One of the main reasons that many people come to South America, let alone Peru, is Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas. A city that had only been (technically) rediscovered 100 years ago. I say rediscovered as the locals knew about the city and in fact 2 families were living there when it was found by American Hiram Bingham.
Upon arrival in Cusco I had to make a decision – to trek or not to trek. I hadn’t booked the Inca Trail as that has to be booked months in advance, but there are a plethora of other treks that can be done. I was dubious about camping in the cold weather (as you know how much I love the cold….) so I was considering doing just a one night trip. Then it happened….I rolled my ankle.
(Icing my foot – it’s only water, not blood!)
I wish I could tell you it was doing something exotic and adventurous, but I simply didn’t see the step at the hostel and collapsed in an embarrassing heap. It was painful and resulted in many hours of icing it. Trekking was officially out.
I met a couple of girls at the hostel and a plan was formed – we would take the train. The train was designed for tourists and had a panoramic view of the stunning scenery with windows built into the roof. We rolled through jungle and snow capped mountains before arriving at Aguas Calientes for the night.
There really isn’t much that I can say about Aguas Calientes except that is a tourist town purely built to accommodate people visiting Machu Picchu. The surrounding area is beautiful, but the town itself has cheap restaurants and tacky souvenir shops and not much else.
In order to get the most out of our experience we took the first bus…at 5.30am. The ride up should be it’s own tour, with the bus navigating hairpin turns and narrowly missing buses coming the other way. And don’t look down whatever you do. The climb is STEEP!
The city is built at 2430m elevation and is literally on a mountain top. The Inca’s clearly looked for the most difficult place they could find and decided to build a city there. At the base of the mountain is a river and surrounding the city are other ridiculously high mountains. I guess this is the Andes after all! There is no knowledge about why the city was built, just a lot of speculation. The Spanish conquerers destroyed anything to do with the history of the place. A lot of what we know is guesswork.
Upon arrival the place was covered in clouds. I had heard this may be the case, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed. The atmosphere was very magical and mystical as though the clouds were trying to keep the secrets of the city.
(Everyone needs a llama in their photo!)
We began to wander, determined to wait out the clouds. At around 9am they began to lift and the resulting view was spectacular. Stunning. Incredible. Breathtaking. Surreal. I had seen this image so many times in magazines and online and now I was looking at it in person. It was so hard to believe. I sat for more than an hour just staring down at this marvel of history. And then I walked higher and did it again. Machu Picchu transfixes you. You forget about everything else except the magnificence of what you are looking at.
While it is possible to climb two of the surrounding mountains for a better view, I didn’t. Gwen and I spent our time wandering and sitting, going through all the temples, looking at the remains of the houses and just trying to take it all in. We did a tour which talked us through the architecture, the design of the city and other historical information. It was fascinating.
(The Inca Bridge)
After more than 7 hours at the site, we headed home to Cusco. I can honestly say it was one of the most amazing places I have ever seen.
