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astrid_travel
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Editor Pick

Machu Picchu

  • April 22, 2007
  • Rated 5 of 5 by Wasatch from heber ctity, Utah
3,000 feet lower than Cuzco, Machu Picchu has a warmer, more humid climate. The Conquistadors never found the city, sparing it the destruction the Spanish inflicted on Cuzco and other Inca towns. When Machu Picchu was rediscovered in 1911, it had only suffered the ravages of sitting empty for centuries, bad enough to be sure, but cleared of the jungle overgrowth, is now one of the wonders of the world. The 140 structures making up Macchu Picchu are the most extensive and best preserved Inca remains.

We took the early morning train from Cuzco(3½ hours), down the Urubamba River Valley, whose slopes are littered with various Inca ruins, to Macchu Picchu station—the station for Machu
Picchu is not the station named Macchu Picchu—at the bottom of a cliff, 1,800 feet below the city.
Vans transported us uphill to the entrance to the city. Entering Machu Picchu is bit of a let-down, but hang on. The path climbed uphill between the Inca stone walls of the houses lining the street, and then we reached the central plaza and, with the city spread out around us covering the top of a small plateau.

The best view of the city is from uphill behind Macchu Picchu, looking down over the ruins and across the Urubamba Valley at the mountians.

Our guide gave us the standard lecture on how the Incas built Macchu Picchu as a fortress hideaway to protect the Emperor from invaders, but never got to use it. Recently, archeologistsMacchu Picchu is, as the real estate agents say, all about location, location, location. Who wouldn’t build here if they could?

The long day trip from Cuzco gives plenty of time to see Macchu Picchu, but you can overnight at the site or down in the river valley nearby if you want more. Whatever you do, reserve ahead.

I spent a lot of time on the evening train back to Cuzco outside on the platforms between cars, looking at the stars, a really impressive heavenly display.

Visitors are limited to 2,500 a day, weather permitting. Reserve ahead.

From journal The Christians Won the War, but the Worl

Editor Pick

Machu Picchu

  • January 12, 2007
  • Rated 5 of 5 by travellingdave from Calgary, Alberta
Machu Picchu

What words could even begin to describe such an amazing, awe-inspiring sight as Machu Picchu is? I could mention the cool, crisp, rainforest-like air that mists between low clouds, perched precariously over the mountaintop ruins – but that doesn’t even begin to describe it. I could mention the dizzying experience of being high above the Sacred Valley of the Incas, straddling a mountaintop with your feet with sheer cliffs at every turn, while you try your best not to succumb to vertigo while still wondering if the beautiful sight before you is even real. I could also mention the ruins themselves, a beautiful creation a mere 500 years old but seemingly eternal, with no beginning or end.

Being here at the top of Machu Picchu will make even the most cold-hearted curmudgeon seen-it-all traveler fall to their knees and re-evaluate the existence of God. It’s the kind of place that makes atheists shake at their feet. Being here makes you feel almost as though you aren’t worthy to be here – like it’s reserved for some higher authority, not an unemployed, over-traveled student (in my case) with a spare $20 bill on their hands.

You’ll arrive via one of two ways: The PeruRail train or the Inca Trail. The latter is a five day trek through some difficult terrain, and has long-been noted as one of the must-do’s before you die. For those with less time, less endurance, or who aren’t capable of the trek, PeruRail will happily take $80 from you and transport you from Cusco to the small village of Aguas Calientes, passing through the mystical Sacred Valley of the Incas.

Once you arrive in Aguas Calientes, you’ll know something is different about this place. Hop off the train, buy a poncho for $1 as it will inevitably be raining, and purchase your bus ticket to ascend Machu Picchu. For $10, you will travel in a zig-zag manner up steep switchbacks to the park entrance, where another $20 will leave your hands and allow you entry into the beautiful National Park – one of the World’s finest (if not the finest).

The ruins are strewn across the mountaintop, each section different and unique, highlighting different aspects of the Inca culture. There are several trails and staircases for the visitor to explore, just don’t overexert yourself – you’re at a very high altitude. Take your time to walk slowly, allowing the mist to pass across the ruins, paying close attention for the best time for those requisite photos.

Because access is so limited, you don’t have to worry much about crowds. For those who want to see the ruins from another vantage point, take the steep climb up Huayana Picchu, the huge peak forming the centerpiece of the mountain. This isn't for the faint of heart, and you must sign a waiver in order to climb the steep staircase to the top.

To get some inspiration of your own, visit Machu Picchu online at: www.rediscovermachupicchu.com

From journal Machu Picchu - Cusco and Environs

Editor Pick

Machu Picchu - Recommendations

Machu Picchu - Recommendations

My advice would be:

1) get there as early as possible. It is no longer possible for hikers to wander through the Sun-Gate at 6am to get first sight. Instead you have to come through the main entrance which opens at 7am. Buses run up from Aguas Calientes from before the crack of dawn, so if you are not a hiker seriously consider travelling up the day previously and staying overnight in the town before visiting the site first thing. The train from Cusco arrives around 10am—suddenly the place is overrun with tourists around 500,000 visits per year!). The earlier you arrive, the quieter the place will be and the more chance you have of exploring in detail. Once you’ve seen everything from up close you can then wander as you will, or just sit up by the Watchman’s Hut for an hour.

