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We arrived in Aguas Calientes, Peru yesterday by train which was a fantastic journey. Jane did her typical trick of sleeping through any form of moving transport! The train is running on a relatively small gauge track only does about 45km/h so you get to see every bit of the journey. We took a vitadome service which means that there's big windows and a skylight over each seat, so we got to see a lot of the scenery.
We are really glad that we didn't do the inka trail, not because of the difficulty but more for the fact that we would have been complaining the whole way carrying our bags! The trails are narrow so narrow that you need to put one foot in front of the other in sections and then there is the steps which you need really long legs to get up. I think we are both starting to get a little precious :o)
Once in Aguas Calientes we had fun navigating to our accommodation, after asking for directions from a shop owner who asked someone from a hotel we got lost. Then Karl decided to follow the hand movements as his Spanish is a disaster. After walking down a street we then must of looked lost to a Security Guard who then walked us to the door. After a quick snooze for Karl, both of us went out to check out the surrounds and go to the Museum which was full of information in both English and Spanish and there was a short reel showing the Inca trail from a 3D ground surface model (Karl wasn't as impressed as Jane as he could do it) but it showed all the ruins that you would see if you did the trail.
There was also examples of plants, metal and stone implements and a lot of info on how archaeologists believe Machu Picchu was put together. After this museum trip we got some water and came back to the hostel to chill then headed out for dinner, and Wow talk about getting harassed! The people are rude, insistent and baffling. It's a serious tourist only town, so the prices are huge and each restaurant has someone standing on the street trying ton convince you to come in. They'll instantly knock 20 soles off the prices (about 8 bucks) just to get you to come in. A bit too full on to be enjoyable....
Today we awoke at 4:30 in the morning had some breakfast and then headed out to get our bus ticket and join the couple of hundred people already lined up for a bus. After catching a bus right on the crack of dawn we then ascended 500m to Machupicchu to join another line at the top of people to get in, its kind of like waiting in line for a theme park ride, except you need your passport.
Everything is well worth the lines and the wait, the view you have in front of you when you enter is absolutely spectacular, as we had learned from the previous day there is actually about 5 paths that all lead to Machu Picchu. We caught the bus up, but you an walk from town (about 2hours) or hike in from a ew different points.
We went on a short walk to see the Inca Bridge - it is closed but we wouldn't have gone across if it were open! The 'bridge' is a section of cliff face that the Incas built up with rocks - then at the top there's about a 20m gap with logs across it - that is the bridge. There are pegs out of the rock face though. Presumably in case you get there and the logs are gone! Its a pretty walk though, spectacular scenery!
We walked back round to the main part - this site is massive! A whole town that was forgotten to the Spanish so is still in decent condition. It is built on 2 fault lines and has a partially still working irrigation and water collections system, there are so many terraces!! The most visible would of been used for agriculture and there has been more than 30 different plant species discovered on the site - there were cultivating multiple vegetables for the inhabitants and trade.
The other terraces below are designed in such a way to hold up the upper terraces, houses, and walkways that twist all around the set of hills and ridges. The reason that Machupicchu is so important is that it is one of the only Inca ruins that was not found or destroyed by the Spanish when they conquered South America. It was by some called the lost city of the Inca however when "rediscovered" in 1910 two families were living on the site but it was heavily overgrown some parts still are to this day. Some of the buildings have been painfully rebuilt including the thatched roofs that they would of once had.
Each stone was made by beating them with other stones, as the Inca although having some metallurgical skills didn't make many tools from metal that would have been able to cope with bashing of stone blocks, instead used a series of rounder stones to in a percussion to wear pieces away a bit at a time.
There's still the remnants of the main gate into the city - the hinges and pegs that held the wooden door in place. The quarry where they were taking the rock from is right next to the town - they're massive boulders and really give the impression of how hard it would have been to hand-make the rocks to fit like jigsaw puzzles to make the hundreds of buildings and kilometers of terraces!! This part of the trip has been fascinating and enchanting for both of us.
We spent about 5 hours exploring the ruins (and took almost 200 photos!) before deciding it was time to head back to town. It's only about 4kms back to town so we had decided to walk. (cuz we went so early, we were leaving about 11.30am). As we started the 500m descent we both remarked how happy we were to be going down and not up!! Its hundreds and hundreds of steps in switch backs that are in okay condition, but its a rocky path and the steps are random heights. So about 1/4 of the way down, while looking at the amazing view, Jane stacked it. She rolled her ankle which meant that the trip back to town was a lot slower than it would have been! We stopped a few times and had a compression bandage to put on it. If you're here though, and not doing the Inca trail we would really recommend walking down (up too if you're game).
What we hadn't expected and what has really impressed Jane, is how amazingly beautiful the view is. MP is on the ridge of a mountain range, there's an extremely steep drop off in all directions - but the amazing thing is the other mountains around the site. They're all so steep and pointy - no one is still really sure why MP is where it is, or what it was used for - but they know that the Incas worshipped the mountains, and the examples surrounding MP are spectacular.
We'll load some photos on here, and after the last week of ruins in Cusco we're a bit 'over' ruins, but spite of this, MP has been one of the most impressive sites either of us have ever been to (up there with Ankor Watt in Cambodia and Tikal in Guatemala)
- comments
Maria You have described all of this so vividly; it's like being there with you both! :-) I look forward to seeing the photos. xx
Nicola You guys sound like you're having an amazing time. Amazing. Keep it up, lol.
uncle rob just had time to look at your amazing journey sofar you are having a great time by tha sound of it stay safe
Uellan I too would have been looking at the view Jane! Hope your ankle is getting better quickly and that Karl is taking good care of you... The mountains do look spectacular and very steep. Hope the elevation is not taking too much toll.