Through our tour package with Enjoy Peru, we had lunch tickets for the Sanctuary Lodge Restaurant. The lodge is located right outside the Machu Picchu entrance gate (It’s the only place to stay actually at Machu Picchu, and rooms go for $500 and up a night! Ummm, Aguas Calientes is looking really good to us!). As we were walking out of the entrance gate, who did we see? The Celebrity tour walking into Machu Picchu! What a coincidence! We thought they’d been there and already gone a few days before, but the couple we said hello to said they’d been in Cusco for 2 days! Small world! We couldn’t figure out why they were arriving so late, though, but whatever! We were having a blast on our own little tour – doing what we wanted, pretty much when we wanted!
Lunch at the Sanctuary was really quite good – a buffet so you could have your fill of a huge variety of salad starters, sliced roast beef with aioli, olives, and later cheeses; hot items included chicken, beef and trout as well as a suckling pig on the carving board. Definitely enough choices and enough to keep us going for the afternoon. The restaurant is bright an airy (well, it would be in the sunshine) with huge floor to ceiling windows around the perimeter for a great view of the mountains where we sat. (The only down side was the entertainment – a band that we’re sure was very good, but very VERY loud and a little annoying after a while!) As we began to eat, the skies opened up. It is the rainy season after all, and the weather here is showing it. We sat the rain out, eating, drinking coffee, water, tea, and watching everyone slowly leaving the ruins, either because of the rain or the train. Good move on our part! But we felt sorry for our Celebrity friends who had just entered the park. Bummer!
We developed a strategy to ride out the storm in the restaurant. At 3 pm (when lunch was over) we would make the go/no go decisions. The rain kept coming, falling in sheets, then letting up, then pouring again. We asked on of the waiters if he thought it would stop – he looked out and said it would stop in 1 hour. We figured he probably knew what he was talking about so we headed out into the still raining skies at 3 o’clock precisely. Ed bought a poncho to cover the back pack (started out at 3 soles, but then ended up at 5 – guess inflation hits as it gets wetter). He donned his bright green poncho once inside the gates which set Cathy off into a laughing fit – he looked like a huge green elf – particularly when he put on the little peaked hood. Maggi and Cathy laughed so hard they couldn’t even get a picture off in time – probably a good thing in retrospect! Ed wisely opted for his own rain jacket hood – which definitely improved the look.
Even through the rain, we knew we had made the right decision. First of all, the rain, mist and clouds gave the ruins a totally magical and mystical feel. And secondly, the crowds had also magically disappeared. There may have been maybe 500 people still exploring the site, but it’s so huge, we almost felt as if we were all alone. A completely different feeling than the overcrowded, overrun atmosphere of the late morning/early afternoon. We climbed to the guard house, searching for the sun house trail, just in case we decided to come up for sunrise (yeah! Right! Ha!). As we climbed up, up, up to one of ht highest points of the site, the mist kept flowing around us. At once engulfing everything so that you felt as if you were floating in the peaks of the Andes with noting anchoring you to the ground – then gradually – or swiftly – moving away to reveal the spine tingling enormity of Machu Picchu.
We stood at the Guardhouse gazing down upon Machu Picchu for quiet some time. Alternately snapping photos and taking moments to reflect on the enormity of what was accomplished here. Words can’t really describe the actuality of standing atop the gigantic ruins of a society so intelligent and strong, yet so shrouded in mystery. In the 1400’s, how did they know to build this? How did they figure out the incredibly sturdy trapezoid architecture? Why did they choose this spot (beyond trying to avoid rock slides)? How did they move these rocks? And why did they abandon and disappear completely form Machu Picchu less than 100 years after they built it?
We contemplated all this and more as we watched the weather flow around the Machu Picchu ruins (Cathy, Maggi and Ed from the precipice beyond the guard house, Richard from a safer distance back behind it!). Soon the rain (as promised) stopped, but the clouds continued to swirl giving an ethereal feel. We climbed down from the Guardhouse and wandered aimlessly here and there trying to absorb everything we could. As it became later and later, we knew we had to leave, but truly hated to do so. The peacefulness, serenity and sheer power resonated inside us with every glance, touch of rock and step along ancient paths. Not to be totally sophomoric, but it truly was a day we’d never ever forget!
Now for the technicalities (if you’re not going to visit Machu Picchu – skip on to the next section!): Machu Picchu is a tourist destination, plain and simple. We visited in early March, the rainy season, the slow period, and we were overwhelmed with the number of people there. In high season (June, July and August) there are 3 times as many people visiting the ruins (Editorial note; ACK!!!). The busiest times are between 10:30 and 3:00 when all the day trippers visit. If its possible to spend 1 or 2 nights in Aguas Calientes, its worth it. Arrive on the morning train, spend the first day in Aguas Calientes, visit Inka Terra (a beautiful hotel with orchid garden and hiking trails) or the hot springs, then spend the entire 2nd day in Machu Picchu. You can go up to the site as early at 6 am (the first bus leaves at 5:30, gates open at 6), then catch the sunrise. You’ll have the place pretty much to yourself until around 10:30, then you can just grin and bear it until around 3 when the crowds move out and head back for their trains. Pack a lunch (plenty of people do, and some hotels even supply box lunches) then find a spot to sit and reflect while you eat – or eat at the Sanctuary lodge or the snack shop outside the main gates. Whatever you do, it will be well worth your while to explore Machu Picchu without the crowds. (In March ’08, there were no multiple day visit discounts, 122 Soles per person, per day; 6 USD each one-way for the bus up to the ruins.) As I said earlier, tickets to Machu Picchu are only available at the Cultural Center off the main square in Aguas Calientes, and they only accept Soles. Bus tickets can be purchased at the bus station using US dollars.
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