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muds slicker than water (the machu pickachu ride)

how should i start ?

ok cusco is beautiful but the only reason you come here is to see machu picchu so we stayed around for a few days taking in the irish bars and good old pub grub food and when we finally got bored of saying no thanks for the zillionth time we hopped on a tour to machu pichu, firstly we went around some old sites around the city seen some wonderful inka block work and some temples, they all seem to be pretty in tune these inkas everything is put in place for a reason either the sun or the stars. after a pretty tiring day we got to aguas caliente which is where we have to either get the bus or walk, now feeling that we havent had enough punnishment (and i think we needed to work off all the pub grub) we decided to get up at 4:30 and walk it up the mountain, it took us an hour and a half and for a good while we were the first on the trail until some french mountaineering types practically ran past us and made it up in half the time we did. i am pround to announce that i was thr 1st woman in machu picchu that day, keith being the 5th bloke considering thats out of say a thousand i think its really good going. we got there just as sun was up and i may say to everyone it was truly amazing i didnt think we would be so captivated by it but we was. it isnt all impressive "how did they do it " block work but it only took them 70yrs to build the whole thing and that was really good going.

our guide took us around showing us the various points and features, and telling us about the significance of the different bits. they have only restored about 20% and they say they are going to leave it at the because they dont want it perfect. our favorite bit of the ruins was the village (we got to walk around it by ourselves) there was loads of little nooks and crannys to investigate and loads of local wildlife running around small lizards and some chinchilla like animals (keith really wants one)

after the tour we decided to climb up huayna picchu (the young mountain) it took us about an hour to clamber up the incredibly steep slope, some of it i doubt would have been covered by our insurance. but when we got up there it was spectacular and machu picchu (old mountain) looked so small. we stayed up for a while to eat our sandwiches and take in some rays, unfortunatly too many rays were taken and we came down looking like tomatoes.

because we didnt have to go back to cusco till the next day we could spend till closing time up there in peace without worrying about buses, but 4 o clock came along and it looked like rain (we had been lucky enough to have perfect weather all day) and the couple we was with mentioned it looked like a big rain, little did we know this was going to be the start of a rather hairy night.

as our bus was trundling down the mountain we seen loads of buses come towards us waving frantically for us to turn around our bus driver promptly went into action hero mode and swing the bus around and sped up the hill, not knowing the foggyest we thought he had forgotten someone until someone mentioned a mud slide. we had alreadly been told a mud slide last year had completly wiped out a village near by and began to get a little worried when the river turned black with mud below us, we was assured by a guard on board that if we got higher we would be safe so we waited wondering if aguas caliente was going to be there when we got back. after a while we was told it was safe to return to the town and made a slow and cautious decent. we got to the village to find the calm river right next to our hostel thick with mud and trees, upon arriving at our hostel the lady said it would be better for us to go to higher ground and wait till we was given the all clear, we later found out our hostel was right in the path of another mudslide 4 yrs ago and that it really shouldnt be there. we got to slightly higher ground and waited not knowing much but that the huge rip out of the mountain wasnt there yesterday. after some WW2 like sirens went off and people running to the train we was allowed back to our hostel but was advised to stay clothed incase the sirens went off and we had to make a run for it in the night. lets just say i didnt sleep a wink that night (keith slept soundly after a few beers) every noise and i was up listening to hear if it sounded like our impending doom.

well as you may gather we was ok and was ok enough the next day to haggle with taxi drivers and see the site of moray (looks like a big ampetheater), when we got to cusco we decided to treat ourselves to some english pub grub without the extra 6 soles for imported beans, and went straight to bed.

off to ariequipa today after a slap up buffet lunch at the local indian (this is not not the third world)

love to all

kim and keith

and mums and dads please dont worry between keiths luck of the irish and my general carefulness we are doing just fine weather and natural disasters permitting.

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