Don Keyhote's Machu Picchu
12/16/2004
that is classic bro! i can just picture the whole scene... yeah ive pissed off a
few gringoes bringing them along on my adventures before too. they just aint up
to par.
but you musta done the gate wrong. i got there at like 3 am an hour before
sunrise and there was one guard sleeping which i woke with my noise and
flashlight. and the glass door wouldnt have been nearly so rough to skirt out of
the rainy season.
Hola Hoser,
Sorry I have been lax in my duties getting those journals to you... really short
on money as I have lost my debit card yet again so I have been avoiding expenses
such as internet time. Because I didn't have the money I was unable to do the
Donkey thing. Next time I guess... instead I managed to do the whole Cusco-Machu
Picchu-Cusco trip for about forty soles over three days. not to bad if you ask
me.
The gringos in this part of the world are just not up to par... Most are willing
to pay an average of $150Amer to see Machu Picchu. I convinced an Ozzie that we
would have a much better time if you only had to pay ten dollars. My plan was to
take the train one way (35 soles) arrive at ten pm then climb the mountain up to
the ruins. That part went pretty well until we got to the guard house... were
scouting it out when a flashlight started bobbing in our direction. I jumped a
hand rail without hestitaion and dropped into the jungle. My comrade, a little
bit slower came within five seconds of being caught and barely refrained from
panicing as the guards wandered around less than a meter away from our hiding
spot. Made it passed the guard house to find the trial block by a nearly
impassible set of glass doors... some innovative rock climbing down and then a
twenty meter taverse and then back up again brought us inside Machu Picchu. I
had heard that it is a fairly common thing for people to break in but they must
be doing another way... almost bailed a few times, lose rocks and wet hand/foot
holds. Anyways we were the only ones in the ruins for the night because there
was a thunder storm and noone else wanted to get wet. Slept in the ruins and
woke up before dawn wandered around until 8am when the tourist started to flood
in. Hiked Wayna Picchu the mountain that over looks Machu Picchu (2700m) and
must have look a little wild to the school kids as I picked wild strawberries
around the temple of the moon. Covered in mud from the night before and barefoot
because my sandles were falling apart.
By six pm we figured that it was time for a snack before we started the 30Km
hike along the train tracks to Ollantaytambo. Things were going great until
about eight when it got dark my comrade's flashlight burnt out leaving us in the
dark (Dave lost mine in Boliva). Suddenly we were going about 2km an hour...
could see almost nothing as the sky was over cast (threatening another
thunderstorm) and there was no moon to be seen. Our 7 hour night hike turned
into a 11 hour death march. Turns out the Ozzie is scared of the dark and
doesn't want me to get to far away from him. Really started to piss me off
because he was going so slow and I needed to get to town because I was severely
dehydrated (started to halucinate) by 3am I could not talk... really freaked him
out when he started screaming "Where the fuck are you? You fucking Canadian
bastard" and I couldn't even croak out and audible answer. But we made it...
walked into town at 6 am and promplty drank 2L of water. Never been happier.
Took a bus back to Cusco and slept for 26 hours. Been relaxing here since...
free drinks at the bars have away of holding you in this place. But my favourite
bar burnt down last night so I think it is getting to be time to move on...
Chao, Adam