Machu Picchu
Trip Start
Apr 24, 2007
1
56
68
Trip End
Jul 17, 2007
Machu Picchu,
Peru
Friday, June 29, 2007
Then breakfast - interest in subsistence was limited at best even before the rat ran across the dining room and into the kitchens. Oh well, it was really too early for food.
Then a short walk to the bus station for a half hour wait for a bus. I´m sure that Aguas Calientes bus station is normally an interesting place, at 4.45am it´s a corker (and surprisingly busy).
A bus journey in the dark up the mountain side, we lost count of the number of switchbacks the bus negotiated. Then a run to the checkpoint, to be almost (two other people were already there) first in the queue
01 First view as the sky lightens
. A couple of minutes wait - the site opens at 6am - and we´re off at speed again.The target is the Watchman´s hut. This is where all the classic photos of Machu Picchu are taken. We were first there, so got the best seats (i.e. the most "comfortable" rocks). There was then a wait for the sun to rise over the surrounding mountains (this was good as we all needed to stop wheezing).
As the sky lightened, we got glimpses of the ruins through the mist / low cloud. Usually the mist burns off around 7am and it looked promising.
Unfortunately, mother nature wasn´t playing ball today. The mist failed to clear - we´d see hints of a ruin and / or a nearby mountain and then the mist would cover them again.
We then went back down to the entrance for breakfast (no rodents spotted here) and to meet our site guide. An hour and a half guided tour followed - slightly scary as he was very scientific (including astrological diagrams with formulas attached). As time progressed so the mist lifted and the sun came out.
02 Ooo I can see some buildings
After the tour, we had some free time to explore the site and / or fall off the side of a mountain (health and safety was not a key point for the Inca builders).
After wandering around some areas we hadn´t seen we went back to the Watchman´s hut to see the full view without the mist and to take hundreds of near identical photos.
Then back on the bus to Aguas Calientes, lunch and back on the train to Ollantaytambo.
This was a, erm, slightly different journey. The first entertainment involved a staff member in a white costume (complete with what looked like a Llama handbag) wearing a (knitted balaclava) ´devil´ face danced up and down the carriage and tried to avoid hitting the passengers with his ´twirling stick´. Next up a male and a female staff member gave a fashion show of various Alpaca knitwear that they were selling on the train. Many male passengers paid a great deal of attention at this point (it wasn´t the knitwear they took a fancy to). You don´t get that on British Rail!
Some comments on Machu Picchu:
- it´s positioned on a plateau near the top of a mountain,
- it´s surrounded by a range of other mountains,
- the whole area is green (it is classed as "cloud forest"),
- the site is precariously balanced on the mountain slopes,
- it is an "unfinished" city (it was abandoned before completion),
- it is more than just foundations (the buildings are intact bar the roofs).
Despite the poor sunrise we suffered, it was worth getting there stupidly early. By 10.30 the place was packed with tour groups and smelly hikers.
Then a bus journey back to Cuzco with the fastest Peruvian driver we´ve had so far. An early dinner and quiet evening and that was about it.
