Machu Picchu
Trip Start
Dec 30, 2007
1
37
50
Trip End
Jun 22, 2008
Aguas calientes,
Peru
Thursday, May 8, 2008
There is no question as to whether you will go to Machu Picchu. The question is how. We deliberated for some time and decided that the best bet was the Salkantay trail, ending in Aguas Calientes. Although all the agencies sell 'alternative hikes' to MP, only the Inca Trial actually goes to the ruins, all others end in the access town of Aguas Calientes.
We believed that the Salkantay was the most spectacular and difficult of the various routes, and perhaps it was, but it was much easier than we had expected. The high point is 4600m, with beautiful views of Mt Salkantay, but the trekking was not arduous. Perhaps we had finally become accustomed to the altitude. The other surprise for us is that the trek was much less remote than we had imagined.
The first day we spent walking along a four wheel drive track
Salkantay
. There were some beautiful views - coming around one corner and having the full view of Umantay come into vision all at once was incredible; and bettered by coming around a later corner and seeing the icy mass of Salkantay ('wild mountain' in Quechua). We camped that night with a view of both and some of the brightest stars you could wish to see. Bright enough that we could make out the vague black images of the llama and the serpent coming to drink at the Milky Way, which the Incas conceived as a river (and the source of rain) mirroring the Urabamba river that flows past MP and through the Sacred Valley. Day two was a beautiful morning hike to the pass, with Salkantay visible much of the way. It is a huge mass of a mountain, and the most impressive part of the hike. We then soon descended into cloud forest, with arches of bamboo, and strange cones of yellow flowers dominating the canopy.
Day three was a dull trudge along a wide track, and then a road, to finish at Santa Teresa. Cows were being butchered in a shack across the road from our camp site. My clothes disappeared from the clothes line. Many of our group went out drinking. One came back vomiting. We were back in civilisation. Things picked up the next morning though - the clothes turned up, a missing camera was located
Salkantay again
. The walk to the next stop, Hidroelectrica, was along a road but with pretty forested hills on either side. And the hike along the railway tracks after lunch was beautiful. The ruins of Machu Picchu could be seen above, the forest was beautiful and I saw a long slinky predator sneaking through the address (probably a tayra, a kind of giant weasel), and some beautiful birds - the bright red cock-in-the-rock, and the gorgeous highland motmot with its double racquet tail on full display. Machu Picchu
Aguas Calientes lies in a beautiful setting at the foot of many spectacularly steep hills. One of these hosts the ruins, some 400m above the river. The climb in the dark the next morning up something over 1650 steps (counts vary) is memorable but less painful than might be thought. It was extremely frustrating though to get to the top, to be one of the first few people there before gates open, and have to wait while bus loads enter, because the guide with the tickets has stayed with the slow members of the group struggling up the hill. Mutiny was brewing, as the opportunity to see the ruins without the masses slipped away.
We were accompanied from our hostel by a small golden retriever. He sat under the table in the restaurant while we ate our bread, and followed us down the road to the start of the steps up the cliff to the ruins. Than he disappeared, but he knew where we were going because he turned up at the top, perhaps having taken the road. He came in with us too, but went off to check out other tourists. But as Nancy and I started home again, there he was ready to lead us down. He even waited at turns that he seemed to think we might not know. I think he is our favourite guide of the trip
The jungle
. MP is the most hyped thing in South America. Peruvians are extraordinarily proud of it. It is the most expensive ruin in all the Americas, and perhaps the biggest draw card on the continent. So a dash of cold water is justified. The location is beautiful. No argument. The views of the entire site looking down from Huayna Picchu or the Inca Trail or impressive. But the ruins themselves fall far short of the billing. Yes, there is exquisite masonry and the Incas' ability to fit stones together seems almost supernatural. But you can see that for free in Cusco or Ollantaytambo. Their ability to build on and terrace the steepest slopes is uncanny. I do not say 'don't go'; but I would say 'if you are going to see one ruin in the Americas, visit a Central American one - say Teotihuacan, Copan or Tikal, even Chichen Itza'. Their ceremonial structures are on a far grander scale than anything at Machu Picchu, and, I think, more impressive.
But MP is still a worthy visit. We spent a long time there, hiking up to the top of Huayna Picchu for a bird's eye view of the ruins and trying to discern the famous condor shape; hiking back up the Inca Trail (a paved track cut into the side of the hill) to the Sun Gate; and wandering around the ruins. For me, the highlight is the "Inca Bridge"
Blue crowned motmot
. The Incas were faced with a vertical cliff, and somehow found a place to start building, block by block, until they were able to create a path of rocks resting, it seems, on almost nothing across the face of the cliff. The water channels were delightful too - about an inch deep and carrying water all over the site from a spring. Late in the day we saw a llama drinking from one - a perfect image, the quintessential Andean animal drinking from a network crafted by the Incas 500 years ago. As it grew late and the visitors left, viscachas emerged and started to reclaim the ruins. We had glimpsed this shy animal, like a cross between a rabbit and a squirrel, numerous times before, but now could get a close look, in the most unlikely of places - the temple of the condor. No one really knows anything about the place. Why was it abandoned? When? Why was it built? Who lived there? For how long? What was its purpose? All the guides have their pet theories but the books admit that we don't know.
We spent the night in Aguas Calientes and ate well at a Peruvian Chinese place. The tv was on (it always is in this continent), showing the live broadcast of the opening of a conference centre for international summits: full speeches and everything. It must have been even more boring for those who could understand it well. But the live broadcast was interrupted repeatedly by news of a new by-law: punishing those whose roosters caused too much noise. Having spent the last few days listening to roosters starting in the middle of the night (not an expression I am using figuratively), I have some sympathy for the measure, but I wonder what you are supposed to do if you own a rooster. It's not as if they will stop if you take them out for walks more regularly.
