Revolution
July 2008 
Returning from Macchu Pichu
Posted on Feb 21st, 2008
by 
Kate Mariposa
Kate Mariposa
From Pisac, we headed to Casa de Milagros, where we will be volunteering for a month. The orphanage is home to 32 children, from one infant to the oldest boy who is 16, all but one are children from the campo, the countryside. The orphanage is across the river from a small town in the Sacred Valley, behind it the wall of the mountains rise, green and brown, with a trail to some spectacular ruins. The grounds have an organic farm, chickens, ducks, horses, cats, and dogs. It is beautiful and peaceful there. We met a few of the children on the first night, but then had to prepare for one more journey...
We had heard talk of an impending strike, but the morning of our departure, we could see buses travelling down the valley, the strike wasn´t happening. Our first stop was the small town of Ollantaytambo... the traditional granary town of the Incan people... the town is actually designed like an ear of corn and supposedly the best corn in Peru is here! The ruins above town are spectacular, with some amazing water works.
Our group for Macchu Pichu was going to meet for dinner in Ollantaytambo, and our task was to find the Kusicollar Hospedaje and Cafe Mistico. We found Kusicollar Hospedaje, Mystic House Cafe, and Cafe Kusicollar... none of them the right place! We hadn´t expected the adventure to begin so early... after asking many people for directions, and wandering through the Old Inca part of town (with houses that have been inhabited since Incan times and canals that run down one side of the streets), we finally found the cafe! Only, the owner didn´t know our group was coming... she called Pepe, our trip leader, and got it all worked out... we arrived at 6:20, as he had told us to... knowing they would be late, and waiting as expected...
Our group of 18 (we had expected 12, at most) was quite international, with 2 Canadians, 5 Argentinians, 4 Chileans, 1 Bulgarian who lives in San Francisco, 1 Texan, 1 Japanese woman who has been living in Peru 6 months, 1 Britton, and our Peruvian guide... almost everyone spoke English, and we had many conversations in English and Spanish both...
Our Macchu Pichu trek was great, although a bit unorganized in seemingly typical Peruvian fashion... Our first day we started hiking from Santa Maria, a town in the high jungle. We stopped at an organic papaya and coffee farm for breakfast, and also had home-made honey-yum! We hiked through banana, papaya, coffee, avocado trees, and past coca plants... the mangos were the only fruits ripe for eating, just at the end of mango season. We spent the night at some hot springs which were only a little bit developped (there was a tienda to buy beer and snacks, and bathrooms). It poured rain all night, and one tent was missing a rain fly (luckily not ours!) The next day, we spent a lot of time over breakfast (avocados and bread, all 4 mornings), and got dropped off at the hydroelectric plant. From there, it was about a 2 hour walk to our hostel, walking all the time along the railroad tracks. (which are the local trail, we saw lots of locals and tourists both walking along them). The hostel is right off the Rio Urubamba, with lush grounds. Just across the tracks from the hostel was a huge, amazing waterfall, which was so big it made its own wind and drenched us in mist!
On Tuesday morning, we awoke around 5... the plan was to start walking early, but our group of 18 of course took awhile to get ready... after 1.5 hours walk we were at Macchu Pichu... it was beautiful, with mist blowing across and every few minutes parts would disappear and re-appear, making it always changing and adding to the mystical allure. Before entering Macchu Pichu, one member of our group led us all in a yoga session, which the staff watched with amusement, and the guards photographed...
We visited a bridge the Incans had built out of stone and wood along a ridge, the trail disappeared quickly along a cliff with a sheer face... the main ruins were quickly filling with tourists, so we headed up Waynu Pichu, the mountain behind the ruins. From the top, you get a perfect view of the ruins, which are laid out in the shape of a condor! From Huayna Pichu, we climbed down to the Temple of the Moon and the Grand Cavern. The trail was quite steep, with ladders down in places... The Temple of the Moon was my favorite part, a deep cave filled with white stone blocks and structures, I sat on one stone cut like a bench or altar and could feel all of the moonlight it has absorbed over the years, feeling the power of the energy...
The other ruins were impressive, with stones set up for astronomy and to reflect the sun´s light at the solstice in specific patterns... there was more than we could possibly see in one day. We might go back to visit again... Kia, who runs Casa de Milagros, recommended we visit with her friend, who is a shaman, and can explain the meaning of it all to us... We also were busy climbing and exploring the whole time, and didn´t get much of a chance to just sit and absorb the energy...
On the walk to Macchu Pichu, two of the dogs from our hostel accompanied us all the way to the front gate... at which point a guard shooed them away. Upon our return, 9 hours later, we saw the little dog had waited for us, somehow knew Wade and I were the last of our group to leave, and escorted us all the way back! The hostel owner told us that her dogs like spending time with the tourists passing through...
