The ups and downs in Machu Picchu

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When you´re travelling for 3 months, and in particular in cultures other than your own, you know it will hit you at some point.. Food poisoning! You just hope it won´t happen at a key moment, like, let´s say, the one night before you´re supposed to see one of the world wonders.. Ahum. We´re still not quite sure what the cause was, especially as we just had had a wonderful dinner at the best (or only good?) restaurant in town, French-Peruvian, with bottled drinks only, and no raw food. It hit Stephen much harder than me, but it meant that neither of us slept much that night. We allowed ourselves an extra hour of sleep, but no more, as we had especially planned to spend the night in Aguas Calientes (alias Machu Picchu Pueblo (town)) to beat the day trippers crowds that would arrive on the first trains. And there we went, somewhat groggy, and with not so happy stomachs, in the bus up the mountain.

Was it worth it? TOTALLY! I think I spent 5 minutes staring at the site when I caught the first full glimpse. We were lucky enough to arrive when it was dry, and not too foggy, and it was not too busy yet. None of the other Inca ruins I have seen compare to this, it´s really amazing. This complete city, still in such a good state, on top of the mountain, in the middle of nowhere, with the fog higher up making it seem even more mysterious. Well, see the pictures attached to get an impression, although you´d have to see it with your own eyes to get the full experience.

The fact that it´s still relatively well in-tact (although apparently 30% of the buildings have been further restored already) is thanks to the fact that the city has never been discovered, and therefore not plundered, by the Spanish. Only in 1911 it was discovered by the American Hiram Bingham (by accident, as he was looking for another city instead apparently), for the 500 years prior to that, only the local Incas had known of its existence.. It most likely was religious site, on apparently an important religious location for the Incas, who used to trek for days to get there..

So no regrets about the short night! We spent several hours wandering around, with the first hours when it was still not too busy and dry definitely being the best. The only thing we skipped was the climb of the Wayna Picchu, a mountain next to Machu Picchu with good views over the sight, as we didn´t feel up for the climb after the climbing and walking we had already done, especially in our weakened state 😉. But altogether a small price to pay.

Back in town, the contrast between the beauty of MP and the ugliness of Aguas Calientes was striking again. AC is one of those towns ruined by tourism. Bad atmosphere, everything completely overpriced at low quality, it makes you want to catch the first train out again!

The train ride itself also offered some great views over the mountains. MP cannot be reached by road, and at times there is less than half a meter space between the train and the mountains or the river.

There is one train a day that goes all the way until our hotel (with a private train station) rather than to Ollantaytambo only, and we had booked this one for the way back. I think this is the only train at all going over these rails, as many houses are literally build right next to it. This meant we basically had to go at almost walking pace, and the 20 mins car ride turned into almost an hour train trip. Yes, convenient, but slow.. Ah well, it was good to be back in our nice hotel, on a lower altitude, rather than the cold, humid place we had spent our not so fun night in AC in!

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