Music: Watercolour - Pendulum
Today was another early start, having to be at the bus station by 6:30am in order to catch the bus up to the top of the hill. I met Hilda there and we set of for the peak. The only real thing I recall about that time in the morning was of the sound of over the back of the hotel, As it had been raining all night, the stream diverting water around the hotel was roaring as was the rain as it hit the lush vegetation outside the window.
Once inside the site grounds we were passed by a couple of trekking group coming down onto the site. They were unable to see the site anything other than about 50m in front of themselves as the clouds were sat over the site itself. Personally I would find it heart breaking after 4 days of walking/climbing to get the iconic view as you pass the sun gate, only to see white as you enter the site itself.
This was the reason I was advised not to do the Inca trail itself but to do some trekking in the south of Chile where the weather will be better.
At each point leading away from the main site there is a sign in/out book. This only showed a Japanese couple ten minute ahead of us on the path. At this point it was still raining lightly (although I tried to convince Hilda that this was all actually in her head). It was the kind of rain that will soak you fairly fast if you aren't wearing the right clothes but it was in no way the kind of aggressive tropical rain I'd been expecting (and almost looking forward to seeing).
The path itself was laid by the Incas and climbs from 2400m to 3100m up above the ruins. The whole way up we saw slight breaks in the cloud at points but these were mostly replaced by a complete white out in a few seconds. The natural viewpoints were mainly used a water stops on the way up as a few tens of meters of cloud forest was all you could see. I have various photos of orchids on the way up posted in the same picasa folder as yesterday. At the top we met the other pair that were ahead of us and were soon joined by another pair of Japanese tourists.
For nearly and hour we sat expectantly at the top of the mountain waiting for the cloud to clear enough to let us see down over the site.The valleys on either side were clear but a quite persistent cloud sat right in the middle for a frustratingly long time after giving us slight glimpses of the site. Rolf is picture getting one of these glimpses. Eventually the clouds cleared and we got the view we were after (shown below). The rest of the day was pretty much spent traveling back to Cusco. In the evening Hilda, myself and the two Ozzies went out to a modern restaurant that she recommended. For the second time in the country I had Alpaca steak, but this was a much nicer and thicker cut of meat. Following a hat full of cocktails (with even the Ozzies switching away from their lagers) we called it a night. Hopefully, as previously mentioned, I'm going to meet up with them in Sydney for a half day before I head for Singapore.
As it's early doors the morning after I'll sign off here. I apologise to anyone who saw the first post of this. I was drunk and rather tired and it ended on very much a head - keyboard moment after I lost the first draft of the post after clicking on the photo.
Much better!
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