Corbridge Family Blog: Machu Picchu, A WOW kind of day!

We had a great day at Machu Picchu.

We arrived in Aguas Calientes, the town closest to Machu Picchu, the night before in the rain. We promptly got lost looking for our hotel, but it wasn't all bad because we ended up right where we needed to be to buy tickets to MP. We then found someone to help us find the hotel, which was on the other side of town where we had gotten off the train. We had planned on hiking up to MP since we abandoned our original plan to hike the Inca Trail, but the rain changed my mind and we bought bus tickets for $90. The rain stopped and we went to bed early so we could get up early the next day. Only problem is kids started playing soccer at 10:00 in the alley/sidewalk right outside our window. We could feel and hear the ball against the wall and they were having a great time laughing and cheering. This went on for about two hours! So much for getting to bed early.

The alarm went off at 4:30 so we could get dressed, eat and be at the bus by 5:30. We decided since it is almost as expensive as Disneyland that we were going to make the day of it. As we rode the bus in the dark I was glad we were not hiking. We entered MP just a few minutes after 6 and started out with a guide for 3 hours and we are glad we did because he really explained things well to us. Then we hiked MP mountain. It was a pretty steep hike with lots of rock stairs of varying heights. Jenna and I did it in 1 hour 29 minutes with the others a little faster. We got up top to see MP in the clouds. Yep, some clouds had moved in and we couldn't even see MP! But it was gorgeous anyway. The mountains are different than Utah mountains and it was amazing to be on this high peak bit still surrounded with even higher mountains on all sides. The mountains were in varying states of cloud cover. I took some photos but they never quite capture the
magnificence. Then just as we were ready to descend the mountain the clouds moved and we could briefly see MP. Very cool.

We spent some time just sitting (or recovering) after the hike while watching the lamas and just soaking in the whole place. After that we walked around again and took more photos. By the time we left we had spent 8 1/2 hours there. Weather was perfect. It started a bit cool in the morning but by the afternoon we were all getting a bit sunburned! Such an incredible day.

We stayed in the same hotel again and guess what happened at 10? Yep, more alley soccer! Then at 5:30 I heard people leaving the hotel and I also heard rain. Lots of rain. I was so glad we had not had to deal with rain. Somehow we lucked out and had a near perfect day at Machu Picchu! Wow, what a great day!