MACHU PICCHU

Machu Picchu well we made it we didn´t think we were going to and the stress levels were quite high as nobody would tell you anything, basically Cusco was under seige and anything that tried to leave the city was prevented from doing so with large rocks or tree trunks put across the roads. Any vehicle that did try to leave was also stoned including the bus that our tour company had offered us a afternoon trip in !!!!!

It didnt help that on the Wednesday evening, having been told earlier in the day we would have all our trips cancelled because of the possible strikes, we were got out of bed at 10.30 by the hotel boy to be given tickets which showed we were off doing everything as arranged tomorrow morning at 7am, we were so excited, assumed the stike had been resolved, got up at 5.30 am packed the whole room up as we would be leaving it for 2 days, got ready and waited for our private guide and taxi half hour late, then an hour at last I got through on the phone no they did not know what we were talking about there was a strike today as they had explained yesterday. So why were we sent the tickets at 10.30pm last night, no one was able to answer that question.

Bob and I were careful and wandered the streets keeping an eye to the protesters in truth they were not intrested in us. However we twice got caught out, once when we were told we must collect our new air tickets today or lose the seats, which meant we ended up in the thick of the dispute. Arriving at the airline office which was locked and appeared closed we had to bang on the door and they quickly unlocked it and got us in two minutes later we had a burning tyres outside the shop and the LAN office next door had all its windows smashed. The next day whilst having freshley made fruit juices inside a cafe, all very pleasant, stones were thrown into the cafe so on occasions it was not nice. But we must emphasis these people were not venting their anger on us but on the businesses still open and working.

However we also found some fantastic things in the middle of all the chaos we found a convent open to visitors, stepping inside was a different world and we wandered around for a couple of hours had our own individual guide and watched a Patagonian humming bird feed on the flower heads of a red hot poker about a metre from us and just the other side of this buildings wall 1000s were marching past drums,horns, whistles and fireworks all being used, it was quite extraordinary.

It also really surprised us that a lot of this beautiful art work was hung on the outside walls of the cloisters .

Another great moment was when the park closed, the park keeper rattled the chain to indicate he would lock the gates and about 5 dogs all ran out as if to say well thats it for the day, time to go home for dinner, the dogs here all seem to roam but have their marked territories a group of five or six in charge of the square or park or a particular street all appear well fed and no ones seems to harm them.

So on Saturday morning we were at the station at 05.30, please note this is Bob we are talking about, and loaded onto the train for a trip to Macchu Picchu the ride was great a nice breakfast served as we speed along through a lovely valley watching the local people go about their daily lives.

Arriving at 10ish we were met by our guide for Machu Picchu poor Bob who as always was ready for a coffee found he was off on a 3 hour guided tour.

The journey up to Machu Picchu is fantastic you climb and climb on these switch back roads and if you have a bus full of Spannish they cheer and shout at every turn. Really great for those who get travel sick luckily the tablets worked. At the top you leave all bags or anything that may destroy the site, walking sticks only allowed for the infirm and our guide then got us to climb for about 15 minutes this ment that our first view was to look down on the site which sprawls below its quite something and no preconceived idea can prepare you for its vastness or the mind blowing setting that it is in. Although cloudy we found it to be magical and were advised later by someone who had visited it previously that it was probably more majestic and eeire for being cloudy although the soaking we got in the middle of the tour is not to be recommended

After lunch Bob and I returned by ourselves the rain had cleared away there were very few people and we had a magical couple of hours wandering among the ruins with only the llamas, that are used to keep the grass down, for company.

Returning to the base village which has grown up to be a shanty town and is utterly dreadful we found our hotelwhich was fine, bags already delivered from the railway station and relaxed for the evening Bob trying out Alpacha steak, I declined the guinea pig which comes whole with its feet sticking up (sorry about that Nina and Jill). The next morning was clear but we decided to visit the botanical gardens in the Casa Hotel just outside the village this was great there are over 18 species of Hummingf Birds here and we saw about 10 of them together with wild orchids and a quick sighting of a huge kingsfisher it also happened to have a first class resturant with a wonderful balcony where you could get great coffee and a very good lunch.

We had both felt that to have returned to Macchu Picchu might have spoilt what was very special the previous afternoon. The train ride back was relaxing easy and a bit expensive, for Bob, as there was a fashion show of Alphaca clothing and well sometime ones got to shop.

Was it worth it YES it was a pity it was so stressful there were many times when I really did not think we were going to get there but we did and we are really pleased we made it....