Where to start - I guess the beginning, which would be last evening. From yesterday’s photos of the Inkallpa Inn, it was easy to tell that this was a wonderful place and yet very remote. We had our now obligatory pisca sour in the bar while I worked on my blog, then had a lovely meal with a very passable Peruvian red wine. It was late when we called it a day and by 4:50 a.m. we were up this morning. From that moment, it was clear that today was going to be spectacular, with bright blue skies and pleasant temperatures. Breakfast at the hotel normally starts at 6:00, the time for our departure, but they actually opened up early to feed us. Our driver was early and twenty minutes later, he deposited us at the Ollantaytambo train station. The train ride on a narrow gauge vista train - that meant windows extended up into the ceiling for continued viewing of the towering Andes mountains - was approximately one and a half hours of fabulous scenery along the Urubamba gorge.
We met our guide Fatima, in Machu Picchu Pueblo, the staging base town for Machu Picchu. It was a bustling, scenic resort-like town.
The next leg of the trip was by bus on perilous, to put it mildly, switchbacking roads, four hundred metres up the mountain side to the main gates of Machu Picchu. Thank God for this bus, because it would have been a hell of a trek by foot - probably a couple of days.
We had a small group today, with the two Aussie couples from yesterday joining us. From the moment that we finally caught our first glimpse of Machu Picchu, we were in awe! It was so quiet among the group that one might have thought that we just walked into a religious sanctuary. Well, in a manner of speaking, we did! The first thing that strikes you is that Machu Picchu is much larger than you ever imagined.
This site was never found by the Spaniards, so was spared mass demolition. There were about 500 inhabitants of this village with maybe an Inca and maybe not. With the demise of the last Inca and his people vanquished, the site very rapidly returned to the jungle. Although not considered part of the jungle, this micro climate nestled inside massive Andean peaks is definitely pre-jungle and it rapidly revegetated, until it was discovered in 1911 by American Hiram Bingham.
The rest as they say is history, but what we know about Machu Picchu is largely speculative since the original inhabitants left no written record. Their communication was strictly oral, so once the Spaniards got their hands on the Inca’s followers, knowledge of Machu Picchu rapidly vanished. Given the Egyptian and Greek proclivity for graffiti, is amazing to think that none of the scholars under the Inca came up with some form of written language.
Thousands of years ago, there was a massive earthquake that split the Machu Picchu site in two. The chasm created has filled in with erosion but still notably divides the city in half - the agricultural sector and the dwelling sector - residential lower down and religious up above.
Every dwelling was built with a purpose and much of that purpose had to do with the sun, which we had in abundance today. Many of the structures focused on their location in relation to the winter and summer solstice, when the sun was at its extremes. The photo below shows the place through which the sun shines on summer solstice.
We walked through the entire middle and lower site, with lots of information along the way. There were lots of stairs on our route, but they were broken up with stops for information and Dawn did fine. Some descents were steep and a little on the edge, but Dawn still did fine. One of our group actually had a cane and she did OK as well.
The tour took two and a half hours, so it was reasonably paced. I don’t think anyone felt wasted at the end of it. One of the most startling sites on our tour involved this guard, who, at first, we thought was a statue.
Although I know they limit the number of people visiting daily, this place was a cross between beehive and ant hill today. Their really crazy day is June 21 - winter solstice for them, when the sun does all the magic that the Inca intended.
The tour ended and everyone went off to lunch at the only restaurant on the site, The Sanctuary. Before that, however, I really felt I needed to get up to the Gatehouse at the top of the village, where the penultimate photo was to be had. Our guide really wanted me to go after lunch, but I knew that we had a schedule regarding getting back to Cusco and I was afraid I’d miss the opportunity. I won and away I went.
Bragging time! She figured you needed thirty minutes to get up and back. I did it in seventeen, with slightly less huffing and puffing than yesterday. And what a view!
Lunch was buffet style again and was accompanied by Peruvian musicians.
We bid farewell to our Aussie tour-mates at around 1:30 and hopped on the next bus back to Machu Picchu Pueblo. The bus drivers did an astounding job on the essentially single lane dirt path with the shear drop-offs and when they met other buses, as happened regularly, they figured out ways to get past each other, politely. The train ride back to Cusco involved a transfer to a bus in Poroy where the train ends. We also had onboard food and a fashion show designed to sell high-end Peruvian alpaca clothing. It was quite entertaining.
Our bus ride to Cusco from Poroy was challenging for Dawn. The bus here has replaced the train, whose rails got lost in a landslide. So, they think like train engineers, which means any traffic in front of them should be obliterated. It’s night now and our driver passed on hills and curves and if he wasn’t passing he was honking and generally intimidating the traffic ahead. We finally rolled into the Cusco station - alive -which we discovered was a stone’s throw from our hotel - back at the Eco Inn. First order of business was out final Pisca Sour. They are delightful! We had dinner and retired where I finished this entry that I got almost complete on train and bus ride. We will be picked up tomorrow at 9:00 - civilized hour - and delivered to the airport where we fly to Lima, then Atlanta, then Toronto. I think that retrospective is necessary now, but I think I’ll do that, with a final blog for this journey, when we get home.
