Machu Picchu

Peruvians are very proud that Machu Picchu has been selected as one of the new Wonders of the World. I´ve only seen one of the other Wonders and a few of the runners up, so I won´t try to compare it. However, I readily agree that it is a most impressive site, perhaps the most complete city that remains of the very impressive Inca civilisation. OK, Jose, Ancient Quechua civilisation (see "My Inca Trail").

One of my Dutch companions on the trek, Winnie, wanted to be on the first bus from Aguas Calientes up the mountain to Machu Picchu. There is a very good reason to be early. Hundreds, if not thousands, of non-trekkers arrive each day by train from Cusco and the site becomes very crowded. But the first train gets in at about 10am and the first bus is at 5:30. I must be too much of a gentlemen because I agreed to catching the first bus.

So we were up at 5 o´clock and breakfasting in a cafe at 5 past. I hope I didn´t pay much for this meal (it was part of the package) because it was pathetic. Getting the first bus to Machu Picchu is a popular notion and at 5:15 the queue was already long. Jose had previously explained that there are several "first buses"; a nonsense I suspect was intended to placate Winnie. The first bus leaves promptly at 5:30 and others follow as fast as the tourists can climb aboard. The fleet is shiny, new Mercedes vehicles. The operator can well afford them, since the monopoly on the route is milked for all it is worth - US$12 return.

On the way we passed sturdier folk hiking up the steep mountain, determined to save $12 and still see the dawn from the Inca site.

The day was cloudy so we didn´t see a dawn; night eased into pale daylight. I hope Winnie was pleased with the effect.

Jose was impressively alert for such an hour and launched into his last and longest history lesson. For Wikipedia´s discourse click here.

Briefly, Machu Picchu is reckoned to be a major centre of learning. There is a part of the site that archaeology strongly suggests was a cluster of workshops, but there are many temples and multi-door rooms that are believed to be classrooms.

This is the temple of the sun. There are two windows, one aligned with the summer solstice sunrise and the other with the winter solstice. The winter solstice marked the beginning of the Incas´ year.

The photo was taken as the sun finally came through and shows how the light fell on a carefully positioned stone. We were there not long after the winter solstice so the morning sun was shining through the ´New Year´ window.

This is a young mountain caracara. They are carrion feeders so it was presumably hoping someone would fall off one of the steeper parts of the site.

Did an Inca architect get it wrong? No, Hiram Bingham, who ´discovered´ Machu Picchu, excavated too close to this wall and it started to slip. Jose told us that earthquakes have made the gaps between the stones wider.

This is intihuatana, the "hitching post of the sun", another huge stone positioned with great accuracy as an astronomical device.

Cooking pools? No.

The royal lavatory? No.

These are shallow pools believed to have been used as mirrors for teaching astronomy. It is much easier to make sure the class understands if the teacher can point to a star in the classroom instead of pointing to the sky and hoping that everyone is looking at the right point of light.

After Jose had spent two hours educating us, we were free to spend the rest of the day wandering round the site. All the guide books recommend climbing the adjacent peak, Huayna Picchu for its magnificent views of the site and the surrounding mountains. The path is very steep and narrow and the authorities have decided to limit the visitors to this summit. Only 400 per day are allowed. As we queued two officials came down the line, counting. "Trescientos noventa y nueve, cuatrocientos!" And the arm of doom fell between Jasper and me. Well someone has to be 401st.

Later, Jasper and Winnie reported that the climb is very hard and the path is distinctly vertiginous. I am an acrophobe, so maybe it was just as well.

Having been thus separated from my companions I found a quiet corner (not easy at Machu Picchu) and had a nap to compensate for the early start.

Proof that I was really there and didn´t just copy someone else´s pictures. I am standing on some agricultural terraces with the main site and Huayna Picchu in the background.

The camera was on my mini tripod and the sun was in exactly the wrong place.

About 20 minutes walk from the main site is the "Inca Bridge". It´s remarkable not for the three logs across the gap but the mass of stonework built up the sheer cliff face.

The dark spots are larger stones that project out from the wall to be used as steps, presumably in the construction of the massive viaduct.

The bridge is no longer in use. The path to it has fallen away from the mountainside entirely.

I couldn´t spend hours anywhere without some nature observations. These red bromeliads are perched on a tree not far from the Inca Bridge.

In this area I also saw rwo amazing butterflies. They were the size of morphos, i.e. giants. They appeared to be all white, but as I watched their fast, erratic flight there was a fuzzy, electric blue after image. If anyone knows about these butterfles and their optical properties, please leave a comment.



As the bus zig-zagged carefully back down the mountain it was ´raced´ by a youth running down the steps. This is a local custom designed especially to extort tips from tourists. Since the bus often had to pause to manoevre past buses coming back up, I don´t think the endeavour was all that remarkable.

The remainder of the day was spent in Aguas Calientes, where Peru´s most expensive Internet cafes (3 soles per hour when the norm in Cusco is 1 sol or 1.50) delivered the most terrible connection.

Perurail has a very strange system of allocating seats on the tourist trains and the tour operator, Wayki Trek, has to take what it is given. Matt, on the previous day, was on a 4:30pm train. Jasper, Winnie and I had to wait until 8:00pm. Even changing to a minibus at Ollantaytambo, which is faster than staying on the train, we did not get back to Cusco until about midnight.

You, too, can visit Machu Picchu by taking a virtual tour. More pictures and explanations.