Sunday Sep. 16, 2007
After leaving Nazca I headed north-west, back into the Andes again to visit Cuzco and the famous Machu Picchu. As expected, Cuzco turned out to be a highly touristy city with lots of interesting things to do. Although I never realized it was the center of the Inca empire, and that there were so many other incredible ruins sites in and around the city itself. These sites were all very impressive in their own unique way and they turned out to be an excellent precursor to my visit to Machu.
Cuzco has a nice central park with a huge water fountain, ornate churches and great restaurants, but those weren't the reason why I was here, and they certainly weren't the most impressive things here for me. There were beautiful, traditional, hand-made crafts, and dancing in the streets as people celebrated the festival of the native virgin in some very colorful costumes.
I especially enjoyed strolling down a walkway to see some of the remaining Inca stonework that wasn't torn down and used by the Spanish for their buildings, although some are now the foundations for other newer buildings that were built atop. The locals say there is 2 types of stonework here; that of the Incas, and that of the in-capables (the Spanish). It's not hard to see the difference, and the original Inca stonework has withstood earthquakes that have toppled more modern construction in the area.
I visited a museum and learned how the Inca used 13 degree angles in all of their buildings to make them stronger. And that 13 degrees also happens to be the same distance that Cuzco is south of the equator. That Cuzco was built in the shape of a puma (cougar). And even beyond the amazingly perfect fit of each and every stone used in their buildings, I saw how they would create mechanical joints inside some to incorporate metal fasteners.
A half-day bus trip to a few of the other nearby ruins included the impressive military training site of Sacsayhuaman (sexy-woman) that had massive stones laid out in the form of the teeth in a puma's mouth. Here, the largest stone weighed more than 200 tons and the joints were still amazingly good after hundreds of years. At this point my head was starting to spin trying to imagine how this civilization had perished.
After I was all finished sightseeing around Cuzco, I hopped back on the bike and headed out to see more ruins at Pisac where the Inca had terraced a mountainside and incorporated an irrigation system into it for growing crops. When I asked one of the guides how the Inca had shaped the stones to fit so well in their buildings, he said they used meteorites, and then pulled one about the size of a baseball out of his backpack. It was very heavy for its size and obviously strong as he struck a stone with it, breaking off a piece of the stone.
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Then it was off to the next site: Ollantaytambo. Here the Inca had created more terraces, although these were smaller and used for flowers, not crops. They were also in the midst of building a sun temple when work stopped and huge stones were left laying about like lego blocks on the top of the mountain. The stones used here were brought from another mountain 5 kms (3.1 mi) away, and the joints in these gigantic pieces were the most astounding I had seen so far.
The original Inca village just below the site is still alive with people today, and it even has the original water system still running through the narrow walkway streets.
From Ollantambo it was off the beaten path as Buzz & I took the back way into Aquas Calientes (the town below Machu Picchu). This was the way that every tour office in Cuzco said didn't exist. The road started out as nice new asphalt highway, but eventually turned into a small gravel road that passed through 2 small towns. I couldn't help but wonder why Peru was paying to make such a beautiful new highway to 2 small towns? But then I thought maybe they were creating a new way to get to Machu without having to take the overpriced train owned by Chile and Spain.
I parked Buzz outside the guardhouse at the hydroelectric station and walked the remaining 4-hours up the railroad tracks to Aquas Calientes at 2,113 m (6,932 ft) where only hikers, trains and helicopters are allowed to enter. It took me 2-days to get there, but the views were beautiful and it was an excellent buildup to my visit to Machu the next morning.
Machu Picchu - I couldn't believe I was there. I was one of the first in line to get through the gates as they opened at 6 am and the dense clouds concealed its true majesty and the steep mountains surrounding it. I walked quickly through the quiet and empty site of Machu (the 'old' mountain), glancing at and touching some of the structures as I made my way to the gates of Wayna Picchu (the 'young' mountain) which opened at 7 am and only accepted 400 people per day.
The 1-1/2-hour hike up Wayna at 2,642 m (8,668 ft) was not for the faint of heart. The steps were steep and often narrow leading up the to the top, which also contained a small site, but more impressively, looked down onto Machu at 2,490 m (8,169 ft).
After returning to Machu from Wayna I visited the main site a little and took a short walk out to see the Inca bridge. I could see why it wasn't open to the public, and for a short time I just sat in awe and looked at this trail they had carved across the vertical face of a mountain and at one point even made a small bridge. These people obviously didn't have a fear of heights.
I was tired and my knees ached from all the hiking, but I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything - this place was amazing! It was 1:30 pm and the estimated 2-hour hike time required to get up and another 1-1/2-hour to get back down would put me right at the 5:00 pm closing time, so I hustled. Mt. Machu Picchu at 3,082 m (10,111 ft) is considerably higher than Wayna and a more difficult climb (very few tourists here), but I managed to reach the summit in 1-1/2-hours. It was spectacular!
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