Day 12: Happy Machu Picchu Birthday to me!!

Itinerary for Day 7: Machu Picchu to Cusco: After breakfast at the hotel we make our way to the bus station for the ride up to Machu Picchu (30 min).  A complete guided tour of Machu Picchu will be provided (2 hrs) and you will have about 4 additional hours to explore the site independently.  We return by bus to Aguas Calientes for lunch before the train embarks for Ollantaytambo (1.5hrs).  Upon arrival, a private vehicle awaits to take us back to Cusco (1.5hrs)

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to mEEEeeee, happy birthday to meeeeeeeee!!! 

Birthday hydration.
Before....

What a brilliant day its been today!  As well as being my birthday, today is the day we finally visit Machu Picchu!  Both Lisa and I were very interested to see if it was going to live up to expectations or not, especially given all the other incredible sights we've seen and experiences we've had already on this trip!  It was going to be a long day as we were up at 5am for a quick breakfast ready to leave at 6am.  Given the specialness of the day, its quite possible that something bubbly may well have been decanted into the stainless steel water bottles for celebratory purposes later, but you didn't hear that from me...

And...after....

We left our bags in the room for collection and would reunite with them at train station later in afternoon and made the short walk into town to catch the bus.  It was raining but not too heavily, but mountain tops were swathed in heavy mist so wondered if would see anything.  We were also glad we didn’t arrange a special tour to go up even earlier to watch the sun rise as we would have seen absolutely nothing.

I've got a golden ticket!!

It was just daylight, still fresh, but there were already lines of eager tourists such as ourselves starting to snake their way through the town, draped in brightly colored plastic ponchos, heading for the bus station.  Liz had already got both our bus tickets and our Machu Picchu entrance tickets, so we didn’t have to wait on line to buy them.  There were a constant stream of buses that would simply wait at the station, then leave when they were full – we must have timed it just right because when we arrived there was no line, so we got straight on the bus – which then immediately left!   Like the train yesterday, the bus was also extremely comfortable, so we settled in for the 25 min bumpy ascent up the mountain to Machu Picchu.  Lisa remarked that it felt like we were going to a theme park – and it did feel a little that way.  I think we were both still adjusting to the sheer number of people and the noise and bustle, after the last week of near solitude in the mountains.

Approaching Machu Picchu from the entrance gate

MP below still swathed in mist

After a short while being serenaded by pan pipes while on the bus, we reached the entrance gate. There were already lots of people milling about, (the only restrooms were outside the city itself, with a 1 soles pay-to-pee entrance fee).  Tickets are issued to the individual, with a max of 3000 visitors a day and you had to show your passport with your ticket to prevent tickets getting sold on to other people later in the day.  Most people go in the morning with lots of the big tour buses turning up around 10am. We got there just before 7am so while it wasn’t empty, it wasn’t quite as stuffed full as it would be later on that morning.

Liz had warned us the day before that getting round Machu Picchu was actually quite hard work, with many steps some of them quite steep ones.  She wasn’t kidding!  Even with our week-long mountain conditioning, climbing up and down the huge city was enough to get the heart rate elevated again and for the breath to quicken.  (I didn’t think to wear my heart rate monitor, I’m afraid, so there are no scores on the doors today – sorry!).  My comfort with yesterday’s decision not to do the knee-crushing hike went back up to 100% as I could understand Liz’s caution that you needed to be in good shape fo Machu Picchu.  However, even though we were out of breath a little bit, we were still doing vastly better than probably about 80% of everyone else who was there, some of whom seemed to be dressed more appropriately than others for clambering around the city!

After clearing the passport control entrance gate, the first bit was a short walk uphill from the entrance gate and around this curved wall.  The mist was still so heavy we could see absolutely nothing.  After 10 mins we stopped at the first vista point and, just as we did so, as if by magic, the mists suddenly cleared up for just a few moments, enough for us to get our first glimpse of the city way below us!

First sighting of the city below!  

Wow.  That first sighting was something special.  It was just long enough to reveal the wonders that lurked beneath, but then gone again in a couple of moments, as the mists wrapped the city back up again. As the morning went on, the mists progressively cleared so that, by 12pm or so, it was pretty clear and you had an excellent view of the city.  

Temple of the Sun

 What to write about Machu Picchu?  There is so much they still don't know about the city, how it was built and what the various buildings were for, that I'm certainly not going to be able to do it justice here.  The couple of things that stuck in my mind from the torrent of information that Liz gave us over the next 4 hours were as follows: basically Hiram Bingham, the "discoverer" of MP in 1911 made a lot of stuff up!  He assigned certain structures names and functions (ie the "guard house", the "ceremonial rock") but he didn't really have a clue if they were accurate or not!  I think one of the other things I was surprised to learn was just how few people actually lived there.  Its a pretty big place but only between 300-700 people resided there.  Perhaps it was because only VIPs lived there - the noble people and religious dignitaries - rather than the great unwashed and hoi polloi!  It was good that we were there with Liz because the place was so huge you'd get lost wandering around on your own and also you wouldn't really have a clue what you were looking at either.  

