Peru Tour - 4 - Machu Picchu

28 Dec 2005 – Machu Picchu

Got up by 6 am and were having breakfast by 7 am. Good spread of juices, the local pita bread, potatoes, pancakes and eggs. I ate a little bit of everything (as I always do!). The omelet was delicious!  The taxi guy promptly at 8:15 am to take us to the train station at Ollyantatambo. Waited for our 9 am train to Agua Calientes, on the base of Macchu Picchu.  The train was very comfortable, it was AC and the TT played three roles: that of checking tickets, serving us breakfast (which we could not eat as we were full) and finally as a vendor for the Macchu Picchu goodies.

The scenery on the way was beautiful. We rode by the Urumbura River, it was flowing rapidly over rocks and boulders – I don’t think this one can raft in this river.

We reached Agua Calientes promptly at 10:40 am. Met the guy from the hotel (Inti Inn) and our tour guide from Condor Travels.  He was a short, stinky man – Horatio. He was a little hard to follow because of his strong accent.

We took the bus to go up the hill to see Macchu Picchu – a 20 min ride. Lovely ride, went like a zig zag on the side of the mountain to get up to the top. The Sanctuary Lodge was at the bus stop. I am really eager now to see the sights! 

The first sight is awesome! Terraces going from bottom to higher ground. There were sections of building of solid stone, the roof must have been made of something else that is why it’s not there anymore after 500 years.

Macchu Picchu was discovered only around 1920 and it is speculated to be about 500 years old. It is hard to tell authoritatively who lived there and how. It’s quite a mystery. Apparently this site was chosen to keep it as a secret; but was this a religious community, a royalty with slaves – who knows? But it is definitely an Inca ruin. The architecture and build of the buildings is the same as we have been seeing for Inca history. They all have same joints as others. The stones had a variety of cuts – 4-12 and they still managed to fit together – great engineering. Some had the male-female joints for good connection. All stones are granite, so dark and definitely very hard. And their sizes are so big – who knows how they cut them and put them in places.

There is a great significance of 3 in Inca – the three animals are the condor, puma and the snake. The symbol of Inca is also significant – why? Horatio showed us all the rooms and temples but its all speculation. Everyone seems to read the same touristy books. Macchu Picchu was not discovered by the Spanish so Inca were their own enemies by letting their culture die out by making Macchu Picchu so inaccessible and secretive. If they were hiding from someone – then who? So many questions… The Inca did not have a script, their structures don’t have any carvings either. So maybe they were a culture just trying to exist – there was no way for them to communicate except verbally, which is probably why they did not last long.

Being on the top of the mountain must have been hard too…it was not an easy mountain. They did have a good aqua duct and irrigation system, a good ventilation system – so really good engineers. Rooms were all small, the doorways are all small - maybe they were tiny people. But then how did they manage to move around such huge stones? And why are the royal quarters and the farmer’s quarters the same size and shape? Maybe this was a monastery.

Horatio was speculating that about 3000-4000 people lived here – but it seemed big enough for only a few hundred. So right now I am just going to admire the place, make my own story sine the one from the guide is not working well for me.  We went all around Macchu Picchu before going to the Watchman’s Hut – which is where one gets the classic view of Macchu Picchu.

Just spectacular! I can just sit there and not know how much time has passed by. Today it rained all for almost 3 hrs. while we were touring. It’s no fun trouping such a beautiful site under an umbrella. And of course since we were high up, clouds were everywhere. It was very pretty, but still….

Horatio left us to tour by ourselves at 1 pm. We had lunch at the Sanctuary Lodge. I was a little tired as there was a lot of going up and down during the tour. Lunch was buffet and it was ok – had some lentils, rice, potatoes.

The sun came out at 2:15 pm. And we went to the Watchman’s Hut the hard way – straight up! Okay! The view was just amazing – breathtaking. Sun does make things so much better.

We decided to go on a trail hike – about 35 mins round trip to see the Inca Bridge. Nice walk, saw the Urumbura River all the way. We were walking away from Macchu Picchu at this point. The trail was not that strenuous – just narrow but not hard to do. The bridge was a little rinky dinky thing on the side of the mountain – but still….a nice Kodak moment (or Cannon moment).

Came back by and decided to tackle the Sun Gate trail – 45 mins walk one way!! And the entire trail was uphill. Oof – what a killer! It was really tough on the feet and butt…but of course I did it. It was lovely view all the way. We could see MP from there – quite spectacular – totally worth the walk. There were a lot of people on the trail, so it was nice. There was a wishing point on the way. I never miss an opportunity to make a wish.

Walk back was a lot better as it was downhill. We stopped again at the Watchman’s Hut to get some more photos. Now MP was quite empty…lovely.  Took the bus down to Agua Caliente around 5:15 pm.  A little boy – around 6 yrs. old, would come to our bus at every curve and shout out “Adios”. So cute – little dangerous, but so cute. At the bus stop his dad and he came on the bus to ask for money. Oh I should have seen that coming!!

Agua Calientes is a little town which has a hot spring (hence the name). The town is really just there for MP visitors. So it’s all very touristy. It is full of hotels, restaurants and shops. Our hotel seemed so far away from the bus stop, since my feet were really hurting. We checked in – nice hotel. We walked back into the city to have dinner – pizza. We also managed to get pisco sour (a drink). Pizza was good – thin crust and not oily like American pizza.

What a great day! Went back to the hotel, took a shower and went to sleep!