Being frugal travellers, we had tried to beat the system to get to Aguas Calientes by taking routes a local would. In the end, we were forced to spend more than we had to in the first place. I bought round trip tix for a first class train. Grah! And then the bus company to MP tried to scam us because we paid in soles instead of US dollars. hello? what country am i in? And entrance cost us $15 more than we'd expected, which makes a huge difference when you're on a $30/day budget. Not a good start.
We lined up like a good tourist at 5AM this morning to catch the very first bus up to MP. It was raining and cold and early. We entered the park at 6AM. We proceeded to muck our way around lost for about an hour in the rain and fog; couldn't see much of anything but the puddled trail in front of me. For my $40USD you would think I'd be provided with a printed map or clear signs. Finally we found the ruins. Tell ya what, not so impressive in fog. Happened upon a registration booth where we absent-mindedly signed in. Started walking down a path of stairs. Took a turn off that lead down down down and down a mountain, because we didn't want to go up. Dropped us into some well-preserved ruins inside a cave. Proved the theory: what goes down must go up. From the cave, we followed a stairway straight, nearly vertical, back up to the top of the mountain. My heart rate reached a dangerously high bpm even while treading slowly and steadily. And I was more wet. Nati and I looked at each other, both drenched, thinking...what is this human obsession with getting to the top of everything?! why are we climbing? We can't see shit in the clouds and rain. Finally at the top, we found MP covered in clouds, never ending clouds. Great. We sat, hoped, and waited for the clouds to clear.
Okay, so happy ending, the clouds clear by noon and we dry off in the sun for two hours at the top. The view was fantastic. The surroundings were gorgeous. We spent the rest of the day avoiding tourist groups, exploring well-designed and engineered buildings and temples, and teaching guides English. We passed almost ten hours in total at the ruins and left happy that we'd suffered through the morning. Turns out, I was the 5th person of 348 to register for the super hike to the viewpoint today!