Where to start - I guess the beginning, which would be last evening. From yesterday’s photos of the Inkallpa Inn, it was easy to tell that this was a wonderful place and yet very remote. We had our now obligatory pisca sour in the bar while I worked on my blog, then had a lovely meal with a very passable Peruvian red wine. It was late when we called it a day and by 4:50 a.m. we were up this morning. From that moment, it was clear that today was going to be spectacular, with bright blue skies and pleasant temperatures. Breakfast at the hotel normally starts at 6:00, the time for our departure, but they actually opened up early to feed us. Our driver was early and twenty minutes later, he deposited us at the Ollantaytambo train station. The train ride on a narrow gauge vista train - that meant windows extended up into the ceiling for continued viewing of the towering Andes mountains - was approximately one and a half hours of fabulous scenery along the Urubamba gorge.
We met our guide Fatima, in Machu Picchu Pueblo, the staging base town for Machu Picchu. It was a bustling, scenic resort-like town.
The next leg of the trip was by bus on perilous, to put it mildly, switchbacking roads, four hundred metres up the mountain side to the main gates of Machu Picchu. Thank God for this bus, because it would have been a hell of a trek by foot - probably a couple of days.
We had a small group today, with the two Aussie couples from yesterday joining us. From the moment that we finally caught our first glimpse of Machu Picchu, we were in awe! It was so quiet among the group that one might have thought that we just walked into a religious sanctuary. Well, in a manner of speaking, we did! The first thing that strikes you is that Machu Picchu is much larger than you ever imagined.
This site was never found by the Spaniards, so was spared mass demolition. There were about 500 inhabitants of this village with maybe an Inca and maybe not. With the demise of the last Inca and his people vanquished, the site very rapidly returned to the jungle. Although not considered part of the jungle, this micro climate nestled inside massive Andean peaks is definitely pre-jungle and it rapidly revegetated, until it was discovered in 1911 by American Hiram Bingham.
The rest as they say is history, but what we know about Machu Picchu is largely speculative since the original inhabitants left no written record. Their communication was strictly oral, so once the Spaniards got their hands on the Inca’s followers, knowledge of Machu Picchu rapidly vanished. Given the Egyptian and Greek proclivity for graffiti, is amazing to think that none of the scholars under the Inca came up with some form of written language.
Thousands of years ago, there was a massive earthquake that split the Machu Picchu site in two. The chasm created has filled in with erosion but still notably divides the city in half - the agricultural sector and the dwelling sector - residential lower down and religious up above.
Every dwelling was built with a purpose and much of that purpose had to do with the sun, which we had in abundance today. Many of the structures focused on their location in relation to the winter and summer solstice, when the sun was at its extremes. The photo below shows the place through which the sun shines on summer solstice.
We walked through the entire middle and lower site, with lots of information along the way. There were lots of stairs on our route, but they were broken up with stops for information and Dawn did fine. Some descents were steep and a little on the edge, but Dawn still did fine. One of our group actually had a cane and she did OK as well.
The tour took two and a half hours, so it was reasonably paced. I don’t think anyone felt wasted at the end of it. One of the most startling sites on our tour involved this guard, who, at first, we thought was a statue.
Although I know they limit the number of people visiting daily, this place was a cross between beehive and ant hill today. Their really crazy day is June 21 - winter solstice for them, when the sun does all the magic that the Inca intended.
The tour ended and everyone went off to lunch at the only restaurant on the site, The Sanctuary. Before that, however, I really felt I needed to get up to the Gatehouse at the top of the village, where the penultimate photo was to be had. Our guide really wanted me to go after lunch, but I knew that we had a schedule regarding getting back to Cusco and I was afraid I’d miss the opportunity. I won and away I went.
Bragging time! She figured you needed thirty minutes to get up and back. I did it in seventeen, with slightly less huffing and puffing than yesterday. And what a view!
Lunch was buffet style again and was accompanied by Peruvian musicians.
We bid farewell to our Aussie tour-mates at around 1:30 and hopped on the next bus back to Machu Picchu Pueblo. The bus drivers did an astounding job on the essentially single lane dirt path with the shear drop-offs and when they met other buses, as happened regularly, they figured out ways to get past each other, politely. The train ride back to Cusco involved a transfer to a bus in Poroy where the train ends. We also had onboard food and a fashion show designed to sell high-end Peruvian alpaca clothing. It was quite entertaining.
Our bus ride to Cusco from Poroy was challenging for Dawn. The bus here has replaced the train, whose rails got lost in a landslide. So, they think like train engineers, which means any traffic in front of them should be obliterated. It’s night now and our driver passed on hills and curves and if he wasn’t passing he was honking and generally intimidating the traffic ahead. We finally rolled into the Cusco station - alive -which we discovered was a stone’s throw from our hotel - back at the Eco Inn. First order of business was out final Pisca Sour. They are delightful! We had dinner and retired where I finished this entry that I got almost complete on train and bus ride. We will be picked up tomorrow at 9:00 - civilized hour - and delivered to the airport where we fly to Lima, then Atlanta, then Toronto. I think that retrospective is necessary now, but I think I’ll do that, with a final blog for this journey, when we get home.
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