Machu Picchu – Seeing is Believing
It is hard to capture the beauty and sheer impressiveness of Machu Picchu in photos. Upon entering the site, we were instantly overwhelmed with the structures and the ability of the Incas to tame the mountain. Centered where the two portions of the Andes meet the Amazon, located on top of a mountain, it is hard to imagine so much foresight and effort going into building a city.
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The stone structures of the temple do not use any mortar. The Inca’s carved the granite so all the pieces fit together perfectly. Most of the structure remains intact without significant restoration, even though it was built over 500 years ago and abandoned for hundreds of years thereafter.
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An optional side trip from within the Machu Picchu site is to hike Waynapicchu and Huaynapicchu. They have 400 permits available each day to hike the mountain. The trick is, they are first come first serve. We arrived at the park gate around 6:45 and we got tickets 394 and 395 – only 7 were left! We felt lucky and were happy to get the permits for the 10am entrance, because we were told that at 10am, the clouds usually lift and you can get clear photos of the entire site.
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We passed through the trail checkpoint to hike Waynapicchu shortly after 10. About 2 minutes in the trail forks. Our guide book had warned that the hike is not suited for people afraid of heights or with vertigo. We started down the trail to Waynapicchu, after a few minutes, it was clear that trail was a bit too precariously perched on the hillside. So we backtracked to try the shorter trail, Huaynapicchu. We were shortly met by stairs up the hill, exposed to a straight drop off on one side. Carra held her ground, refusing to go further. I headed on, up the stairs, holding the rock face. I made it to a lookout, but then realized the trail continued up, quite steeply. The next obstacle was a 50 degree rock face with a rope hanging down. From there, it was just a matter of squeezing through a couple tight spots and scrambling up a hill in the mud, and seeing nothing but gray mist with the hillside being a straight drop off the other side.
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I felt a sense of accomplishment at the top and sat around a bit, hoping the mist would break and I would get that famous postcard shot of Machu Picchu. No dice. There were times when the clouds broke slightly, but I never got the full shot.
Here is a set of our photos from Machu Picchu:
Backstory
We were a bit worried that we may not be able to visit Machu Picchu. Peru and the Sacred Valley were hit with extreme rains this year and suffered severe damage from flooding. The only way to reach Machu Picchu is via train to Aguas Caliente, and from there, to take a bus 30 minutes to the site. The floods this year washed out several portions of the train tracks, trapping residents and tourists in Aguas Calientes and trains on both sides of the landslides.
The route to Machu Picchu was closed from Jan/Feb until April 1st. For the last few months of travel, it seemed up in the air and unclear as to whether we would actually be able to visit the sight. But as April approached, the targeted open date held firm and we purchased train tickets a week in advance in Arequipa.
Even after months of work, the train route isn’t clear all the way to Cuzco. It was necessary to take a bus to Piscacucho, kilometer 82 on the train tracks, to catch the train. From there, it was a 90 minute ride to Aguas Calientes on a 2-car train.
Visiting Machu Picchu was a key point of our trip. We had looked forward to visiting Machu Picchu, hoping that we would be able to enter in light of the terrible flooding that hit the Sacred Valley. We were in luck – with train tickets in hand, we were guaranteed to get to Machu Picchu.
*For a brief history of Machu Picchu check out this NOVA special: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/machupicchu/
* We actually haven’t seen the NOVA special because it is blocked outside the US…but we’ve heard that it’s really enlightening.
