18 Mar 2012 - Getting to Aguas Calientes
On the bus-ride form San Pedro back to Urubama (2 busses / 30 h trip) I met Keenan from Canada. He wanted to go to Machu Picchu, too. Therefore, we decided to go there together on budget on our own, without any of the offered tours. We stayed another night at Christian’s house before we went from Urubamba to Santa Maria with a collectivo in the morning, form there with another collectivo to the hydropower station about 10 or 12 km form Aguas Calientes, the village below Machu Picchu. The last kilometres we hiked along the train road to save the money for the train (18 US-$). We reached Aguas Calientes in the evening and had the best hostel on my trip till now. A 5 bed dorm for both of us. The beds were fine but we didn’t use them that long. As we wanted to see the sunrise behind Machu Picchu we set our alarms to 4.45 AM. What a short night!!!
19 Mar 2012 - Stairway to Heaven
4.45 AM, good morning Machu Picchu! It was the first day on my whole trip, it rained that much. Nevertheless, we started to walk to Machu Picchu to see the sunrise. “May be it’s raining every night but I never realize it because I’m always sleeping”, I thought. Thousands and thousands of stairs up to Machu Picchu. But I arrived at 5.54 AM, 6 minutes before Machu Picchu opened – don’t know how many travellers I passed on the way but better starting last and being first than visa versa. And this is the amazing sunrise:
Nevertheless, Machu Picchu was great and the view breath-taking after the clouds disappeared:
Train instead of stayn’
In the evening we thought about our way back home. I didn’t want to go back by collectivo, I was kind of scared of the streets and didn’t like to spend some more hours in the middle of some Peruvian people in a mini-van. Finally, we took the train. It was quiet expensive (39 US-$) but definitively worth. Only one and a half hour and a very nice conversation with some teenagers travelling around the world after their Abitur. I might should go to south-east Asia next time.
Next stop Huacachina (Sandboarding)…
