Day 36 – Machu Picchu and Cuzco

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Spoke with the hotel staff last night and got the drill on the weather here. During the rainy season it is clear and blue in the mornings, with the rain beginning about 1300 – 1400, getting heavier and lasting for the remainder of the day. So we got to the ruins site early and were able to take a leisurely hike of the ruins, taking a million photos, exploring the various areas and with only about 15% of the touristas that were present yesterday. The only place we were not able to get to was the very top of Wayna Picchu (the tall, pointed peak you see in all of the photos), because it takes forever to get through the line for a pass and actually climb the peak (very limited access), we had a train to catch, and did not wish to chance hiking the steeps in the afternoon downpour and miss our train to Cuzco. Condor Travel may be condor, but they watch our time like an Eagle. There is a small observatory at the top of this peak, which we had wanted to check out.

Machu Picchu is a very well laid out small city in the shape of a rectangle. As there was no auto “road” prior to the 20th Century, the only way into Machu Picchu was via the Inca Trail. Arriving at the city required one to pass through the Sun Gate, and then past a guard tower entrance. If one were to stand in the central plaza (large grassy area about ¾ the size of a football field, and look around, you would see above you moving up the mountain the living areas of the more wealthy people, temples and observatory at the very top of the city, with the lone guard tower at one far end above the main gate of where the city was located. At the plaza level is another observatory or science building (see photos of the circular water mirrors) and other living areas. Also, if you stand or sit quietly in the plaza, you can hear people talking at conversational levels way up at the temple level, so the acoustics were designed for the King (or whomever) to address the entire population in the plaza and be clearly heard. Looking below the plaza is another city section where commoners and farmers lived. The entire city is surrounded by literally hundreds of terraces for farming. Wayna Picchu is reached via a trail at the other end of the city, and there is another building and observatory located there. There is also evidence that the city was not completed, as there is a “new construction” area with rock portions orderly strewn about. All-in-all, when put together, a really amazing story of a city that only existed for about 100years.

We returned to town, had a nice coffee break, explored Machu Picchu Pueblo (a lot like Jackson Hole and Teton Village in Wyoming), and headed to the train station to beat the afternoon showers. It continued to rain just as it did on day one as we left the station to head back to Ollantaytambo and our long ride to Cuzco. We had a ball on the trip back so check out Carol’s cell phone photos of the Devil Spirit who “attacked” our train! Our driver snagged us at the station and we finally rolled into Cuzco just before 8:00 p.m., to arrive at another really nice hotel in the middle of “Old town Cuzco.” It was a four-hour trip to travel about 225 miles, but well worth it (especially the death-defying night ride through the high mountains heading into downtown Cuzco, playing chicken with all the trucks). As Cuzco sits at 11,200’, we are both going to hit the rack early and acclimatize again to the high altitude before hitting the city streets tomorrow. This will be our next-to-last stop before Lake Titicaca and Puno at the eastern edge of the Inca Empire, at an altitude of almost 13,000’

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