Having only arranged this trip the night before I was a little bit nervous that it wouldn't be all that I hoped it would be, especially as lots of the hostel mob had been swapping travel agent horror stories the night before and I was beginning to think that I should have just bought the train and bus tickets myself rather than relying on an agent.
The cost for the return train tickets, guide and entrance fee was PES 570, which is expensive anyway you look at it, but especially if you consider that this is Peru and you can get a good meal and a drink for only about PES 10.
My tour rep was meant to knock for me at just gone six so by half past I was pacing back and forth in reception and was seconds away from getting a cab myself to the train station when he knocked for me, and luckily he chose that we should get a cab and he picked up the cost, though it was only about PES 7 so it wasn't any big deal hunk of change.
The station itself was a mess of locals and tourists all trying to get tickets and I was so glad that I had remembered to take my passport with me, as for some reason they insisted that all us tourists show our passports as we entered the train, not that they were actually taking and notes or records of who was going where. I ended up sharing a carriage with a middle aged German couple ( at least I think they were German ) and a cool ex services biked American who he and I seemed to share a lot in common, not least our views of travelling and what to do when you get there.
Perurails train to Ollyantambo was a real experience, as I had never been on a train that made several switchbacks before, and we had barely been going more than five minutes when the train slowed and stopped for the first time. Further up the carriage a french tour guide stood up and made a joke that the trip to Manchu Picchu had been cancelled, which did nothing to calm my nerves, but then he started to laugh as we began again going back in the other direction but still climbing up.
All in all the train must have zigzagged about five times, each time going higher up the side of the mountain, before it finally reached an altitude where it could go up and over the crest of the hill and then on to run normally for a further hour or so. It was typical of my bad timing that I was just saying to my new American chum that I loved Cusco because it was so quiet when the train started blaring out it horn and it must have got stuck, as it honked on and off for the next hour.
I had not really checked into the geographical location of Manchu Picchu, and so it was a bit of a surprise to me when the train ran started to head into deepest dark rain forest, where the chance of rain is 75% during the dry season and 95% during the wet season. I am not sure if we were going to a lost Incan city, or trying to find Paddington Bears distant relatives, but wherever we were going it was wet and green and filled with strange weird plants that I had never seen before.
After a pause to let on more passengers at a midway town we finally got to Agua Calientes, which is the end of the train line in this direction, after about four hours and the rain was falling cold and heavy. However the rain did not prevent the locals sellers form being out in force, and one of the bargain buys of the whole trip so far was a plastic sheet waterproof poncho, for a mere PES 5, which meant that I did not have to get drenched while waiting for the fog to life, instead I just had to look like a purple telly tubby.
Following the train ride we caught a bus that snaked and slid its way up the side of the mountain, and it would have felt more mystical had the bus not been air conditioned and also had they not been blaring out some weird music through the stereo.
Once the bus ride was over we all got out and were a bit dissapointed when there was a thick fog bank covering all of the site and I was dreading the fact that I had come all this way not to be able to see anything.
It was our guides birthday today and so when he while he was giving us the brief of the area and the background history on its rediscovery we all sang him a bizarre multinational happy birthday celebration, al personally I think that a few more of us should have asked what his name was beforehand! The funniest part was that the fog was being blown by the winds and so every time it lifted enough to take a half decent photo everyone rushed to the side of the mountain and ignore the guide and then as soon as the fog dropped again we all sighed and then went back to the guide, who was patient enough and did not seem to mind in the slightest.
After about ten minutes the rain stopped and so we all removed out costumes and before too much longer we were blessed with glorious sunshine and some of the best views of the mountain you could possibly dream for. It was no surprise that the Spanish did not find the place as it was so very high up the mountain, the tracks were very well hidden and the fog was so thick that you could not see more than about fifteen feet infront of your face, so for their untrained soldiers to spot this high mountain top city without a definite set of directions would have been almost impossible.
When it was found, Manchu Picchu had been deserted for about 400 years and was heavily overgrown with weeds and trees, and their root system had damaged a number of the buildings, so to the Pervuians did their best to fix up the area to its former glory, however without the know how or experience of the ancient Incas you can tell a mile away which bits are the orginal walls and which have been renovated for tourists.
I would say that for the next three hours we walked, took photos, went "wooow". admired the views and respected anew the fearlessness of the ancient Incas for living and working in such a dangerous place,until it was time for us all to consider coming back or staying the night in nearby Agua Calientes.
The sights and buildings were every bit as impressive as I had seen on tv or read about in books, and the only thing that could have possibly made the experience any better is if they had also found time and money to replace the grass straw roofs or if some of the natives had dressed up in original clothing and acted out their daily lives throughout the city, although having said that there were so many tourists that there would probably be no place for them to do this.
Apparently they have a 400 person maximum limit for the city, which makes sense as even with this many I had to wait and be patient for many of my best photo opportunities, and I almost pushed some stupid american woman off the side as she was carrying the largest backpack on her shoulders and had no sense of spacial awareness and thwacked it into me at least three times in as many seconds.
A few funny highlights of the tour were the idea that there was a sacred inner temple where you could hear things from the other side of the room if you stuck your head one of the alcoves, which made for a nice photo, as did the hordes of people wanting to steal a little of the magic of the sacred rock by rubbing their hands together and then placing them just centimeters away, after the guide said that the acid from our hands would damage the rock.
Once the tour was over we had a little time to ourselves to explore, but with all the tourists milling about we just decided to go back into town, grab a bite to eat and then be there with plenty of time for the last train back to Cusco. Agua Calientes is much like a small Cusco, in that it is very much set up for the tourists and everyone seems to speak English, so we chose a nice local restaurant and had a tasty meal of Pig and Alpaca, which was the first time that I had tried that meat and it was like a mix between beef and lamb.
Back on the train I got separated from my American buddy by seat alocations, but as luck woul have it I got sat next to another, a real old timer from the deep south who had a lot of stories to tell and a few jokes about the Yankee War of Agression, a.k.a the American War of Independence, which was kind of fun as I had always had a fondness of the confederates anyway, right back to my Soskan days, and it sure helped to while away the four hours train journey back home.
I also shared the carriage with a couple of Argentinian women, who were nice but as I coud expect were very proud of their country and were a little surprised and dissapointed that I was not going to visit their Country on my tour.
Finally back in Cusco I managed to get almost lost for the first time since I arrived, before I retracked my steps and realises I just took a left instead of a right at the top of the hilland then from there it was just the long trek up the hill back to the Hotel.
Wow, these places sound really interesting, I wish I have the courage to do what you did.
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