Machu Picchu

Cusco, home of the Incas. Cusco can also be spelled Cuzco. This city was one of the most important cities of the incas. It was the capital city of the time. The king of the incas at the time was well loved and respected. He had two sons who were half brothers who were to take over when he died. The brothers lived in different areas of the Incan territory. One in cusco and one further north (Ecuador). The king decided it made more sense for the son closer to him to rule. The other one found out about this and was very upset so he decided to start a war between them. The spanish started invading the Incan territory and it became easier for the Spanish to take over the Incan colonies because there was unrest within the Incans.

Cusco now is the hub for people to go to and start their journey to Machu Picchu. This however creates a huge devide in the city between rich and poor. There is the centre of the city that is solely devoted to tourists, and then surrounding the city are mountains filled with houses that people commute from to make a living in the city.

Hilary and I signed up for a five day trek to Machu Picchu. It was not the typical route that the majority of people go, but that was the reason we chose it. It was called the Salkantay trek. The difference between this one and the inca trail is that there were smaller groups, which was such a great thing! The inca trail is mostly steps and takes a bit less time than salkantay. The better things about the inca trail is you get to see more incan ruins along the way and you get to go through the sun gate at the very end. Which apparently is a race at 5 in the morning to be through it first. Salkantay however is incredible scenery of mountains, and of the jungles. Salkantay is also known as the harder trek out of the two, but clearly I don' t know this as a fact.
The days consisted of walking for hours and hours. The second day (which they warn you about) is the hardest day! You start off in the morning woken up by your guide with hot tea and hot water to wash your face. This is needed because it was so cold. We slept in-between two mountains both covered in snow. The one on our left was the salkantay mountain which we needed to climb over in order to get to the jungle. You literally start at the bottom of the mountain and climb straight up it for 5 hours. By the last stretch I was dragging myself up and breathing very heavily because we reached 4600 m. Oh yeah and it was snowing. Once we made it to the top it was freezing so we just wanted to keep going. This meant 3 hours downhill. The snow turned into rain, so our clothes became very wet. We made It to our lunch spot by 12:30. We had another 6 hours downhill in the afternoon and into the evening. Followed by another chilly night in the tents.
We continued our trek for another two days, with great company and amazing food. Every meal we had soup and then a main and then something for dessert, with always freshly made juice. We were on the trek with two couples, a German couple in their 30's and a English couple in their 40's. Plus we had a fantastic guide named Javier. Just the kind of Spanish man leading your tour that you want.
We finally reached our destination of Machu Picchu at 5 am on September 27, 2011. I can't even put Into words how amazing it was! Honestly took my breath away. I think after walking up mountains to get there, it really put it more in perspective. I understood how incredibly hard it must have been to carry every single rock up to the top. The incans were such strong and brilliant people. Every single design in the city was so thought out and so perfectly put together. The reason it was never found by the Spanish is because the people heard of the invasions lower down and everyone left the city and moved else where and kept Machu Picchu a secret. Thank goodness.
Hilary and I were watching the motorcycle diaries the other day and on the journey they go to Machu Picchu and he says "How is it possible to feel nostalgia for a world I never knew?" I now know exactly what he means.