi driver jabbered away in Spanish. Suprisingly I was able to understand the gist of a lot of what was said; Lima is more expensive than Cusco, the taxi driver has family in many Peruvian cities, Pisac is full or american tourists. Sadly I could not actually string any sentances together myself.

Back at the Hostel in Cusco it was around 10pm and I was so tired I just went straight to sleep. Today I got up pretty late and am just looking for somewhere to have breakfast / dinner because I am pretty starving now. There have been a lot of fireworks and bell ringing today which I guess is because it is Easter Sunday.