8. Peru - Machu Picchu

on the way in from Cuzco on the train

looking back to the route in through the mountains

It was a pre-first bird chirp pre-dawn taxi across Cuzco to the station for the 6.30 train.  We learned from our taxi driver that the mournful train whistles we’d been hearing at night was to move dogs off the railway track.  For almost all journeys in Peru, other than Peru Hop, we had to show a passport and this train was no exception.  As usual a complete load of nonsense as some people weren’t asked at all.  Still, unnecessary bureaucracy creates a lot of employment, if not real jobs.  The train had picture windows in the roof so we could see snow-capped peaks as the train edged along a twisting route alongside a boisterous river into the mountains.  From a relatively open plain we travelled into a narrow tree filled canyon and there's no road access to Machu Picchu except for the last two or three miles.   We were in regular width carriages on a narrow gauge track of only two feet and that’s why the train rocked the whole three and a bit hours to Aguas Calientes, the commuter village for Machu Picchu bound visitors.

We were keen to get into the site as early as possible and so were spending a night in Aguas Calientes before another early start the following day.  We’d read there was a good museum to visit a mile or so walk away so off we set.  Unfortunately it was along the dusty road that had bus loads of M Picchu visitors every couple of minutes.  The museum was set in an attractive building and that’s all I have to say about it, except that we had to show our passports to get in.

the 05.30 bus queue

The following day we joined the bus queue at about 05.30.  It is possible to walk up but it’s a long haul, so we took the bus.  To be fair they were all geared up for lots of early-birds here and the two hundred or so people in front of us were whisked away quickly in a line of buses and we were on our way up within fifteen minutes.  Passports had to be shown.  Mist was swirling around precipitous peaks all around us as the bus zig-zagged up the road.  They weren’t really like ordinary mountains which often seem to peter out to a rounded top.  These were like a child’s drawing of very pointy mountains and all covered in jungle.  We arrived a little before opening time at 6.00 and then had to show our passports again with our tickets to get in.

climbing from the valley floor in the bus

Machu Picchu - first view

Our first view across the site and first impression was simply, wow.  Or even wow, wow.  It is indeed both other-worldly and mysterious and definitely has a feel all of it's own.  The actual site of what everyone thinks of as Machu Picchu is a partially flattened top of a mountain, unlike all those surrounding it.   Imagine a set of huge hard-boiled eggs standing on end, thinner end upwards and covered in jungle.  One of them has the top sliced off by a giant with a giant spoon.  Then the Incas came along and built Machu Picchu on it.

so atmospheric

and then the mist starts to burn off

It was exceptionally atmospheric with the swirling mist, not completely obscuring anything but not revealing it all either.  The peaks around us appeared and disappeared and instead of going up like everyone else we went down.  We found ourselves in the very best situation, alone.  For a while anyway.  Officially, there’s a daily limit of 5,000 visitors but in practice this appears to be hogwash (although passports still get checked !).  Tickets are apparently timed 6.00 - 12.00 or 12.00 - 17.30 and visitors overstaying “will be escorted to the exit by the competent authority”.   Double hogwash. 

After a couple of hours of this wonderful atmospheric mist, the sun just burnt it off and we saw the whole site in glorious sunshine.  Wow again and thrice wow.

the classic view, bathed in sunshine

Heather on the Inca Bridge trail

I presume the Incas had a variety of access routes into Machu Picchu as well as The Sun Gate and the Inca Bridge routes but most visitors arrive these days at the main gate by bus.  The Inca Bridge route is open part way out from the site and then becomes impassable with a snaking track disappearing halfway up a huge, almost sheer cliff.  Those people walking the four day Inca Trail (one of several), enter M Picchu at The Sun Gate.  This is above the main site and appears to have this name because if you get to it at dawn you can see the sun completely obscured by mist.

the Inca Bridge Trail appears to continue
along the green line on the cliff in front

There are various suggestions for what Machu Picchu was and why it was abandoned, never being found by the conquering Spaniards.  An American, Hiram Bingham III (a quintessential American name if you ask me) is credited as the discoverer of the site in 1911.  The Peruvians naturally claim a Peruvian discoverer some years before Bingham but they ignore the German who mid 19^th century published maps of the site as part of his scheme to get investors to help him loot the place.

Through a visitor’s eyes it is just an incredible place, many houses and workshops, those great Inca stone walls all set about with mountains and lots of stone fronted terraces and water channels.  None of the original roofing survives and doorways are all just two uprights and a lintel, no arches.  It is incredibly photogenic and peaceful.  One thing I did find odd though was that the first photographs of the site from 1911 show the area partly overgrown but not covered in jungle.  It had apparently sat there unpopulated for four hundred years or so and the jungle had not reclaimed it even though jungle is particularly good at fast growth.

not photoshopped in - this llama really is photobombing my shot !

Wayna Picchu

Looking at the classic view across with the buildings below the eyeline, there is a mountain behind and seemingly looming over the site.  It’s called Wayna Picchu and we had two of the maximum four hundred tickets a day which allowed us to climb it.  They really do check the numbers on this on and yes, yet again we had to show our passports.  Wayna Picchu rises about a thousand feet above Machu Picchu’s 8,000 feet and it really is more of a climb than a walk.  There are handrails and steps up through trees and undergrowth on a winding rocky and dusty path.  It is tough.  Heather went right to the top but I stopped a hundred feet or so short at the terraces looking over M Picchu itself.  The views of Machu Picchu were stunning and it looked so far down it was almost like looking at a model but it was very real.

the stroll up Wayna Picchu

the panoramic view from the top

yes, that really is Machu Picchu down there

Then we had to get down !