2) Go to the toilet before you visit. The only loos are by the entrance gate, down a steep flight of stairs.

3) Take a tour guide to explain the significance of what you are seeing, otherwise it could all just be chunks of rock to you. We were lucky in that our guide from the Inca Trail, Julio was with us, armed with his trusty notebook. He knew the history and significance of the site off by heart, and was able to answer most any question, but the reproductions he had of Bingham’s original expedition, showing the mountain peak thick with jungle really impressed me. Take more camera film than you think you would need.

4) Take water – the only shop is by the monstrous Hotel Machu Picchu and is terribly overpriced. If staying the whole day you would probably still save money by getting the bus down to Aguas Calientes, eating there, then returning.

5) And finally, if travelling by train, bear in mind that it takes four hours to / from Cusco, but only two from Ollantaytambo, which is a mere hour from Cusco by road. You can save time by getting a bus or taxi to Ollantaytambo, then a train to Machu Picchu, and vice versa.

From journal Cusco - The Navel of the World

Editor Pick

Machu Picchu - My Impressions

Machu Picchu - My Impressions

The Intipunku, or Sun Gate, is the classic entrance to the site, the unforgettable climax to over 3 days of slogging along the Inca Trail. However, when I visited in May 2006 this route was closed. Peru is seismically active, and a landslide had erased a large section of the trail leading from the gate to Machu Picchu—the scar can be seen from the site. This means that all visitors have to come through the main entrance on the road up from Aguas Calientes (entrance is $20). Any backpacks or sticks you might have also have to be surrendered to the left luggage office. However, if you have your passport you can get a very pretty stamp in there.

The first section you reach is a cascade of Incan terracing, the agricultural sector of the city. From here, head up and to the left to the Watchman’s Hut. The classic postcard image of the site can be seen if you head south-west from here following the signs for the Inca Bridge. The bridge itself is not that awe-inspiring, but the vista from the grassy verge across the complex is. From here you can see that the core of the site was carved from the living rock—leading up to the Intihuatana the stairs, the plinth, and the hitching-post itself are all part and parcel of the peak. Then on top edifices have been constructed from locally-sourced stonework. The quarries are on the western side of the mountain, dropping down to the Urubamba valley. In many places the brickwork and great gouts of worked stone coexist, a mingling of the natural and the artificial.

Beyond the terraces the site leads away to the base of Huayna Picchu, which you can ascend to the Temple of the Moon (I forebore, being absolutely knackered from the Trail). A main plaza of short-cropped grass (llamas do the work of lawn-mowers here) divides two sets of buildings. On your right there are living apartments and the ‘Condor Temple’, named after a rock that resembles the majestic bird of prey. To the left there are the main temples, the sacristy and ceremonial baths, some superb instances of Incan stonework, and finally the steps up to the Intihuatana, a finger of rock pointing to the sky, echoing the peak of Huayna Picchu behind it. The gnome, carved from the mountain itself, known as the ‘hitching-post of the sun’, where it is supposed Inca priests used to ceremonially ‘tie’ the sun to stop it getting away is now cordoned off after it was chipped by a film crew making an advert (after a lot of wheedling our guide Julio finally revealed that the advert was for the American Budweiser beer company; they also left potholes from their steadies at Winay Wayna!). From here you get vertiginous views down into the valley that loops around the mountain, and can look across the whole site from its spiritual heart.

From journal Cusco - The Navel of the World

Editor Pick

Machu Picchu - introduction

Machu Picchu - introduction

Suddenly the ruins loomed up around me, cracked and deserted. The early-morning cloud drifted like a spectral cloud of wraiths, shrouding the site in an opalescent blue glow. The cool moisture brushed my cheek, stubbly after three whole days hiking the Inca Trail. Dimly I could make out the looming bulk of Huayna Picchu towering above me. In the fog I could have been alone, isolated in the most famous of all mysterious lost cities, the testament of a dead civilisation. Did Hiram Bingham have this feeling, I wondered, this thrill of excitement up the spine mixed with the anxious churning of the stomach as it responded to the sight of the ghost-city, when he first discovered Machu Picchu in 1911?

There are other places for you to read about the background of Machu Picchu much better than I could ever hope to attempt. (Bizarrely enough, just after writing that phrase a friend phoned to refer me to a documentary showing on BBC!). I would recommend the works of Nigel Davies or (particularly) Peter Frost as suitably readable introductions. Suffice to say that the site was of great spiritual significance to the Incas, as evidenced by the outstanding complex of temples and ritual edifices to all aspects of Incan cosmology—the Earth Mother temple, the Condor temple, the ‘hitching-post of the sun’, ritual baths, carved ‘representation stones’ mimicking the peaks that can be seen behind them, the sun gate—as well as the fact that the Inca Trail exists, a great supply and pilgrimage route leading through the mountains. It was never discovered by the Spanish, and languished forgotten and intact, overgrown by cloud forest until a local family of farmers directed Bingham to one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. Hence what I will give you in the two linked reviews are firstly my impressions and then my recommendations.

From journal Cusco - The Navel of the World

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