5 days Trekking to Machu Picchu - Day 4 - Sep 26, 2009

It was actually getting very hot in our tents when the sun started shining early in the morning. The farmers next door to the camping plot also started working quite early with their radio turned on. Hence, it was a bit difficult to sleep until 8.30. We ended getting up early and just sat in the tent chatting.

The cooks really had worked magic this morning when they served breakfast. Not only did they have the normal food - they had also baked a cake. I think this is a pretty amazing feat to pull off given their primitive equipment.

My blisters were in a pretty dreadful state this morning and it would have been almost impossible to walk. We had discussed it before and decided that since this trek was meant to be a ‘fun’ activity, it wasn’t worth walking if it started bleeding or similar, whereas some muscle pain would be all right. Hence, we had decided to take it easy and not to walk today. Iris was also feeling a bit tired after the last day’s trekking so she didn’t mind taking it easy either.

The main group headed off after breakfast whereas we stayed at the campsite. The plan was to go with the cooks and the bags to the next campsite. Since they weren’t departing until a few hours later, we had some spare time. We ended up walking into Santa Teresa to have a look. It turned out to be a fairly dull little city without any charm whatsoever. It did however have quite a few pubs and nightclubs - mainly because most Inca-treks pass thorough the town. In the city we managed to top up on insect repellant and some anti-septic and anti-biotic cream for my blisters. Both turned out to work really well and were greatly appreciated.

At around eleven in the morning we jumped into a bus together with our three cooks, the cooking equipment and everyone’s bags. The drive to the next stop took around fifteen minutes following a pretty narrow road next to a river. We later found out that the group was walking the same road we were traveling by bus. As the road was pretty dull (and it was very hot outside), it didn’t feel that we missed too much traveling by bus rather than walking. When we later met the people doing the walking, they also said that we hadn’t missed anything by taking the bus. The distance we traveled by bus was circa 14 kilometers.

The lunch stop was at Hidroelectrica. Despite its name, we didn’t end up next to a hydroelectric power-plant, instead we ended up next to Peru Rail’s station. We arrived there at around eleven in the morning and we had to wait there until 16.30 when our train to Aguas Calientes departed. The main group got there at around noon and we had a reasonably nice lunch with them that the cooks had prepared.

The wait at Hidroelectrica wasn’t too bad and time passed pretty quickly. I don’t understand how we managed to make the time pass so quickly but it wasn’t a struggle waiting there.

At around four in the afternoon we boarded the Peru Rail train bound for Aguas Calientes. The train took about one hour to get there. It was an interesting experience traveling there. Rather than following a straight track up the mountain, the train had to zig-zag up the mountain. After going straight for a bit, it had to change tracks and reverse up the next bit, etc. Iris told me that the trains do the same in Ecuador as well.

The group of people walking to Aguas Calientes had actually walked along the same tracks as we were traveling. It can’t have been too fun walking along the rail tracks. We were quite happy with our choice of walking.

We arrived at Aguas Calientes at 5.30 in the afternoon. The town turned out to be pretty modern and absolutely stuffed with tourists. It is pretty easy to understand why. The city sits at the bottom of the mountain on which Machu Picchu is built.

Many tourists come to Aguas Calientes to spend the night before traveling up to Macchu Picchu. In fact, you need to go to Aguas Calientes if you want to get to Machu Picchu, It is easy to get to Aguas Calientes from Cusco - it takes about 3-4 hours by a combination of bus and train. From Aguas Calientes, people can then take a 15 minute bus up the mountain to the Machu Picchu site.

There were loads of hotels and hostels in the city. There were also loads of bars and pubs. Both Iris and me thought that the city looked like a typical ski-resort. The main difference between a ski-resort and Aguas Calientes was the train tracks cutting straight through Aguas Calientes.

We ended up staying in a pretty nice hotel/hostel in the centre of town not far from the main square. The room was fabulous after having spent the last four nights in a tent. The room had a comfortable bed and an en-suite with a shower. The hotel even had hot water - not too common in Peru.

We had dinner at a local restaurant. Somehow our cooks had taken over the restaurant’s kitchen and they were preparing the food for us. The food was pretty good but despite the cooks using a professional kitchen, the food tasted pretty much the same as it had done on the mountain. Weird.

We were planning to walk up the mountain to Machu Picchu the next morning. We wanted to be the first to get in and experience the sun-rise from the best spot. Machu Picchu opens its gates at six in the morning so we needed a very early start. The tour guide told us to assemble at the main square at four o’clock in the morning. Everyone had to go to bed early and try to get as much rest as possible in order to make it to the early start.

Once we got back to our room, we had no problems falling asleep. We were a bit concerned that we might miss our 3.30 wake-up alarm though...

Marcus