Mindblowing Incas

Monday, May 28

Today was the day I’d been waiting for.  Really, the reason I’m here, the rest is just gravy.  Machu Picchu.  It’s been a long wait.  Back in high school I took Spanish with a teacher who taught us more than just how to speak Spanish but also about the cultures and countries that speak it.  I once won a poster in her class at the end of the year that was that quintessential Machu Picchu shot.  And here I was about to go there, finally.  I thought of her this morning as I made my way up there.

I had an early start, getting up at 5:30.  I could have stayed in bed longer but I just couldn’t sleep any longer, having fallen asleep around 9:30 last night.  I don’t know if it’s the fresh air, the exercise of traipsing up and down all these stairs at the ruins or the altitude but I’m sleeping exceptionally well.  Hearing a bunch of folks leave for the train station at 4:45 made me feel like I was going to be late.  My train wasn’t until 8:00 but still...

I showered, applied sunblock and bug repellent and headed off for breakfast, which was in the same dining room as dinner was last night.  It was a nice breakfast with scrambled eggs, breakfast rolls and a sort of breakfast cake, mango and granola.  Now, I’ve been making my own granola at home lately and this was quite different.  They use the ingredients that are native to the area, so this was made of corn, quinoa and a little bit of coconut.  I had it with some freshly made strawberry yogurt and it was quite good.  This hotel, was a very nice alternative in a somewhat not so nice little town. I don’t know where I’d have stayed if I didn’t stay there!

Armando picked me up at 7:20 and we walked less than 5 minutes down to the train station.  The one thing I can say for both the train and bus service to Machu Picchu is that they are incredibly well organized.  The whole system runs like clockwork.  We boarded our train at 8:00, climbed into our pre-assigned seats and off we went.  As Maria told me earlier this week, my small carry-on suitcase was fine but anything bigger wouldn’t have worked.  The only holds for luggage were at the doors to the trains like European trains have.  I’m not sure what folks would do if they showed up with anything bigger.  Most everyone else got the message and had a small knapsack that could fit under their seat.  I am glad I unloaded my Amazon clothing and left it at my hotel in Cuzco since Armando was doing a lot of schlepping my bag around today.

The train ride was 90 minutes and quite scenic.  Included in the fare was a snack and a beverage.  I had mango juice and a piece of carrot bread that was really good.  Along the way we saw the official start of the Inca Trail and it was kind of funny to see the folks starting their 4 day hike waving and jubilant as we were about 20 minutes from the entrance gate.  I imagined that’s quite an accomplishment.

Once we got to Aguascalientes (or Machu Picchu Town), a gentleman from my hotel was there to collect my bag.  He would bring it to the hotel where I’d catch up with it tonight.  Miracle of miracles, that actually happened!  It’s SO organized!

Aguascalientes doesn’t have much to make you want to stay here.  The restaurants and shops are overpriced and not terribly inviting.  Thankfully I didn’t have much time to kill once we got off the train because we walked directly to the bus line.  Buses leaves every time one is full and it’s a constant stream of buses heading up and down the dozen or so switchback turns up to Machu Picchu.

When we got to Machu Picchu, it was about 10:30. We had a few things to do like use the restroom, leave my two coats (so much for layering) at the baggage check since I didn’t want to haul them all over the site and by now it was already pretty warm, I’d say high 60s to low 70s and full sun.  I couldn’t have asked for a nicer day.

Armando started out by walking us up to the guard shack, the route for which has several great places to get nice overview shots of the entire site.  It seemed the higher I got, the more unbelievable it got.  I was finally here seeing this, walking in the steps of the Incas and Hiram BIngham himself. And with every step and every new discovery, I wondered how and why the Incas did this.

There is just so much to the site, it’s difficult to articulate it.  The actual city is set gently between two mountain peaks: Huayna Picchu and Machu Picchu. On the sides where the city isn’t being held up by those two peaks, there are sheer drops down.  Way down.  From the city upward on one side are terraces, not for farming but for reinforcing the structure.  At the top of the terraces is a guard shack that was used to oversee the city and allow for lookout for invaders.  

There are a number of temples within the sight, but none so important as the Temple of the Sun (of course, this has become an obvious theme).  It of course has at least one window that will point to the sun on the summer solstice.  Again, another common theme.  Inca was really meant to just be the king at the time, not the entire people living here then.  So there’s the house of the Inca and the bedroom of the Inca, meaning the king.  

There are a few fountains and also drainage systems and an aqueduct.  I mean really, in the mid 1400s?  They were splitting rock, carving rock to fit and hold without mortar, moving tons of stone from miles away  and oh yeah, they were embalming bodies and doing surgery using a scalpel made from obsidian, which is still what scalpels are made of today.  Go figure.  To say they were ahead of their time in this sort of technology is an understatement.  That this all remains mostly standing (some parts restored) is a testament to their skill and expertise.  To say I’m ridiculously impressed by all this is also an understatement.

We made it up to the guard shack and back down (god, the steps are treacherous) and through half of the city and we just ran out of time.  We spent almost 3 1/2 hours on that much alone.  I still have the other half of the city to do and I’m considering hiking up to the Sun Gate, which is way up over the valley and is the last stop of the Inca Trail before descending down into Machu Picchu on foot.  It all depends on the sun.  Today I was shooting photos directly into it, which was making it really tough to not blow out the highlights and balance the light.  I’m aiming to go early tomorrow and get some golden light photos hopefully before the harshest light of day.  After that and seeing the other half of the city, I’ll see how I feel and what the weather is like before I commit to that hike.  I need to be out of there by 2:30-ish to make the train back to Cuzco.

Lunch was at a nearby hotel that had a large buffet.  It was pretty good fixings and hit the spot.  I didn’t realize how hungry and thirsty I’d gotten in there.  I had a slice of veggie pizza, some ceviche (not as good as others I’ve had), chips and awesome guacamole, sweet potatoes in honey sauce.  We hopped on the bus and came back to Machu Picchu.

Here at the hotel, I was reunited with my luggage and had to say goodbye to Armando.  Tomorrow I’ll be on my own at Machu Picchu and making my way back to Cuzco after that.  Armando was a wonderful guide and I learned a lot from him not just about the history and culture I was experiencing but also about life in Peru.  I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen in such a short time here.

The hotel I’m in here, the Inkaterra, is a bunch of casitas (little houses) sectioned off to accommodate 3 or 4 guest parties in each.  It’s finer living than I’ve had to this point with nice easy chairs and a fireplace.  The bathroom is gorgeous and I can’t wait for a shower here.  I do wish I had more time here because there are a bunch of nature walks I could do on the grounds as well as a trek to see spectacled bears rescued and kept nearby.  So if anything I think I’d ask for another night here before moving back to Cuzco.

Dinner tonight was in the hotel dining room.  We had a choice of a 6:00 or 8:00 seating.  I figured I’d be out cold by 8 so I chose 6.  I wasn’t terribly hungry but had a nice salad with apples, sunflower seeds, avocado and vinegarette.  My main course was a zucchini stuffed with smoked peppers over beans and quinoa with a cheese topping.  It was really quite good.  The waiter convinced me to have dessert so I had a chocolate globe filled with coffee mousse.  Hey, I earned it.  And the hotel gave everyone a welcome drink, so I had a Pisco sour as well as a Chilcano, which was Pisco, ginger ale, lime and bitters.  It was good too!

Time to head to bed again.  I’m amazed and blessed to have had this experience.