Subject: UNESCO world heritage site, and one of the "New" 7 wonders of the world
Date: Sun, November 29, 2009 5:28:07 PM
Buenos tardes,
Before leaving for Peru, I had reserved a tour of Machu Picchu, including train tickets from Cusco. I had called the tour company from San Francisco airport on Thursday morning, confirming that I would be arriving. They said they'll send a bus to my Cusco hotel at 5:45AM on Saturday morning to take me to the train station.
The bus arrived right on time, and took me with about 20-25 more people to Poroy train station about 10-15 minutes outside Cusco. This is where all the trains depart for Machu Picchu (recently changed, they used to leave directly from Cusco). There are three types of trains, the "Backpacker" is the cheapest, then the "Vistadome", then the "Hiram Bingam". My ticket was on the Vistadome, and this train has windows in the ceilings. Great for looking at mountain peaks along the way!
The train left on time at 6:50am... Good views on both sides. My tourbook had said sit on the left side of the train for "better" views but I don't think it matters much. There are large windows on the sides, and even if they're obscured by anyone, there are windows in the ceilings to look at the snow-capped mountains! All that is great when you can see the snow-capped mountains, but where there are mountains that tall, there are clouds. And since this is the rainy season in Peru, there were plenty of clouds everywhere! Breakfast was served on the train -- excellent service! The ride was scenic but I fell asleep for an hour or so... hadn't had much sleep the previous night due to all the excitement of being in a "new" country and going to one of the "new" 7 wonders of the world!
There was one stop in Ollantaytambo, then final destination: Aguas Calientes. The train arrived at 10am and as I was walking out of the station I saw a guy holding up a sign with three names on it, one those was "Ishaan Gokhale" :) This was my tourguide for the ruins, and he said we have to wait for 2 more people then we can start.
Those two other people never showed up, so I ended up having a private guide to the ruins!
Aguas Calientes is the kind of town that matches what I wrote about my impression of Cusco in my last email. THIS is the place that serves as a boarding point for Machu Picchu! We had to catch a bus up to the ruins -- not a problem, the buses run continuously from the train station. That was a fun ride -- lot of switchbacks up a mountain cliff, with barely enough room for one bus but there are buses coming down too. If that happens, one of the buses has to back up to let the other go -- and sometimes this can mean reversing downhill (or uphill) around some of the switchback turns with cliffs going straight down! Nerve-wracking for us passengers but I guess these bus drivers know what they're doing!
When we reached the top, Angel (my guide -- Angel, not Angelo -- first time I've met a guy with that name) told me I should go to the restroom -- this is the only one and the tour of the ruins will take about 3 hours and there aren't any restrooms inside. Good thing to know!
Angel was very knowledgeable too -- and the tour was CATERED TO ME since I was the only customer in his "group"... that was GREAT! When it came time to climb up lots of steps, we did it at MY pace. The first such climb was immediately after entering the site, and this is the spot where most of the photographs you've seen of Machu Pacchu are taken -- the ruins in the foreground and a peak in the background. This is where the Inca Trail also descends from another mountain, and the view from here is SPECTACULAR! Not just of the ruins themselves but the mountains all around! If you've been to Kauai, Hawaii -- all the mountains here reminded me of that! It was also overcast and I think that added to the scenery.
Since the Incas did not have a written language, there aren't any records which say what this site was used for. Everything that is "known" about Machu Picchu is speculation, and Angel even said that every tourguide here has his/her own explanations of what some of the buildings were. I had also read this somewhere earlier, and understood that whatever Angel told me was not to be taken as fact, but just a "possibility" of what might have been. The Spanish Conquistadores, when they invaded the Incas, never found Machu Picchu -- so that explains why the ruins are so intact, and also explains the lack of any records of what happened here. As we were walking around the ruins (LOT of climbing and going down steps made from hard rock), Angel would tell me something like "this room may have been a factory for textiles, this ledge might be where they kept small tools" ... and then another tour guide would come in and give some other explanation like "this room may have been living quarters, and this ledge might be where they kept small personal items, or candles to light the room". Nobody really knows, and about half-way through I was making up my stories -- but it was all fun!
A few things that are "most likely true":
There is one big rock shaped like a sun dial, predicting the solstices. It can be used as a clock to tell the time of day too.
Hmmm... well, I can't remember some of them now, but will just say that this whole place is open to interpretation! :)
The beauty of it is remarkable. The entire city is carved out of the mountains, and in many places large mountain rocks were used to build their buildings -- "respecting the nature and living with it, rather than destroying nature in order to live." Ok, this may be true for the Incas, but to Angel, this was a simple matter of practicality -- it was much easier to use whatever large rocks are naturally part of the mountain and use that as the wall of your home, rather than break hundreds of rocks and build a wall yourself! I can see both points... I don't know which is more true, probably a little bit of both.
Towards the end of the tour it started to rain, so I put my camera away... but this was only in the last 10 minutes or so ...
Around 1pm I took the bus back down to the town of Aguas Calientes (alone; Angel said he'll wait on top for giving more private tours). Lunch was already arranged at a restaurant called Toto's house -- included in my price. The food was "just ok", but the views are fantastic from here too! My return train was scheduled to depart at 3:20pm, so the rest of the time I just roamed around the town (very very little) and mostly just sat and put my feet up and relaxed!
I told a few of you earlier that the pictures I took on the train ride back have stories behind them, but I'll save those stories for myself :)
The train pulled into Cusco at 7pm -- about 1 hour late... and the bus from the tour company was waiting there to take us all back to our hotels...
Next day (Sunday -- today) was flight back to Lima and the day spent walking around downtown.
(To be continued -- later)
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| November 27 | Contents | November 29 |