Ollantaytambo Village to Aguas Calientes
On Saturday we headed out from our hostel to the railway station where we boarded our Peru Rail train for the much anticipated visit to the ruins of Machu Picchu (World Heritage Site and one of the new 7 wonders of the world) deep in the Andes. The train ride was really amazing. We chose to take the Expedition train and were really glad that we did. During the 2 hour ride to Machu Picchu we were able to take in all of the scenery en-route by way of large panoramic windows in our carriage on each side, as well as on the ceiling. During the ride, they also played soothing music from the Andes which really created the perfect environment and put us into quite a peaceful state of mind. (It didn’t hurt that they provided chocolate and pretzels for snacks either). We arrived at around noon to Machu Picchu Town (aka Aguas Calientes) and spent the day preparing for our adventure.
Machu Picchu
We awoke before sunrise, at 5am on Sunday the 6th of February to visit one of the most anticipated stops on our tour of South America – Machu Picchu. At around 2pm the day before, the skies opened up and it rained fairly consistently throughout the evening and night – with a few breaks that gave us some hope for a non-rainy day to follow. Our B&B hotel is right on the Aguas Caliente River, so we often heard the rushing of the river and sometimes confused it at first with rain. We were pretty convinced that we would not see a sunrise (based on the typical weather for Machu Picchu which is often skirted in clouds for the better part of the morning). We also knew there would be no sunrise viewing just based on prior experiences (for those who’ve known us long and followed the blog through some Central America trips you know we do not have luck with clear skies for any sunrise activity!) so we planned to be on a 6am bus to the site. We made it and at 6:10 our bus was on its way up the curvy and harrowing steep slope toward the most impressive archaeological site we have ever seen.
Our first glimpse as the fog lightened for a moment!
llamas enjoy the views, too! :)
Our luck with cloud cover meant we could not actually see the mountains or the ruins as we drove up, or even as we first walked into the site! We did see the buildings that were within our line of sight and not blocked by the deep mountain fog that first appears along the mountainside so we went in to check them out and see if there were any other ruins in the distance. We continued upward and came to another building higher up on the mountain that served as a guard house for the Inca and were excited to see the fog start to break and provide us a glimpse of the main living area of the site – we quickly snapped some photos before it covered back up then spent a few more minutes sheltered by the thatch of the guard house along with several other visitors. The best part of the early arrival was the smaller number of visitors and feeling like we had the site all to ourselves for a couple of hours. We spent some time hiking to the Sun Gate and along some of the smaller trails on the opposite more remote area of the park. The hike to the Sun Gate was long, and not very rewarding (in terms of the vistas) as the fog continued to wreak havoc on our early morning visit.
We returned to the main area of the complex and after some time spent sheltering ourselves in the Inca guard booth, we peaked out and saw that the fog was pushing away and making the site much more visible. Excitement ensued among all the visitors and we all rushed out to take turns taking photos. The fog rolled in again and we returned to our post for a short time before planning to walk the trail to the Inca Bridge (Puente de Inka); yet, after a somewhat long morning of on-and-off-again rain, shivering, and altitude adjustment, we became pretty hungry and opted to return to the entrance for our bags to make peanut butter crackers and pick up a few more of our energy bars and snacks.
vistas throughout the day
terrazas (reinforce the mountain to support the weight of the structure above and used for agriculture)
The walk to the Puente de Inka was really incredible following along a steep trail etched out of the mountain with shear drops at up to 1000 feet. Many visitors commented, and we enthusiastically agreed, that they were not winning any awards for safety on this particular trail. There actually were areas where we had to hold onto a nylon rope that was secured to the mountain because the path grew so narrow. We both completed the trek, not sure why neither of us questioned the safety while en-route, but we definitely pondered a bit more on the way back. It is unimaginable to consider how the Inca even built this bridge right along the mountain (let alone the entire site!). ginnie discovered a pretty strong fear of heights at this moment, but made it to the bridge and back. We made our way back carefully through the very narrow path perched over 800 feet up and once on more secure footing were ready to explore the buildings of the site.
Puente de Inka - look at that steep drop!
one of our first clear views!
When we returned to the site, it was still really windy and we needed a pit stop at the guard house to dry off the camera and rest. While in there, ginnie noticed the rain was moving sideways – parallel to the ground – because of the wind. We kept hoping for just a little sun. When we got into the buildings, we got our wish and the rain stopped and we had about 3-4 hours of calm weather with enough sunshine to keep our views clear. It was perfect for looking mesmerized at the intricate stonework indicative of the Inca. The granite looks as if it is put together like a perfect puzzle – it’s incredible. We both were fascinated with the enormous presence of the mountains surrounding the site and the tall structures. We also visited the astronomical observatory where the Temple of the Sun sits right in the center of 4 mountains and has its own compass pointing to the four cardinal directions, as well as each of the four sacred mountains observed by the Inca.
close-ups of the structures and stonework
We spent the entire day at the site and at times just sat overlooking them in awe and in peace. We find it difficult to adequately describe the beauty and magnificence of this amazing place. We hope our photos can give you a glimpse into a bit of Inca history and inspire you to learn more about the Inca culture (and if you haven’t yet, to visit this remarkable site). Several people advised us to come in to Aguas Calientes/Machu Picchu Village the day before so we could spend a full day at the site and we are so glad we did. It gave us time to really see all we could and to have several pockets of time with far fewer people around the site. We have been so lucky to have this experience and to explore the Inca culture.
*For People Planning to Travel to Machu Picchu in the next couple of months – here’s some important information! They have changed their ticket selling method as of January 11th and now you must purchase your ticket online and receive a reservation which you take to the Banco de la Nacion for payment. You will be issued your ticket at the Banco. We were not aware of this, and clearly neither were any of the people at our hostal because they sent us to the normal ticket booth where we met a man who did not clearly articulate and explain where we could purchase our tickets. We ended up walking several places around town to find Internet and when we did, it was very slow, so by the time our reservation was printed it was minutes past 1pm and, being Saturday, the bank was now closed until Monday. A kind police officer took us into the ticket sales place, explained what we told him and a gentleman there said we could pay there, it would not be a problem. Just make sure you plan on buying your tickets ahead of time to prevent any unnecessary delays.
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