Machu Picchu day! We left our hotel at 7:30 to catch the train from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu Pueblo. The train ride was very scenic with the tracks following the Rio Urubamba through a very narrow canyon with occasional views of terraces and old Inca guard stations. The foliage grew greener and lusher as we approached Machu Picchu - a really distinct change despite traveling less than thirty miles.
We all walked a few blocks up the hill to our hotel, the El Mapi by Inkaterra. Our luggage got stored and we filled out the paperwork for our rooms, but we’d have to wait to check in.
We had an early lunch at our own cost at a restaurant that seemed to offer a bit of everything. Julie and I had nice little pizzas but Jake got llama and there were some nice looking pasta dishes.
We got on our bus at one o’clock and arrived at the top twenty minutes later after thirteen very sharp switchback corners.
After a bit of assembling we began walking up to the high point south-east of the main ruins, arriving around two. This gave us an overview of the ruins before entering them.
After overlooking “MaPi”, we split into two groups of ten with our two Machu Picchu expert guides, Williams and Elisvan. Elisvan did a great job explaining various aspects of the outpost. The Inca left no written records, so much of the available information about the Inca is based on what Spanish conquerers wrote. But in the case of Machu Picchu it is even worse: the only obvious way to access Machu Picchu when the Spanish arrived would have been via the Inca’s trail system. You can barely see any structures from the valley near the river, and it seems the Inca destroyed the trail to Machu Picchu as part of cutting their losses while the Spaniards advanced. The Spaniards did not detect it, the Inca ended up being subjugated, and Machu Picchu remained essentially empty for hundreds of years until Hyram Bingen spoke with some native people living in the valley below it while searching for the “Lost City of the Inca”. A couple of boys told him they sometimes climbed up to the top of the steep ridge to play soccer in a nice flat field amidst a bunch of ruins. So everything now known about Machu Picchu is based on Hyram Bingen’s accounts of what he found, replicas of the artifacts he took to the Yale University Museum (the original artifacts are unaccounted for), and archeology.
The things that have been discovered and proven with archeology as well as un-proven but consistent theories are pretty amazing. I don’t want to write a book about it, but the Incas did some really clever things to manage water on this ridge top, both the water they needed to live, which came from a spring on the larger mountain of the saddle it sits in, as well as draining the couple meters of rain the area receives each year in a way that does not erode the very steep retaining walls and terraces and very foundations of the buildings. They also had several temples constructed to line up with the summer and winter solstice sunrises and sunsets - it was important to track calendar days for planting or harvesting various crops.
What was supposed to be a two plus hour tour was nearly a three hour tour. Elisvan was good at presenting information in an interesting and logical way. A speedy bus trip down the switchbacks brought us back to town and we walked up to the hotel and got checked in.
Eventually everyone showed up at the hotel bar. EF Go included a free drink: choice of Pisco Sour, lemonade, or soda.
After our cocktails we headed upstairs to the dining room for the included dinner, which also included a beer or wine. It was a good dinner and there was a lot of interesting conversation.
The original itinerary was to either take a paid excursion of hiking up to the Sun Gate, or have a free morning in Machu Picchu Pueblo / Aguas Calientes, but the trail has been closed to the public throughout Peru’s COVID precautions, so we’re not sure why EF Go told us the excursion was canceled only a few weeks before the trip. I guess they’d been holding out hope the trail would be re-opened. In any case, it’s a pretty small town, so Raul offered to lead a hike up to a waterfall above the hot springs. We had to check out of our rooms and store our luggage by 10AM.
Almost the entire group joined us for this short hike. The trail follows the creek that rushes through the center of town up the narrow valley past a number of sculptures carved into the rock walls of the canyon.
It passes the hot springs pools and costs ten Soles to go beyond the pools. Another eighth of a mile or so brings you to a pretty waterfall where some of the group went for a brisk dip in the bowl formed by the falls.
After some photos we all headed back to town. Julie and I looked at most of the several other sculptures spread in the upper area of the town. Then we did some shopping to find a cap for Julie. She also bought a T-shirt.
It seems a lot of the local dogs are hairless, so much so that locals are not used to seeing dogs with hair.
We met back up at the hotel to go for an included lunch at Chullo’s, an up-scale restaurant featuring Peruvian beers where the staff wore great T-shirts that said “My blood type is IPA+”. I maybe should have tried harder to buy one as a gift for someone, but the meal seemed to go a bit slowly and we had a train to catch so we left in a bit of a rush. The food was good and I had a nice Mama Killa Spice Ale from Sierra Andina brewery.
The other big change was a bit more serious than a cancelled excursion. The trucker’s union and some farmers planned to hold a strike the next day. This union and a few others held a strike in April that involved a few instances of violence and several highways were blocked for a few days. Our tour guide, Raul, was worried that if we followed the planned itinerary (spending the night in Cusco, then taking a bus ride the next morning to Puno) we might end up encountering a blocked road at some random location and end up stranded hours from anywhere. So he and EF Go Ahead decided the best precaution was to take the long bus ride directly after getting off the train out of Machu Picchu.
So we boarded the 3:30 train and arrived in Ollantaytambo after 5PM. There we stopped at a cafe to pick up snacks and drinks, then we would have an eight hour bus ride to Puno. We arrived at the GLH Hotel Lago Titicaca about 2:45 AM.