Day 4 update will be a short one for two reasons: (1) Machu Picchu is better described in pictures and (2) we have another early morning tomorrow so we need to sleep.
We woke up at 3:45 am and after getting ready, we were in our hotel lobby at 4:45 am. Our hotel was nice enough to pack us a small breakfast. The bus was late and we were picked up at 5:25 am. We set off for the Peru Rail station in the neighboring city of Ollantaytambo and reached there in almost two hours. Then we boarded our 7:45 am train that took us to the city of Agues Callientas at the base of Machu Picchu. The Peru Rail train ride was 1.5 hours - we had our breakfast on the train and were also served complimentary coffee. Then we took a 25-minute bus that took us from Agues Callientas up to Machu Picchu through winding unpaved roads.
We were at the Machu Picchu gate at 10:10 am, more than 6 hours after waking up. We hired a guide for the two of us and in retrospect, it turned out to be a great decision.
As soon as we laid eyes on this lost city of the Incas, we were spell bound. The grandeur of this city (and it seems unfair to call it a ruin since it's still quite majestic) cannot be described in words, specially when you think of the time when it was built.
The site was specially chosen because of religious, safety and weather reasons. Machu Picchu has only two modes of weather: rain or sun. Rain is good for growing crops and who doesn't like sunshine. Since it is on top of a mountain - the Machu Picchu or literally "Old Mountain" - and is surrounded on all sides by mountains too, it made the perfect setting to have a base hidden away and inaccessible from the enemy. The only way to reach the city was by trekking through the jungle and of course you needed to know the directions. Even now, there are only two ways of getting to the lost city - a 4 day trek of the scenic Inca Trail or the train/bus combination that we used. The religious aspects are even more startling. The Incans believed that life existed in three dimensions - the highest world inhabited by their gods (represented by the bird Condor - we will get to see the flight of the Condor later in our trip), the middle world inhabited by living things (represented by the Puma - another animal found primarily in Peru) and the underworld inhabited by the dead (represented by the snake). Why is this important? Machu Picchu is surrounded by a mountain that is shaped like a condor expanding it's wings, another mountain that looks like a resting Puma and a river that flows like a snake. Another interesting thing is that when you look at the Puma mountain and the condor mountain together, it looks like the face of an Inca who is lying down on the floor. Reading about it might not sound too exciting but seeing all these elements come together in one place was fascinating.
Then we explored different sections of the city with our guide. She showed us the temples, the residence of the high priest, the palace of the Inca king, the apartments of the women, a sundial (a simple stone that is quite a marvel of astronomy - used by the Incas to calculate times, equinoxes and other astronomical phenomena), a garden where all kinds of fruits and vegetables were grown, the terraces or farming areas and the central courtyard. Some areas are still under restoration so they are off-limits. It was a very informative tour and yet again, the quality of stone masonry on display was incredible.
After the tour, when we were making our way to the exit to have lunch, Samia slipped off a stair and sprained her ankle. So we took a one hour break where Samia had a painkiller and we just sat and relaxed. After a little while, we made our way back to a nice sitting area that has been constructed in the Incan style. We sat there for quite some time, read the sections on Machu Picchu from our travel guide book that we got in Calgary, had some snacks and also made two videos - a grazing llama and a llama drying its fur by rolling on the dusty floor of the sitting area.
Machu Picchu is very rightly categorized as a modern wonder of the world and we are glad that we got to experience this breathtaking grand city while it is still open to public.
Around 4 pm, we started making out way back via the same modes of transportation that we had used in the morning. We took a bus down to Agues Callientas followed by a hot chocolate break at a cafe, then caught our 6:45 pm train to Ollantaytambo and then a bus again back to Cusco. We reached Cusco around 10:25 pm and took a cab back to our hotel.
Tomorrow, we have to wake up around 7 am and checkout of our hotel. We'll leave our suitcases with the hotel and then our Sacred Valley tour bus will pick us up at 8:15 am for a full-day trip that will include Pisac, Urubamba, Olantaytambo and Chinchero - four archaeological sites around Cusco city. A buffet lunch is also included. After the tour, we'll come back to our hotel and then take the 10 pm bus to Puno. The plan is to sleep though the 7 hour drive and as soon as we reach our hotel at 5 am, we'll be picked up for another full day trip of Lake Titicaca. It's a lake where the reef is so thick that people have built houses on it and live in them. I'm giving a quick overview of the plan since we won't get access to Internet till Monday night. That's when we'll send the next update.
