Manchu Pichu

The 2 day Machu Picchu trip started with a wobbly the evening before, when reception gave us a note from the tour organiser advising us to arrange a 3.30am wakeup for a 4.30 departure. After the Manu timetable we were weary and short on on sleep and clean clothing, so I dusted the reception desk with some anglo saxon expletives. To no good effect but we at least opted for a 4 am rise figuring 30 mins prep was enough. As with Manu there was a luggage limit, but for a different reason which we found out about later.
The streets were quiet at 4.30 am, why wouldnt they be, so the driver could give it a good boot along the cobbled lanes, climbing out of town and up a valley on the way to the train which would take us there. It turned out to be a 2 hr trip which shows how much studying and pre planning we had done. It was also cold probably near freezing so we huddled in the back seat. Leaving town we joined a queue for a police inspection of the drivers papers. Why do they bother I wondered. We had another real surprise further on when the driver turned off the road and drove up onto the rail track. The car straddled the tracks and was only wide enough for a single vehicle. I photographed it to prove it! We drove that way for about 20 minutes, bumpy because of the coarse metal on the track and not that kind on ther car I thought. By 6.45 am, fully light, we arrived at the village of Ollyanta, for the train connection. There was smoke everywhere but our train was a beautiful 2 carriage diesel, a touristo carriage with food and drinks service etc. Fine by us.
The trip through to the village at the foot of Machu Picchu, called Aguas Callientes was wonderful trip and it would have been worth it for that alone. It followed the gorge of the Urubamba river, which we had first met at higher elevations the day before, at the Pisac market. The terrain started steep, dry and mountainous and I couldnt get Queenstown out of my mind, but the terrain became progressively wetter and more forest covered while the rugged peaks changed in style to become steep sided, rounded, soaring hills like Milford sound. Later we found they were glacial granites, very much like Milford, or maybe Yosemite Valley. The train track was hard against the flank of the gorge, either on alluvial deposits or cut into the rock. The river was a steep, rough and intimidating water, doing its best to undercut the rail track We slowed to an absolute crawl on several occasions to negotiate less stable sections of track with the river undercutting the bank, and we saw teams of men working these areas it must be such a mission to keep the track open. The mountains were close and high, you needed to press against the window and look uo to see their tops, sometimes it felt like driving in the Homer tunnel area for the same reason. We just loved the trip it was wilderness travel from the comfort of a good train. 1hr 20 mns later we were at Agues Callientes, crammed on the riverbank and pushing a short distance uphill, where a tributary had opened some more building space. Otherwise the mountains climbed as very steep granite cliffs, around the town. The town had the reailway line through it which seemed to serve as the main street also, then several narrow steep streets running of it. A busy market, restaurants and hotels for the vistors as this was the Machu Picchu drop off point and a tourist town. No vehicles except for a fleet of mid sized buses moving visitors, 400 per day, up the mountain and back. We stayed in the town that night and trained out the following day. It was an interesting place to stay, quite remote and with fairly basic facilities. Now we found out about luggage. There are no taxis, streets are steep and they boot you of the bus at the end of the day to find your own way. Not a soul in town spoke english and for a while I wondered if our lodging existed. We trapsed around, pretty near the end of our tethers but found it. You wouldnt know from the outside it was a hotel. In our bedroom the toilet was leaking and floors were awash. Anyway we headed out for a beer and a bite, possibly responsible for a bout of tummy bug we have just recovered from, but thats another story.
Back to the present, we were soon on a bus and away, a 20 minute drive. Machu Picchu is surrounded by plummeting cliffs except for part of one flank, a 45 degree slope that a single lane gravel roadroad zig zags up, like a ski field road. We spilled out of the bus, were hooked up with a small group and a guide and were off, walking almost directly into the foot of the city.
Initial impresions were about the location. The city, as it is referred to, is on a ridge which extends at a right angle from a much higher ridge behind it. The Mach Picchu ridge swoops down to form a saddle on which most of the buildings sit, then climbs to a final dramatic point. Around this ridge, far below, is the river, making a U shape around the Machu Picchu ridge. On a glorious sunny day, with the hills cloaked in green, it was a scenic wonderland. Just the thought of building anything up there seemed extraordinary, let alone on the scale that was accomplished. The river was regarded by the Incas as a reflection of the milky way, a fabulous thought I think, and Machu Picchu and other sites are deliberately placed at various locations along it.
We walked into the city and explored the remains which are in excellent condition. The overwhelming impression is the beauty and perfection of the stonework, which formed the paths, walls, water channels and buildings. The stone blocks are not square they have non 90 degree angles, and often the walls curve or lean in very slightly. The blocks were individually ground along their various faces and edges, so they lock together perfectly. This gives a perfect surface and often gaps you could not slide a fine knidfe into, but also an interesting mosaic effect with the different shapes and sizes of the rocks, the largest weighing tons and baffling as to how they were moved into place. The Incas also used the existing rock features so that large stone faces and rock smoothly incorporate into the structures. We also enjoyed learning about the site, how the Inca culture was very preoccupied with their agrarian economy, tracking the seasons and the heavens, and of course offering a few sacrifices as payback to the forces around them. We loved the sun temple, with its perfectly positioned windows to admit the sun at solstice and equinox, and we also saw a carved stone set at a 13 degrees angle being the latitude of the site. So on the longest day the stone would throw no shadow.
We climbed to the back of the city for the famous view looking down on the buildings and up to the peak beyond them, with the ridge dropping away on both sides. A view that you could not get enough of but at the same time quite hard to capture in a photograph. The light was bit flat middle of the day it would be a good place to sleep over and see at sunrise or sun set.
After a bite of lunch we headed off for two walks, following the Inca trails they used to approach the city from the north and the south, in effect crossing the higher ridge behind to access the Manch Picchu ridge. The southern route was not open for a great distance. It was alarmingly exposed, then crossed a bridge that had been restored and headed across a fault line in a sheer cliff. I photograped it to show you but it would take guts to walk it, and it was closed off to keep the tourist attrition rate down. While there were a lot of peole in the city and it could be hard to get a photo of a detail without heads popping up, it didnt detract. We all just shrunk into the landscape and it was a respectful crowd. I think we all felt the same way about being there and somehow the people gave the place some life, as it would have had in its day.

The second walk we took was up to the Sun Gate, a stone gateway in a narrow notch in the ridge above us and to the north east. This is the point the principle Inca trail cut over the ridge and down to Machu Picchu. It is also a feature in the solar calendar, as the sun rises through the notch, as viewed from the city, but only at a specific point in the year. It was very hot in the sun and walking at altitude. Shanti has been a trooper doing all the walks and putting up with occasional discomfort, but this was her gutsiest moment as she had had it. We thought about flagging it but pushed on and reached the top, only an hours walk but a climb of 500 ft, in the sun and at the end of a long day. We sat happily leaning against the gateway sipping our last water, then we realised this was our last place of visit and the end of our travels. From there on we would be retracing our steps down the mountain, back to Cusco, Lima and out to Santiago Chile, for our connecting flight to NZ. The Sun Gate seemed the most perfect place to finally arrive at, to turn around from and to head home.
THE END.