It took almost a day to return... starting with a walk along the tracks from the hostel to the hydroelectric plant, where we caught a van to the town of Santa Theresa, then another van to Santa Maria... we had to get out and walk across a part of the road that had been covered by a landslide that was still sliding to catch another van on the other side of the slide, and a third van to Ollantaytambo... Today we will return to Casa de Milagros, though we have again heard there is a strike and it might be hard to find a bus... once we are back, it is a 2k walk to town for email, and supplies... we are looking forward to settling into the tranquilo lifestyle and making connections with children and the land this next month!
We had heard talk of an impending strike, but the morning of our departure, we could see buses travelling down the valley, the strike wasn´t happening. Our first stop was the small town of Ollantaytambo... the traditional granary town of the Incan people... the town is actually designed like an ear of corn and supposedly the best corn in Peru is here! The ruins above town are spectacular, with some amazing water works.
Our group for Macchu Pichu was going to meet for dinner in Ollantaytambo, and our task was to find the Kusicollar Hospedaje and Cafe Mistico. We found Kusicollar Hospedaje, Mystic House Cafe, and Cafe Kusicollar... none of them the right place! We hadn´t expected the adventure to begin so early... after asking many people for directions, and wandering through the Old Inca part of town (with houses that have been inhabited since Incan times and canals that run down one side of the streets), we finally found the cafe! Only, the owner didn´t know our group was coming... she called Pepe, our trip leader, and got it all worked out... we arrived at 6:20, as he had told us to... knowing they would be late, and waiting as expected...
Our group of 18 (we had expected 12, at most) was quite international, with 2 Canadians, 5 Argentinians, 4 Chileans, 1 Bulgarian who lives in San Francisco, 1 Texan, 1 Japanese woman who has been living in Peru 6 months, 1 Britton, and our Peruvian guide... almost everyone spoke English, and we had many conversations in English and Spanish both...
Our Macchu Pichu trek was great, although a bit unorganized in seemingly typical Peruvian fashion... Our first day we started hiking from Santa Maria, a town in the high jungle. We stopped at an organic papaya and coffee farm for breakfast, and also had home-made honey-yum! We hiked through banana, papaya, coffee, avocado trees, and past coca plants... the mangos were the only fruits ripe for eating, just at the end of mango season. We spent the night at some hot springs which were only a little bit developped (there was a tienda to buy beer and snacks, and bathrooms). It poured rain all night, and one tent was missing a rain fly (luckily not ours!) The next day, we spent a lot of time over breakfast (avocados and bread, all 4 mornings), and got dropped off at the hydroelectric plant. From there, it was about a 2 hour walk to our hostel, walking all the time along the railroad tracks. (which are the local trail, we saw lots of locals and tourists both walking along them). The hostel is right off the Rio Urubamba, with lush grounds. Just across the tracks from the hostel was a huge, amazing waterfall, which was so big it made its own wind and drenched us in mist!
On Tuesday morning, we awoke around 5... the plan was to start walking early, but our group of 18 of course took awhile to get ready... after 1.5 hours walk we were at Macchu Pichu... it was beautiful, with mist blowing across and every few minutes parts would disappear and re-appear, making it always changing and adding to the mystical allure. Before entering Macchu Pichu, one member of our group led us all in a yoga session, which the staff watched with amusement, and the guards photographed...
We visited a bridge the Incans had built out of stone and wood along a ridge, the trail disappeared quickly along a cliff with a sheer face... the main ruins were quickly filling with tourists, so we headed up Waynu Pichu, the mountain behind the ruins. From the top, you get a perfect view of the ruins, which are laid out in the shape of a condor! From Huayna Pichu, we climbed down to the Temple of the Moon and the Grand Cavern. The trail was quite steep, with ladders down in places... The Temple of the Moon was my favorite part, a deep cave filled with white stone blocks and structures, I sat on one stone cut like a bench or altar and could feel all of the moonlight it has absorbed over the years, feeling the power of the energy...
The other ruins were impressive, with stones set up for astronomy and to reflect the sun´s light at the solstice in specific patterns... there was more than we could possibly see in one day. We might go back to visit again... Kia, who runs Casa de Milagros, recommended we visit with her friend, who is a shaman, and can explain the meaning of it all to us... We also were busy climbing and exploring the whole time, and didn´t get much of a chance to just sit and absorb the energy...
On the walk to Macchu Pichu, two of the dogs from our hostel accompanied us all the way to the front gate... at which point a guard shooed them away. Upon our return, 9 hours later, we saw the little dog had waited for us, somehow knew Wade and I were the last of our group to leave, and escorted us all the way back! The hostel owner told us that her dogs like spending time with the tourists passing through...
It took almost a day to return... starting with a walk along the tracks from the hostel to the hydroelectric plant, where we caught a van to the town of Santa Theresa, then another van to Santa Maria... we had to get out and walk across a part of the road that had been covered by a landslide that was still sliding to catch another van on the other side of the slide, and a third van to Ollantaytambo... Today we will return to Casa de Milagros, though we have again heard there is a strike and it might be hard to find a bus... once we are back, it is a 2k walk to town for email, and supplies... we are looking forward to settling into the tranquilo lifestyle and making connections with children and the land this next month!
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