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Published: March 21st 2011
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As indicated in our earlier blogs, the health of ´Team Smith´ wasn´t exactly 100% this past week in Cuzco. So we were nervous when our alarm went off at 5:20am on Friday to launch our trip to Machu Picchu. In addition to the stomach and altitude issues we had been suffering from, the alarm was rousing us from an awful sleep. For some reason, between 1am and 4:30, none of us slept much. We came very close to not travelling that day given that both Abbey and I were suffering from nausea, even if it meant losing our admission and transportation tickets. I actually said "Well, if we don´t get to Machu Picchu, so be it." But we decided to chance it.
The first leg of the trip is a bus ride over a mountain pass into the sacred valley town of Pisac and through the valley to a town called Ollaytaytambo. This is rural Peru. Lots of mud brick homes, agricultural fields, and animals. We noticed that there had been several deliberate attempts to disrupt traffic. At least a dozen times, the driver had to go off the paved road to drive around trees and rocks that had been
placed there in the night. Nobody showed any hostility towards the buses that I could see, but in one town there was an active protest about something that had a large crowd. My first thought was that the locals didn´t like the tourist traffic through their towns, but I think that because there was no apparent hostility to our bus as it passed the demonstration, that the issue was something else. It could be that the form of protest (slowing, but not totally blocking tourist buses) may just be the best way to get heard. Some of those communities look like they may not get a lot of attention. There´s an election in Peru in a couple of weeks, and in some of these towns, election ads constitute the only paint the town has seen since, well, since the last election.
So the two hour bus ride brings us to Ollaytaytambo. In the recent past, there was a train all the way to Aguas Caliente from Cuzco but the rail line was disrupted by a flood about a year ago. Not hard to believe that could happen because for a good distance in the Sacred Valley the highway follows
the Urabamba River, which is absolutely raging. The highway has been washed out recently, requiring an emergency detour. Because of the temporary nature of the bus-train combination, the bus terminal at Ollantaytambo is about 350 meters from the train station, and passengers carry their luggage on a well marked, level gravel path. Thankfully, we took the tour operator´s advice and packed light for this and each of us had a small backpack, while some other travellers carried their giant wheeled luggage after they realized that the wheels didn´t work well on the gravel. Once there, the train service is excellent. Dome cars provide passengers with breathtaking views of the mountains, while a delicious breakfast is served by Peru Rail staff in sharp looking uniforms. It was on this leg of the trip that we started to feel better about the decision to proceed. Abbey had definitely perked up, and I had some bread and almonds that settled well. The views are all the more spectacular because the shape of these mountains, unlike those I´ve seen before. They are extremely steep, tree covered, and rise up 400 to 500 meters from a valley little wider than the river itself.
Once
at Aguas, we left one bag at the hotel, and made for the buses that take visitors on the 20 minute ride up the face of Machu Picchu. This is an amazing ride, using 14 switchbacks. There´s a fleet of at least ten Mercedes Benz buses that ferry people up and down the mountain. They need to be very nimble to weave their way up the road. At least twice, we came nose to nose with a bus on its way down and had to back up to a spot where the buses could pass. The view is again fantastic, but in retrospect, the most ridiculous part of the trip were the ten to twenty photos that new visitors (like us) tried to take through the windows of the moving bus on the way up, because they will pale in comparison to the photos available at the top. Thanks to the advent of digital cameras, these will be deleted and never spoken of again, but I pity the person who visited ten years ago and shot a whole roll of 35mm on that ride.
Machu Picchu has to be the most amazing thing I´ve seen. For starters, the site
is way bigger than I had expected. It covers five square kilometers, and the scale of the work required to quarry, shape and place all of those stones on the top of this mountain is amazing. The tour guide, Fabricio not only had a good knowledge of the site, but a passion for introducing it to newcomers. Fabricio also has a unique delivery style where he dramatically EMPHasized EVery OTher SYLLable. It was like getting a tour from Ricardo Montalban. I will not bore you with a lengthy description of Machu Picchu, but will let the pictures speak.
Abbey was fully recovered, and literally ran up the steps on the site. She had three hilights from the visit, namely walking around with the llamas which have the run of the place; seeing a llama spit on an over friendly tourist; and befriending Maya Yamasura and subsequently wrapping her around her little finger.
After the tour, we were free to walk around the site at will, which we did. We had a teriffic clear day, with some rain clouds moving in late just as we were getting ready to leave. The control of the site is probably a lot
tighter than it used to be, but I would be surprised if it continues to be as open for people to wander around so much. It was definitely worth a second day, and Maya took the second day to climb up Huayna Picchu, the sister mountain to Machu Picchu. It is a three to four hour round trip and uses a huge staircase (no railing) that corkscrews around the mountain to provide a spectacular view of the main site. For a number of reasons, we chose not to return for the second day, and instead wandered around Aguas before boarding the train for the trip back to Cuzco.
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juanita
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dear abbey
I just love the picture of you witrh the llama and your new friend Maya. I'm so glad you are all feeling so much better. Hugs and Kisses, Grandma.