VIva el Peru 4

I'm beginning to question my rationality of writing my stories in 4 separate posts by now. 

Well, lets put it this way,

I will continue my Day 4 hiking story and then, everything else will be compressed in... maybe Viva el Peru part 5. Hehe. I just want to have a somewhat detailed recollection of my hike just in case in 5 months time I forgot what happened (very unlikely), so at least I can go back to these posts and read them again. Plus, if somebody were to google anything related to Peru (or anything else for that matter), my blog might showed up AND hopefully they find what they are looking for here! It happened already last week. Somebody googled about Peru and stumbled upon my blog :P

DAY 4 Machu Picchu, Here We Come! a.k.a Happy Birthday Mubeen!

We woke up very early that day. For me, by 2.30am...I wasn't sleeping properly already. Not because I was SOO excited (which I was) but the porters and cooks were already up and started to work. Dangg! Seriously, I had to give them a standing ovation for that! 

They woke us up with coca tea at 4am, I think. Ahh! They served us coca tea everyday after they woke us up. Man, that tea made me wide awake! 

Breakfast was at 4.30am and I think we had breads and pancakes. You can eat them with jam, butter, sugar or whatever you like. 

It was still dark, so we didn't leave Winay Wayna (Day 3 campsite) until 5.15am because it was dark and cold. By then we had to line up at the check point in order to enter the site. Even so, from there, it was a 2 hr hike to Machu Picchu. My legs were aching already :P 

Foggy morning! which is not a surprise anymore :)

mini inukshuks on a big rock, made by....i dont know who.

 More walking into the unknown shot. That's a cliff alright.

They were like what, 5m from me? and I can't hardly see them!

Nadia and Mubeen, partially hidden by the fog!

By now, we were already in the Machu Picchu site. Just that I don't even know that 'cause I can't see it for myself. But, we were greeted by llamas at the end of the Inca Trail! How scweeetttt! 

Hiram Bingham found Machu Picchu. He hiked the Inca Trail as well. Boy, I'm sure glad he found Machu Picchu! <--- I think the name sounds cute.

OK, we had to leave our big bags at the storage room and paid 3soles for it. I didn't have a small bag to carry all my personal items, so I just used my "towel" bag. Huh. That works. 

OMG, this is the highlight of my LIFE!! and I didn't even mean to exaggerate. Just cause it is ONE of the Seven Wonders of the WORLD (others being Taj Mahal, the Colosseum, Petra, Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza, Chichen Itza and Christ the Redeemer). I got the list from Wikipedia. So now I have another 6 wonders to go visit ;) 

Photos of Machu Picchu! 

Most of them are the same as my facebook album, lol

 

I'm proud of this shot :)

A view of Machu Picchu from the guardian house. 

The steep peak afar is Wayna Picchu. You could climb it if you wish, but luck wasn't on our side. We didn't know that in order to climb Wayna Picchu, you gotta get a stamp that says you are one of the first 400 people that day to climb it. We missed that one out :( Seems like a valid reason to go back, right? LOL. Anyways, if you have the chance to go to Machu Picchu, please don't miss this! So, that means....be there very early in the morning! Get your stamp and climb Wayna Picchu later that morning. 

Juan Carlos explaining to us the history.

These terraces that you can see in this this picture were used to plant crops (kinda obvious) and the ruins behind Juan Carlos were the houses back then.

The lonely tree. 

Ok, it was planted there for a reason. Don't quote me, but I remember that archaeologists found gold at that spot and so they planted a tree to commemorate that. 

Close-up of the ruins

Uneven staircase

Inside the houses 

Sofia, the ruins and a winding road. 

 

The river in the valley. This is looking down from Machu Picchu

The train tracks follow the river.

Team Sqrabbit - Mbn, Sofia and Giesung

and how does our fictional sqrabbit looks like??

Like this!!! :P

(credit: Mbn)

From a different angle. You can see the terraces better.

From a tunnel

(credit: Mbn)

 

Yours truly with Wayna Picchu as the background.

Gosh, the weather was perfect!! Remember it started as damn foggy?

US!

(credit : Mbn)

Hehe, I hardly have any pictures of myself in my own camera. 

Gotta ask the boys for photos of me :)

I love this shot!

(credit : Mbn)

Mereka!

Mbn, Zar, Sofia, Nadia and Giesung!

