Machu Picchu

With Huayan Picchu in the background

With all the rush of getting home, I never got a chance to post about our last day, the day perhaps I'd been waiting for since the trip began.  Machu Picchu, a World Heritage Site and one of the 'new' 7 Wonders of the World (though there are so many lists it barely counts these days) was definitely one of the main reasons our South American trip shifted over to Peru.

The Incans built it atop a mountain like so many of their other cities, but this site is special specifically because of its size and the fact that it was undiscovered and therefore not 'bettered' by the Spanish after being abandon around the time of their invasion.  It was only rediscovered in the 1920s, and a lot of work has been done on it since then in cutting away trees and grass and the restoration of some of the walls.  It seems a rather obvious sight from the valley, and I had to question how the Spanish never looked up from the river to see it when using the  terraces around the mountain.  But I gather the tree growth and greenery did cover up much of it.

Our day started early again, not early enough to see the sunrise from the top of Machu Picchu but enough that it was still pretty chilly out.  But also as expected, the bus station was swamped with people and we had to wait as they loaded up bus after bus to take the treacherous climb up the mountain.  JS was telling me how the drive had been much worse years ago when he had gone to Machu Picchu for the first time; how he was sitting in the back and the bus's rear tires were barely staying on the road, which meant the section past the rear tires that he was sitting in kept fishtailing off the road and over the edge of the cliff.  The road is much wider now, and they were even working to continue to improve it as we drove up.  But on the turns (because the whole drive is pretty much a series of switchbacks) there is definitely only room for one bus, and we came to an abrupt halt several times to creep forward and let another bus carefully pass us.

We also passed a number of people who were climbing up the mountain instead of taking the bus, and I excused us for being lazy seeing as we were going to climb Huayna Picchu, (which means young mountain to Machu's old) the nearby and much taller mountain, later that morning.

Temple of the Sun

But once we got to the top, we got to explore Machu Picchu.  We started at the top of the terraces which gave us the traditional postcard view which is, of course, breathtaking.  It's amazing to look down at history like that, especially when it's still kind of early morning with the fog burning off and a chill in the air.  We next went down and explored the upper part of the ruins, which included the living space of the Inca, who was their leader (and the only one who had an in-suite bathroom), other living quarters, the temple of the Sun, the temple of the three windows, and a couple of outlines of rocks that had been shaped to resemble the nearby mountains.  There were also a number of rooms and terraces that we wandered through, seeing the tight-fitting original construction for the temples and the more fluid rock shape of the living quarters, along with the rock and cement that makes up most of the restoration.

Then it was time to climb to the summit of Huayna Picchu!  They only let in 400 people a day in two groups, and we were the second group at 10AM.  This made things a little complicated on the very long, very steep way up, as people were coming down at the same time and the paths were very narrow, with only room for one person moving.  There were parts where I wouldn't want to be the person holding still on the outside--a significant bump definitely could have sent someone plunging pretty far down the mountain.  The stairs we were going up had been modified slightly, but were still based on the original steps the Incans had made to get up to the additional towers they had made at the top of this mountain.  There were ropes tied into the sides to hold for balance, but there were places that you just kind of had to crawl up slowly, mindful of your balance.  It was a little scary, but the view from the top gives you such a feeling of accomplishment when you look down at where you've been that it's all worthwhile.


The climb down was almost worse than the climb up.  Because of all the walking we'd been doing, I was actually fine with the climb up, but the uneven steps, especially coupled with their large size, made for a more difficult climb down.  My knees were definitely feeling the impact with each hop down by the end of it.  Someone told me that they're thinking about building a cable car to the top of the mountain.  I think half of the appreciation is the effort that it takes to get up there, personally.

We wandered through the lower city, seeing the temple with the condor of stone and the reflecting pools which may have reflected the stars at night before heading out for another bus trip down the mountain.  Then it was a train ride, a car ride, and three planes to home!