Today is yet another early start – we are on the 6:15am train out to the Andean Village of Agua Calientes, which is the stopping off point for the Incan city ruins of Machu Picchu. It is a wet and cold morning in Cuzco and still very dark as we board our train. The carriage is wonderful -we have assigned seats and the four us get to sit around a table in comparative luxury. There are even two carriage staff. The carriages have glass roofs but at this early hour there is not much to see, and with the rain set in even if daylight had broken we would not see much beyond the rain drenched streets of Cuzco.
The climb out of Cuzco is steep so the train has to make five switch backs to climb out of the valley but soon enough we are headed on our 4 hour journey into the mountains. It is very cold and we gladly take the blankets offered out by the carriage staff. As the day breaks we get to see more of the largely agricultural lands of the valleys. Deeper into the mountain we move into chasms overshadowed by vast mountains -the tops of them remain hidden from view by the hanging clouds. As we approach journey's end the clouds clear and we are finally able to see to spiralling mountain tops.
We descend from the train in the village of Agua Calientes – where we deposit our bags with the bell hop of our hotel and go off to find our guide, strangely enough called Darwin. He is dressed in bright yellow so finding him is not difficult – and he leads us down through the artisan market to the bus stop. The buses take us on the 20 minute ride from the valley up to Machu Picchu itself. The route takes us up 800 feet on a series of switch backs – Karen has her eyes closed for the most part on this journey as there are precipitous drops off the side of the not- too- wide road. We obviously survive this ordeal and follow Darwin into the ruins.
Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian Inca site located 2,400 meters (7,875 ft) above sea level. Often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas", Machu Picchu is probably the most familiar symbol of the Inca Empire. It was built around the year 1450, but abandoned a hundred years later, at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. The invading Spanish had a habit of destroying the temples and infrastructure of the natives of lands they conquered – fortunately they never found Machu Picchu. Forgotten for centuries, the site was brought to worldwide attention in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, an American historian. The classic image of Machu Picchu is of the ruins overlooked by the peak of adjoining mountain Wayna Picchu (meaning young peak). We are lucky and despite the poor start to day the clouds have broken and we are blessed with clear skies. Darwin leads us through the houses, streets and temples of the ruins painting a wonderful picture of the Incan way of life and culture – he explains the about the synchronicity of their lives with the seasons and in particular solar cycles. Our favourite phrase of his was “dooooaaality” (duality). It takes an hour and half to complete the tour, even after all this time in this magical place we are still in awe of these magnificent surroundings.
We now have time to ourselves and after a quick bite to eat we decide to walk part of the Inca Trail, an ancient roadway of the Incas leading towards Cuzco. Our aim is not so ambitious- we simply want to reach the Inti-Pata or 'Sun Gate' entrance some mile or so away from the main ruins of Machu Picchu. It is a steady uphill climb on a relatively narrow path with steep drops; the walk is not made any easier by the altitude (although we are only at 8000 feet above sea level here!). But the views are amazing. At the Sun Gate we get talking to a very pleasant young Swiss man called Christian. He is on a protracted tour of South America – and his main reason for being here is a cathartic one, wishing to forget the pain of a recent break-up of a relationship. Also he is afraid of heights and is not comfortable with the steep fall away at the side of the paths – so to help him down we talk to him all the way down about the state of modern day education and his career as an Art Advisor to collectors.At one point Karen forgot her own fears as she held his shaking hand!Sadly we have to leave the ruins and return back down to Agua Calientes. Our next mission is to find our hotel and luggage, which we manage to with a bit of help from a local security guard. The hotel is called the Inti Inn. Unfortunately our room is on the 5th floor and there is no lift – not surprisingly we are out of breath when we finally reach our room, which is somewhat basic. What the heck !We’re only here for one night. We quickly turn around and go out for our meal. We have a voucher for a local restaurant which we soon locate. It is still early but we are tired and imagine things don’t stay open too late around here so we sit down for our meal. We order our food – wanting to try something we go for the grilled Alpaca, apart from Emily who could not bring herself to eat this. The thought had crossed our mind to try the other delicacy – Guinea Pig but the pictures came up showing it being served whole so we decided we could not face this so stuck with the Alpaca. Whilst we were waiting for our food we were entertained by a local musical group, Inka Swing, who played traditional Andean music. Finally our food arrives, and to be honest we find the meat a bit dry – but you have to try these things. After this we return exhausted to our room and collapse into bed.
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