The path to the temple.

See the small structure up there? That's a sacred place during the Inca Empire 'cause  all the ceremony took place there (sacrifice etc). 

In the temple. Ok, sorry I forgot what this is but it is very important. The shadow cast by this rock is in the shape of llama!!!

The calm and very composed llama :)

The guardian house (for security purposes) located on top of the terraces.

Zar, rocky style! (can refer as Linda style too :P)

I may not have mention this, but they are fraternal twins! Just like me and Fardia!

Kami! 

Before saying goodbye to Juan Carlos! 

Gonna miss him for sure! Especially his "sexy llama" expression :P

Stamped in my passport :)

After spending all morning in Machu Picchu, we decided to go down to Aguas Calientes. The bus ride going down cost us USD7 or s/21. Well, if you must know, the route had lots of sharp turns! Luckily I didn't feel motion sickness or anything. Haiyaaa!

Aguas Calientes, very touristy...

Since we didn't eat proper food since 4.30am (I know!!), we went on a "food hunt". Darn, most of the restaurants were a lil pricey, but we eventually settled for a nice restaurant in the middle of town. My omelette was s/16 haha, but it was really good   --> lots of cheese!!  

Some photos around town:

Fancy restaurant. 

Nicely paved..OMG, I swore my knees were about to fall apart while climbing those stairs! Everybody felt like it! Oh dear. A good massage would be sooo amazing!

Bridge crosssssinngggg.... 

The riverrrrrr....

Some last minute shopping, anyone?

I did some shopping :P

Our train from Aguas Calientes to Ollaytaytambo was at 5.30ish. We spent some time "exploring" the town with our saket teramat kaki and then decided to just chill at the train station until it's time. The train ride was great! I sat next to Giesung, and we shared lots of stories, including some stories that cracked the hell out of me; I had to apologize for laughing so hard. But the bottom line is, he is a funny guy :) 

Arrived in Ollaytaytambo, and we had another 2hr bus ride back to Cusco. I slept all the way. Huh. 

We stayed at Walkon Inn again for a night. Anyways, I totally recommend this hostel to anybody going to Cusco. This should be in my first post, but I didn't really write in detail yet in that post. 

http://cusco.walkoninn.com/

The hostel looks exactly like in the photos on the website. So, if you like what you see, you will love this hostel. 

I wanted to post a video, but somehow it is not uploading :(

Ciao gators

FZ

Viva el Peru 3

Hola! So, this is my third post. Oh my! Sorry for not finishing my story in the previous two posts! I guess I have a lot to say eh? Anyways, I've been slacking off this weekend all because I've been "working hard" for the past few weeks. Yes, I did some work when I was in Peru. So, now I am taking my time off from school work. Haha. Actually, more like I got stuck doing my Glacial and Earth Evolution lab ;)

Lets continue.

DAY 2: 

One word - CRAZY!

Why? Because we had to climb the highest point of the whole hike which is at 4215m above sea level. Believe me, it was tough. Even Mt Kinabalu, Sabah is 4400m a.s.l. But this time it's different cause my bag was lighter and the climb is less physical than Mt. Kinabalu.

 

Pancake and toast bread for breakfast :) Yummy!

 

 Foggy morning! It was like this everyday ;)

Stop 1. Some locals were selling drinks and snacks, but they are, of course, more pricey. Still very foggy.

The trail on day 2 had us walking into a forest, almost like a rainforest...and with all the fog and stuff, it felt a lil "wet". Day 1 was more like grassy plains all around us. 

I hate climbing up stairs...It took more effort. 

More trees on Day 2

The last stop before the major climb!

This photo makes me feel like I am above the clouds!

The major climb, can be steep at times. At this point, I was hiking by myself cause all of us were hiking at our own pace.

Porter and the valley. I was taking a break. Haha. And I ended up taking out my iPod cause I was bored walking alone. Plus I was singing along the way to take my mind of from the question "how far is it to the peak??!!" I once asked the porter, and he said "10 minutes". OK. 

At my pace, it was more like 20 minutes. Hehe

Hah! Yours truly taking her last few steps before reaching the peak

(credit: Mbn)

At the peak a.k.a The Dead Woman's Pass

The marker

Survivors of the brutal climb. At first it was quite warm since I was still sweating like crazy from the climb. After awhile, dangggg I had to wear a sweater and put on my glovessss!!