We woke up at 3:45 am and after getting ready, we were in our hotel lobby at 4:45 am. Our hotel was nice enough to pack us a small breakfast. The bus was late and we were picked up at 5:25 am. We set off for the Peru Rail station in the neighboring city of Ollantaytambo and reached there in almost two hours. Then we boarded our 7:45 am train that took us to the city of Agues Callientas at the base of Machu Picchu. The Peru Rail train ride was 1.5 hours - we had our breakfast on the train and were also served complimentary coffee. Then we took a 25-minute bus that took us from Agues Callientas up to Machu Picchu through winding unpaved roads.
We were at the Machu Picchu gate at 10:10 am, more than 6 hours after waking up. We hired a guide for the two of us and in retrospect, it turned out to be a great decision.
As soon as we laid eyes on this lost city of the Incas, we were spell bound. The grandeur of this city (and it seems unfair to call it a ruin since it's still quite majestic) cannot be described in words, specially when you think of the time when it was built.
The site was specially chosen because of religious, safety and weather reasons. Machu Picchu has only two modes of weather: rain or sun. Rain is good for growing crops and who doesn't like sunshine. Since it is on top of a mountain - the Machu Picchu or literally "Old Mountain" - and is surrounded on all sides by mountains too, it made the perfect setting to have a base hidden away and inaccessible from the enemy. The only way to reach the city was by trekking through the jungle and of course you needed to know the directions. Even now, there are only two ways of getting to the lost city - a 4 day trek of the scenic Inca Trail or the train/bus combination that we used. The religious aspects are even more startling. The Incans believed that life existed in three dimensions - the highest world inhabited by their gods (represented by the bird Condor - we will get to see the flight of the Condor later in our trip), the middle world inhabited by living things (represented by the Puma - another animal found primarily in Peru) and the underworld inhabited by the dead (represented by the snake). Why is this important? Machu Picchu is surrounded by a mountain that is shaped like a condor expanding it's wings, another mountain that looks like a resting Puma and a river that flows like a snake. Another interesting thing is that when you look at the Puma mountain and the condor mountain together, it looks like the face of an Inca who is lying down on the floor. Reading about it might not sound too exciting but seeing all these elements come together in one place was fascinating.
Then we explored different sections of the city with our guide. She showed us the temples, the residence of the high priest, the palace of the Inca king, the apartments of the women, a sundial (a simple stone that is quite a marvel of astronomy - used by the Incas to calculate times, equinoxes and other astronomical phenomena), a garden where all kinds of fruits and vegetables were grown, the terraces or farming areas and the central courtyard. Some areas are still under restoration so they are off-limits. It was a very informative tour and yet again, the quality of stone masonry on display was incredible.
After the tour, when we were making our way to the exit to have lunch, Samia slipped off a stair and sprained her ankle. So we took a one hour break where Samia had a painkiller and we just sat and relaxed. After a little while, we made our way back to a nice sitting area that has been constructed in the Incan style. We sat there for quite some time, read the sections on Machu Picchu from our travel guide book that we got in Calgary, had some snacks and also made two videos - a grazing llama and a llama drying its fur by rolling on the dusty floor of the sitting area.
Machu Picchu is very rightly categorized as a modern wonder of the world and we are glad that we got to experience this breathtaking grand city while it is still open to public.
Around 4 pm, we started making out way back via the same modes of transportation that we had used in the morning. We took a bus down to Agues Callientas followed by a hot chocolate break at a cafe, then caught our 6:45 pm train to Ollantaytambo and then a bus again back to Cusco. We reached Cusco around 10:25 pm and took a cab back to our hotel.
Tomorrow, we have to wake up around 7 am and checkout of our hotel. We'll leave our suitcases with the hotel and then our Sacred Valley tour bus will pick us up at 8:15 am for a full-day trip that will include Pisac, Urubamba, Olantaytambo and Chinchero - four archaeological sites around Cusco city. A buffet lunch is also included. After the tour, we'll come back to our hotel and then take the 10 pm bus to Puno. The plan is to sleep though the 7 hour drive and as soon as we reach our hotel at 5 am, we'll be picked up for another full day trip of Lake Titicaca. It's a lake where the reef is so thick that people have built houses on it and live in them. I'm giving a quick overview of the plan since we won't get access to Internet till Monday night. That's when we'll send the next update.
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