Machu Picchu


What a day!
It was wonderful last night to have a good sleep in a comfortable bed. We are up at 5am and have a light breakfast, packing a cheese/tomato/avocado sandwich to go. A few minutes walk down to the Machu Picchu bus stop. There is already a long lineup for the 7am bus, but we have tickets for the 6am bus and just walk on. The bus takes about 1/2 hour up the many switch-backed, steep narrow road. I can't imagine it in the rain. We have a last toilet stop at the gate before we go in. (no toilets at Machu Picchu)A very short line-up to get in. Then as you go through the gate and start climbing up you start to see the amazing views. We take a group photo at one of the view points, then Maren and I head for the Sun Gate while the others go to the Inca bridge. The trail to the Sun Gate is all up, some steps and some stone pavements, not too steep. Quite a few groups coming down from doing the Inca trail. To the Sun Gate it takes about 40 minutes at a good steady pace. I spend about 5 minutes there, then come down much faster. We are meeting our guide at 8:30am for a 2 hour tour. Wagner our guide tells us many interesting things including how the eastern terraces were used for agriculture, the western ones for retaining walls. The earth was brought from the Sacred Valley by Llamas. The Incas modified the local plants to be edible by humans, corn, potatoes, tomatoes and quinoa. They made a very accurate calendar calculated by the sun, good for 10s of thousands of years. They worshiped mother earth (the Pachamama) and the mountains, and some animals (condor, puma and snake) but were tolerant of other religions. They had a trial period for marriage, and cheating after marriage was punishable by death.
I can't describe Machu Picchu, I'll just say it's even more wonderful than I imagined. Yes, there are lots of people, and the central part gets quite crowded , but the one-way system helps. Also it is spread out, so there were lots of places we were on our own. And we were so lucky with the weather, sunny with a few high clouds and a light breeze.
We left about 11:45am, about a 1/2 hour wait for a bus down. A long lineup but it moves fast.
We met the rest of the group for lunch before catching our train. Both Karen & I try Alpaca with quinoa risotto, very good. Alpaca is very like venison.
Aguas Calientes is a very odd town. Just for tourists so all hotels, shops and restaurants. The train runs right through the main street. There are no cars allowed, only the buses that go to Machu Picchu. Some of the streets are quite steep.
We catch the 2;55pm train back to Ollantaytambo. Great views along the way. Then bus back to Cusco. Lots of traffic as we're coming in, so we arrive at our hotel close to 7:30pm
We are all very tired, and most decide on a light meal at the hotel. Karen and I share a grilled beef/cheese/onion/tomato sandwich and a beer. Then back to our room to put up our feet after a long but wonderful day.










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