Ahh, kami! Yey, we all made it!

This is one of my favourite photos of us three. 

(Credit to MBN!)

The view of the valley from 4215m a.s.l

What goes up, must come down. I find going downhill is even crazier just because my knees are suffering from condition where they are worn out (I forgot the more "sophisticated" or the medical term for it); they will hurt if I try to put a lot of pressure on it (aka going downhill)...so, the boys left me :(

- see, already quick ahead of me 

mehh! I just took my time walking. No hurry right? I took some photos along the way too.

Purple flowers along the way. 

Approaching the campsite on Day 2 with a view of a cascading waterfall. The water was cold and refreshing! Not that I drink it, but I used it to wash my face and brush my teeth :)

DAY 3:

Ahhh. Day 3 was okay. Mostly downhill which, if you must know...KILLED my knees altogether! Darn. And it was raining too. Since I forgot to get a rain cover from Mbn, I used my raincoat to cover my bag and that left me soaking WET. Well, it's not like I care too much cause I'm used to it, especially back in the days when I used to cycle a lot. Luckily, my pants dried fast so I wasn't freezing or suffering from hypothermia for that matter (LOL, actually it wasn't anything close to that!). 

  The start of day 3. Excited much? You bet!

Juan Carlos and Me!! At Runkuraqay.

Of course, this is what Mbn do best!

the two of us and the cascading waterfall!!

Runkuraqay ruins, used as a resting point and for storage.

Hide and seek, no?

(credit: Mbn)

At Sayaqmarka. Altitude: 3625m

I kinda forgot what this ruin was back in Inca time. 

Well, it started to rain here!! I don't think you wanna be in the Mountains when it rains, cause it was cold. 

Hey, no peeking! Mata kuyu Mbn... ;)

Gamba band kami dekat Sayaqmarka. 

(credit: Mbn)

Going into the Inca tunnel! Err, you can see here I am protecting my bag more than myself. Haha. It's okay for me to be wet than my whole stuff. I can change to dry clothes later :) 

The view from Phuyupatamarka.

The steps got really slippery and all that. I was, again, walking alone. The boys were far ahead. Dangg. You know when you walked alone...you started to feel bored and for me, my head was thinking about weird things. humff. I could not listen to my iPod cause it was raining!! :( The trail was a lil spooky (to me!) cause of the fog. It's like you are walking into the unknown! I don't know what I was thinking at that time. All I know is, just keep walking. Slow down when possible cause if I slipped off the cliffs, nobody would hear or see me! Yea, that was intense. I didn't stop at all. Not even to drink water! Remember bout the Spanish dude I told you in the last post? So yeah, occasionally I would see him and we talked. It's not like I totally understand him, but again, common sense jerr. He had a video camera, and he would stop and took some vids of the trail or people, whichever. That's when I jumped in to be the "extras" ahaha. He was recording some porters running downhill with all the big bags etc, I walked close enough to the porters to just be in his video. Haha. I don't know if that is inappropriate or not, but hey he could use some girl in his vids ;)

 

All wet :( 

It dried quite fast. See, cheap pants pon bagus. 

I don't want you to guess the price! 

Didn't I tell you it was like stepping into the unknown? 

So yeah, day 3 hike was great. Since it was mainly going downhil for few hours, my knees hurt like hell later that day. I don't think anybody felt good after that.  Haha. 

Our last dinner together. Oh boy, that's a lot of food!!

(credit: Giesung Park)

Well, we had fun that night! Played cards and just chit chat. Later that night, we had a lil ceremony to thank our porters and cook. They were amazing! Good food and I was really amazed by the porters. They carried things that weighed almost 25kg! Well, the chit chat continued after that. Juan Carlos (tour guide) pretty much had a lot of "first time" with our group. Twins, first time pakai tudung laa etc... 

 

I think I will continue Day 4 a.k.a Machu Picchu in a separate post! Just cause it IS Machu Picchu.

We had to wake up at 3.30am! Even so, we slept late. Hehe. 

OK, I hope you will enjoy reading this post!  A lil long, but I think you pretty much can expect that from me right? And, please enjoy the photos as well!

ps: Sorry, I kinda forgot the history part of this trail. I just remember the big picture :(

Later gators. My weekend was a lazy weekend. 

Haha, just the way I like it

FZ