We are up at the ungodly hour of 4:30 for a 5:30 pick up to make the Vista Dome at 6:05. Yikes! I’m hating us right now! Bad night in a small bed – and Cathy isn’t in much of a Machu Picchu spiritual mood. Breakfast is good in the hotel – meat, cheese, eggs, rolls, cereal – and awesome coffee. It’s coffee extract! So you just put as much syrupy looking coffee extract in your cup and then top it off with water. Cathy is much happier now – she can make her coffee just the way she wants! Brilliant!
5:30 – Alan is right on time – out in the van he gives us our marching orders. He hands out our tickets (train and Machu Picchu) then tells us we will meet our guide Aldo at the station. We whip right to the station – there’s no traffic this time of the morning. Porters take our bags (we’ve all left one bag at San Agustin – heck – we have bags spread over the whole of Peru by now!), we meet Aldo. He gives us further instructions – here’s the map, here’s how you get to the buses, once off the train, leave your luggage with your hotel, DON’T go to the hotel, get on the bus, be at Machu Picchu by 10:40. Bus is ½ hour, there are facilities at the entrance to Machu Picchu, you’ll only have 10 minutes before the tour leaves. Don’t be late. He’s not going to be with us on the train, we have to do this on our own. The pressure!!!
We head off, show our passports and board the train. It’s a lovely little coach that seats 50 people, facing seats with a table in between. We were B43, 44, 47 and 48 – across the aisle from each other. We had a cute little Peruvian couple who snuggled and cuddled the whole way up to Machu Picchu. Didn’t speak a word of English – so we smiled a lot at each other. Maggi and Richard had two women who were part of another group and who kept trying to change seats to sit with the others. It’s all assigned, and even though there were empties – you couldn’t change. Turns out the empties get filled at Ollantaytambo – but that’s coming up later. Right now, we’re barely awake, but happily off on the train anticipating our Machu Picchu journey.
The first hour of the 4-hour trip mostly consisted of navigating the 4 switchbacks that take you up the mountain above Cusco. The views are fantastic as the train continues to rise above the city. We pass house after house with the dual oxen on the top. We learned yesterday that these Oxen are traditionally used for good luck. At New Years, the residents take the oxen and put them in the middle of the dinner table. They put little icons inside the Oxen that represent what you want or are going to do in the next year to wish for luck. Like a miniature suitcase if they are planning to travel, or a bride and groom if they are planning to marry, etc. Then they replace the oxen on the top of the house for good luck. A really neat little tradition!
After reaching the top of the mountain, the rest of the trip is virtually downhill and goes by in a blur of fabulous scenery, little mud block built towns and the occasional isolated farm. Service on the train is precise and methodical. First, the table setting is laid – red clay type coffee cups and juice glasses, plates and silverware. This takes a while. Then there is a pause in service, the train stops at Poroy for additional passengers, and the service begins again. There’s a choice of coffee or mate de coca, a plate of cheese and ham and turkey slices, bread (coca, wheat, sweet) and tres leches for dessert. It’s a great snack and fun watching the whole process unfold! Keeps us occupied for at least an hour!
There are still empty seats and some of the passengers are getting antsy and want to move, but our next stop, Ollantaytambo takes care of that. The train is definitely sold out, and as we pull in at 8:25, we see a score of people waiting for the train. This stop is in the heart of the Sacred Valley and a great way station if you want to explore all the little towns and ruins throughout the valley. If we ever come back, this is where we’d like to stay for a day or two.
The journey continues on, and we finally reach Aguas Calientes a little before 10 am. We have our instructions from Aldo, so we leave the train and walk into the madness – people everywhere! A couple of hotels in the station, and after a little disagreement in the terminal, we head out toward the bus station and find more hotels, the Inti Inn among them, right outside the gates to the station. We drop our bags (with our fingers crossed that they will be there when we get to the hotel), get our receipts and head toward the bus. Getting to the bus is work – the artisan’s market is set up at the station and you must wind your way through it to get to the bust stop. It was actually kind of fun to try to work your way through the maze of fake alpaca sweaters and obligatory tourist junk. None of the shopkeepers were overly aggressive – so it wasn’t very obnoxious – just funny to try to get out of the maze, like rats looking for the cheese!
The bus stop is little more than an office on the corner of the street and a guy standing there with a sign telling you to buy Machu Picchu entrance tickets first before you board the bus. (A good tip to remember – they may or may not sell tickets at the entrance to Machu Picchu. They do sell them at the Cultural center in the main square of Aguas Calientes – the hours are very convenient – quite early and late every day. One other caution – where ever you buy the tickets – they only take Soles – no US dollars, no credit cards. In March 2008 it was 122 soles for an adult ticket or about $43 USD at that time).
We all got in line and made the next bus! Off we go! Up, up, up, on a dirt an mud switchback road. 30 minutes of incredible vistas, watching the town of Aguas Calientes get smaller and smaller in the distance while the huge peaks of the Andes got closer and closer. As we turned one of the last corners, Machu Picchu rose majestically off to our right. The day was a typical rainy season day – cloudy, foggy, sunny, rainy – just wait a minute and it will change. In a way it was even better than a sunny day s it gave an even more mystical feeling to this ancient Inca ruin.
Off the bus, we meet Aldo at the stairs to the entrance gate. Split into two groups, English speaking and Spanish, we head up into Machu Picchu with Wagner, our English speaking guide (Aldo has the Spanish speaking tour). We entered the ruins below the original main gate, wound our way around a couple of storage houses, and found ourselves on an little landing overlooking the whole of the lower Machu Picchu. Our first complete view of the ruins – and it was astounding. A little crowded, which made the view a bit disappointing, but still amazing as we gazed out over one of the 10 wonders of the world. Wow! We are really here!!! How cool is this?
The next 2 hours were very informative as Wagner detailed the highlights of what is believed about Machu Picchu. He showed us the three sections of the city – Urban, Agricultural and Religious. He explained the significance of the Sun Palace and how the windows were placed in exactly the right position to get he Sun on the equinox and solstice. He walked us through the Palace of the Condor and gave a great intro into the Shirley Mclaine “theory” of energy at the Ceremonial Rock (suffice it to say – it’s pure Shirley! Energy rising from the rock, yada, yada, yada).
The tour ended after walking to the far side of the ruins, seeing the entrance to Huayana Picchu and listening to Wagner explain the trapezoid building theory the Incas used. (This is the same discovery discussed in the Cusco city tour – building at a small angle so that the buildings withstood earthquakes. Basically, anything that wasn’t pillaged and deconstructed by the Spaniards is still standing today due this remarkable architectural style.) It was about 1 o’clock when Wagner pointed us toward the exit. We decide to go ahead and eat lunch now, then come back in after most of the crowds left the site (most people had to leave on the 3:25 train, so we hoped the site would be less crowded by the time we finished lunch).
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