Machu Picchu

One of the main excursions from Cuzco is to visit Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was hidden for many moons, and then “rediscovered” by an American historian (Hiram Bingham) in 1911 who asked some locals did they know where Incan ruins were..

Anyway, we opted not to do the Inca trail. It’s quite expensive at $600 USD pp (you have to do it guided), though I’m sure it’s an awesome trip. So we took the bus from Cuzco to Hydroelectrica (you’ll never guess what’s there). That bus trip was, apart from the descent on the Pampa Linda track, the scariest thing I’ve done on this trip! It’s a seriously narrow road in places, with some rather large drop-offs into nothingness.

From Hydroelectrica we walked to Aguas Caliente. There is a train which runs, but it’s a pretty nice 2 hour fast walk through the jungle. I quite liked Aguas Caliente I must say, despite the many tourists. Our hostel was clean, being in lowish season there was lots of competition for dinner, so we settled for the happy hour & cheap pizza option (nyom).

The next day we were up early (5am) to walk up to Machu Picchu. There are busses, but we like the exercise ;) It’s a good climb and took us about an hour I think. The weather was a little wet and overcast, however, it meant that there weren’t too many tourists in the photos.

I did like the “Inca bridge” – looks like quite an effective defence.

So, Machu Picchu… I did wish I had longer to enjoy it (though the 5 hours we had was just about enough), but, I dunno, it seemed to me that most of the buildings there were restorations rather than originals. There were only a few places where you could see the original impressive stonework, well, unless they were using mortar at Machu Micchu. I’d love to know how original it all was. Maybe it’s very accurate, I’ll have to read the Wikipedia entry again ;) . It seemed to me that you saw more original buildings / artifacts at Sachsuaman in Cuzco. Indeed, Machu Picchu may join a list of “UNESCO sites in danger of losing their status” ..

The sun did come out later on in the morning (hurrah!), so it was a pleasant walk back to Hydroelectrica. We saw 3 road traffic accidents on the way back to Cuzco, one looked quite serious. The drivers really are quite mental here. I was definitely pleased to be back to the hostel in one piece. You’re advised (and we generally do) travel during daylight hours, unfortunately the trip back from Machu Picchu pretty much has to happen during night hours, at least at this time of year.