Machu Pichhu and the Sacred Valley

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Aguas Calientes, the village near Machu Picchu waiting for the train back to Cuzco. We´ve had an amazing three days. After I last wrote we wandered around Cuzco and went to a couple of museums about the Incas. They did some very weird things- for example taking the mummies of their ancestors to parties so that they could be with the other mummies (I think this was the Incas, but I may be wrong)! We also just explored the city which is really nice, surrounded by mountains and much prettier than Lima.

Then early yesterday morning we got a local bus into the Sacred Valley. We stopped off first at a palce called Chinchero where there are some small Inca ruins. They were really pretty and the landscape was incredible- steep hills used for farming and then in the distance snow-topped mountains, which we worked out were all around or over 6000m. Chinchero itself is at almost 3800 metres. We hadn´t noticed the altitude in Cuzco, possibly thanks to the bus journey to get there but we did at Chinchero. As we got off the bus we noticed ourselves breathing faster and the 100 or so metres we climbed at the ruins were very hardwork! It was really fun though.

We then went to a village called Ollantaytambo which has a train to Machu Picchu. It´s therefore really touristy and almost all the restaurants were advertised in English. We however manages to find a very Peruvian one and got two courses for about a 5th of the price of elsewhere- we were very chuffed! Ollanta is lovely too, again surrounded by mountains, two of which have Inca ruins built into the hillside. It´s incredible engineering. The fortress there was one of the few places to win a battle with the Spanish, but it was also a ceremonial centre and a farm! We wondered around for a while and then spent ages waiting for the train.

We got to Aguas Calientes and stayed the night and then this morning got up to go to Machu Picchu. To be honest when I realsied how expensive it is to get here and get in I had wondered whether it was worth it but I´m so glad we came. It´s absolutely magical, a city perched on a hill surrounded by so many huge mountains. In the morning when we got there they were covered in haze from the sun and Jen and I agreed that they looked so strange we´d almost expect a dragon to come flying over! It was really amazing. I don´t know how the Incas managed to live there, let along built such an amazing place. We spent about 5 hours walking around and went for a walk nearby to an Incan bridge.

Back to Cuzco this evening and the same hostel as before, then tomorrow we´re off to Puno on the banks of Lake Titicaca.