Machu Picchu - at long last!

So this was it - Machu Picchu Day. Most of us, during our first breakfast info session, had said that the main reason we took this trip was to visit Machu Picchu. And we would finally get that chance. Our day started early enough, except that both Larry and Alan had had a rather difficult night. Whether it was just altitude sickness or that and something they ate not agreeing with them, they didn't quite feel up to Machu Picchu, but were going to do it just because.

The train ride from the Ollantaytambo station was about an hour and a half, but it was on a rather shaky train running on a narrow gauge rail system. The scenery, though, was quite nice and we could see the change from the highlands to the cloud forest as we proceeded toward Machu Picchu Pueblo, which used to be called Aguas Calientes. We would be staying overnight at the Inkaterra Machu Picchu Hotel which is part of the Relais & Chateaux chain, which means very high class, and only had our duffel bags with us for the night.

Following the mighty Urubamba River
towards Machu Picchu - and the river flows
farther along into the Amazon Basin

 

One of the local farmers, still tilling his
fields using bulls, above the Inca
terraces near the river edge.

 

Once we arrived at Machu Picchu station, we still had a 25 minute bus ride ahead of us, up switchbacks, to get from the station to the actual entrance to Mach Picchu itself. The bus system is run by a monopoly, which means they could have bought old school buses if they wanted, but in fact the buses were very comfortable and gave a good view of the steep mountain sides we were traveling up. After about 20 minutes we could see the buildings of Machu Picchu peeking over the ridges and we all started to get excited. Once we got off the bus and through the gate, it became very real that we had finally reached that 'bucket list' destination.

It was almost enough to make some of us cry. The sheer size of the city, the altitude, the mountains surrounding it, and the amazing structures themselves were almost too much to take all at once. Even after having read a number of books on the Incas and the 'rediscovery' of Machu Picchu by Hiram Bingham III in 1911, nothing could prepare us for the real thing. Rather than try to put it into words, we'll just use photos:

The 'local' llamas.

 

 

Temple of the Condor from above. With very little imagination,
you can see the bird shape in the rocks.



The Temple of the Condor. The second most
sacred place in Machu Picchu next to the
Temple of the Sun. Those stones shaped
like an hourglass behind Elizabeth were set that way deliberately.
Imagine the time and effort that went into
placing each one.

 

Native plants and animals - begonias, just like we have
at home, and a small bird, about the size of a sparrow.

The Temple of the Three Windows - even Bingham couldn't figure
out it's meaning. That small stone to the left of the big one in the middle
is shaped like the top half of the Andean Cross. ONLY on June 21
does its shadow provide the bottom half of the cross. Was this
by accident or on purpose???

The Intihuatana Stone, or altar to the Sun God, Inti.
Just like so many other famous sites, it is
a lot smaller up close than one would imagine.

The iconic photo. At last we can say we have
one taken by our own camera!

It would have been nicer with Larry in the picture as well,
but we'll have to do with just one of us.
And you wouldn't believe some of the staircases it
took to get here!

 

The area is closed to visitors after 4:30 p.m., partly because at this time of year, the sun goes down behind the mountains at about 5:30, so we clambered down from the gate house, our final destination and the spot for taking those breathtaking views over the whole city, and headed back to the buses. From there, we had a 10 minute walk past the local market to reach our hotel. The only problem was that the Inkaterra Hotel is very eco-minded and has a lot - and we mean a lot- of stairs to climb, first from town and second to get to our rooms. The room was quite nice, with lots of windows, but we didn't take any photos because Larry was occupying the bed for quite a bit of that time. As mentioned in the photo captions, he wasn't feeling quite up to all the climbing after his rough night, and gave up early. Marco kindly took him back to the hotel early and helped him check in. He couldn't even have figured out how to get from our casita to the dining room if Monica hadn't been able to show him, he had been that weak and tired when he arrived.

Monica, in the meantime, had made it to the picture spot along with almost everyone else - Alan and Margaret had had to bail out early for the same reason, and only found out where we were staying once she got there. We had arranged to have dinner with Alan and Margaret that evening, anyway, but after a quick phone call we determined that our party of 4 had turned into a party of 1 - Monica. She went into the dining room alone, but ended up eating with some of the other Canadians - June and her daughter Karen. June is originally from Britain but lives in Guildwood Village in Scarborough, and Karen lives in Penetanguishene. It also happened to be June's 78th birthday that day, and we had sung 'Happy Birthday' to her in the train station. - Note to self: we have to make sure we're on a Tauck vacation on somebody's birthday - they really make a big deal of it. So, after a nice dinner and a toast to June's birthday, we headed for bed. The Machu Picchu sunrise tour was to go early the next morning, and Monica wanted to take part.

Of course, wanting doesn't necessarily mean doing - Larry was feeling a bit better at 5:00 in the morning, but not well enough to trek out for the sunrise. Monica, on the other hand, had lost her voice altogether. It would have been nice, but the cool temperatures and the damp would not have been the best thing, so she decided to stay at the hotel. From what we heard, the sunrise was spectacular, but getting over these colds and other things was more important. Hopefully, we can get some photos from Margaret and Alan, as they managed to do the trip.

Monica had also booked to do the nature walk in the hotel grounds in the morning. That was also quite interesting. The Inkaterra Hotel has the grounds plus a tea plantation, plus they are the stewards of quite a number of hectares of arable land in the area, keeping quite a few local people employed. The nature walk was very interesting, and our guide Jose pointed out a number of birds, hummingbirds, plants and orchids along the way. The hotel actually has an orchid garden, but at this time of year, one doesn't see the big flowers like the Cattleyas we get at home, just some of the really small varieties. Here are a few pictures from the walk:

Blue Grey Tanagers, plentiful in this area

One of the very, very tiny orchid flowers in the garden.
So small we had to look at it through a magnifying
glass.



The Tea Room - where the tea leaves are washed, rolled and dried over
fire in that big stone area in the middle. The difference
between teas, such as green tea and black tea, is the amount
of time they 'ferment' in a big vat before being
dried.

 

We headed back to Ollantaytambo on the train, and into Cusco by bus, after lunch. We were staying at the famous Hotel Monasterio in the southern part of town. This building was originally a monastery but was turned into a hotel by the Vatican, who still owns the property. The hotel is run by Belmond and is a spectacular venue. We'll have more pictures of that in the next posting.

As usual, we had dinner and were in bed by about 9:30. Not usual for a vacation, but this is not at all the usual vacation - oh, sorry, adventure trip.