Peru Tour - 5 - Machu Picchu

29 Dec 2005 – Machu Picchu -> Cusco

It was noisy outside so it took a long time to sleep, but still got up to the wake up call. It was raining so decided to delay the Machu Pichhu climbing…slept some more. Got up later and went for breakfast, the bag will be sent to the railway station. The fruit and bread was not that great, but pineapple jam and potatoes were awesome.

Reached Machu Pichhu by 7:30 am and by 8 am we were ready to conquer Wayana Picchu. Two Japanese girls got together with us as they did not know where the entrance was. We have company. We signed in and started the climb. Little did I know what I was getting into! The trail is about 200 m high and took about 1 hr. to complete. The steps were all very uneven and made of rocks. There was rope to hold on to, but not in all places so had to have good balance to trek.

My bag pack was too heavy for this kind of trail and then I had to take off my jacket too…an added burden. The climb was steep and I had to stop at several places to catch my breath. The girls and Bhaiya never needed to stop…but they did for me. Sweet. I really feel out of shape!

We reached almost the top and walked around the mountain and admired Machu Pichhu and Urumbura. It was cloudy but the clouds kept moving so all was visible.  We sat and admired all the scenery before hitting the last few meters of the trek. Oh! Who knew it was going to be like this.  There was a narrow, dark and low tunnel – it was only a few feet but I had to crawl through the hole without my bag pack to get through. A little harrowing. And then a wooden staircase let us to the highlight of the climb….the top of Wayana Picchu.

Wow!! What a view! So worth all the climb. There were some huge rocks and there were already so many people up there.  We sat for a while, walked around, took some nice pictures.  We sat and waited for the clouds to dissipate for about an hour.  It did get nice and sunny. Then it was time to go down!

We decided to go the other way, not the way from the hole. The first thing that came was a huge steep rock with some place holds for feet, but oh Lord it was steep! The only way down was to just sit and slide down, and that was not the worst of it. Then came the narrow, steep, small steps.  The steps were so narrow that I could barely keep a foot on them and that too sideways. When I saw them, I just about freaked out! It would need total concentration – sort of meditation, to go down. It was treacherous. I was facing the mountain and held the rocks with both my hands. There was no rope! It was such a relief to be down those stairs.

The rest was still rocky and uneven but doable.  Going down I did not have to stop. We got back to the gate by 11:45 am. And it just started raining, so all in good time. I was exhausted! I wish someone could carry me to the train. It rained and rained. We sat around Machu Pichhu till 1:30 pm and then took the bus down. (The Adios kid followed again!)  There were many kids doing touristy things, like dressing up traditionally for photo ops.

We walked around Agua Calientes to shop a bit, until our train time. Train left punctually at 3:35 pm.  The scenery is great as usual. They brought out some snacks, cookies and cake and drinks. Then some dancers came by with local dance show and grand finale was a lovely fashion show of all the local wool wear. Some of the shawls and sweaters were beautiful but as expected more than $100. Good thing I don’t wear these clothes.

We arrived at Poroy at 6:30 pm from where our guide/driver picked us up and took us to Cusco, back to the same hotel. It was a 25 min drive.  The hotel did not save us a double room so they put an extra bed in another room and no phone. Not cool.

We had some tea and went to do some grocery shopping. I always love going to local grocery shops. Bhaiya took a long time to decide which cookies he wanted which then did not buy any J.  We did buy some juice and plantain chips. I had some hot chocolate, made by hotel manager, it was great! Very rich.

Great day! Great climbing, great train ride…I have lovely visions in my head.

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!