Nearing Ollentaytambo: Some pretty sights

Before we made the final ascent to Machu Picchu, we had the joyful task of descending from 4500m above sea level to the second most important Inca town in the Valle Sagrado - Ollentaytambo. Not even a big red cow with bull horns was gonna stop me from getting into town for a bottle of Coke. Sooooo sick of water by this stage.

I don't know if it is just because I was so keen to see some sort of actual civilisation after days in the wilderness, but my goodness, some of the things my camera captured were a sight for sore eyes. In all fairness, the town is set in a pretty breathtaking location, waterfront against a big flowing river and set in the Valley of a huge mother mountain range.

Trek to Machu Picchu: Sitting On Top Of The World

Anybody who has looked at this blog for more than five minutes can tell that my pictures are usually observations of the world around me... I don't usually make myself the subject of a post. But you know what? Today's an exception. I think that after four days of the most intense physical stress I've ever had the privilege of putting my body through, I get bragging rights to post about the journey. It's only fair, right?

I can't tell you how sore my legs, back, butt, arms, neck (list continues) were when we finished this sucker. All I can say is, it was enough pain to make me not think twice about jumping straight into some thermal hot spring pools with a whole lot of similarly dirty hikers and some local Inca women in their underwear. Yep, water was icky yellow as well - and hell, I didn't care. God it felt good. And my brain was too over stimulated and too over tired to care about the gross factor. Healing waters was the only thing on my mind.

But back to the trek. Oh Em Gee. What an amazing, spiritual, deeply moving experience. I don't think I've ever had more time alone in my own head than on that trek. On reflection, not sure that's a good thing :)