If you are interested in reading more about Machu Picchu, then here are a couple of links to check out:

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/peru/machu-picchu/secrets/

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/world-heritage/machu-picchu/

Residential area

Machu Picchu high street

Had to be done, really.  The mountain of Wayna Picchu
in the background.  Nope. We didn't climb it.

Finally, the mist clears to reveal the magnificent
city below

Group shot!

Upstairs view of temple of the sun

Bottom half of Temple of the Sun.  See how they
built the wall to adapt to the natural curvature of
the rocks.  Bloody geniuses!

These Incan's were very very clever.  Built multiple
fountains and very sophisticated water and drainage
systems.

Everyone say "queso!"

Ornamental rock carved exactly to reflect the
shape of the mountains behind

Damaged by an earthquake, but still standing!  Very impressive!

This rock points exactly due north and south.

And here's the proof.  Absolutely dead on. How
did they do that??

View up towards temple of the 3 windows

This was truly amazing.  Reflecting pools, built so
that the Inca (the king) could look at the reflection of
the stars.  Apparently they were geniuses at
astronomy too!

temple of the condor.  the bit at the front is the beak,
head and body and the large angular, upwards rocks
behind are the condor's wings

Terraces for agriculture as well as structural support for the city

Alpaca lawnmowers

Happy bunny having a happy birthday! And
not looking a day over 43!

A visitor enjoying a moment of quiet reflection

The Inka bridge.  Look how they have constructed the bridge with
the stones stacked against the cliff.  The gap in the middle is crossed
with a wooden drawbridge, allowing them to control who gains
access to the city.  Very clever.

We stayed up in Machu Picchu until about 1pm, then it was time to get the bus back to Aguas Calientes and to the hotel for lunch.  We had another delicious 3-course lunch during which I opened the birthday cards I’d brought with me, so it was very festive!

Happy birthday lunch to me!

After lunch, we hung out at the hotel til 3.30pm (a quick nap may have just sneaked in while we recharged our respective devices) when it was finally time to say farewell to our Machu Picchu adventure and head to the train station to collect our bags and board the train to Ollantaytambo.  The boarding process was slightly less chaotic this time and the carriages were equally as plush and comfortable as the last train.  The journey would take about an hour and a half and gazing up at the mountains, it was impossible not to feel a twinge of emotion that this incredibly journey was starting to draw to a close.  I felt myself missing the mountains already – so who knows, maybe one day in the future, I’ll be back.

Sparko en route to Ollantaytambo

My reflections were interrupted by an impromptu on-board show where the attendants who’d previously just been serving us coffee and inedible sandwiches, suddenly turned into the entertainment!  First up was a still-yet unidentified caricature (we think it might have supposed to have represented the mountain puma, one of the three Andean gods?) who ran up and down the carriage in a brightly colored costume making an odd purring sound!  He then started to pull passengers from their seats for a quick dance and, yes, before I knew it, I’d been selected and hauled to my feet for some special attention!  (unbeknownst to me, I’d been stitched up by Lisa and Liz who’d told one of the train attendants earlier that it was my birthday, so I may as well have been wearing a Star Trek red jersey…).  

My dance date

But it was all good fun, and it felt nice to be made a fuss of on my birthday, so I didn’t mind at all.  He was probably very grateful to have been wearing that thick mask though – all of us, myself included, smelled pretty fragrant after 4 hrs clambering up and down Machu Picchu!

But it wasn’t over yet!  After Puma-man finally purred off, then the other 2 attendants put on a fashion show, modeling – yes – the latest in alpaca wear that you could purchase on the train!  Yes, I was on a train leaving Machu Picchu and still managed to find a shopping opportunity!  Funnily enough, it was all from the same shop that Lisa and I had done some damage in before leaving Cusco the first time, so it was good quality baby alpaca gear (being now the expert that I am in mountain wear).  And OF COURSE I bought something!  Was there ever any doubt I would?  I actually bought this very nice black baby alpaca cape, with a lovely white graphic trim and a hood (it looks nice that I’m making it sound) and that had lots of different ways you could wear it.  I’m sure I’ll never figure them out again, but it’s a long winter in Chicago, so who knows, give me enough time and I might…

My birthday pressie to myself!  Yey for train
shopping!

After a quick snafu with paying for it (her credit card machine didn’t work, so I had to borrow some money temporarily from my fellow passengers), we arrived at Ollantaytambo, ready for our 1hr 45min drive back to Cusco and last night in the El Mercado hotel.  Crazy Sticks (as usual) had lost her glasses so we spent 10mins looking for them, before she finally found them hooked on the front of her shirt.  HHM had done something equally as doh-worthy earlier in the day, believing that he’d left his phone in the hotel.  Him and Crazy Sticks bickered about it all the way on the bus to MP, and had Liz phoning the hotel for him when we arrived, asking if anyone had seen it etc.   Then, about 3hrs later, he finally discovers it was at the bottom of his bag the whole time.  Durrr…..

The drive back to Cusco was uneventful – most people took the opportunity to have a quick snooze (there were only 6 of us by this stage, as Top Brit, Top Banana, Captain Obvious and PYFU had stayed on in MP).  We did stop briefly to get out and have a look at the stars, which were incredible (we saw the Southern Cross) and makes you realize just how much light pollution we have.  And then, before we knew it, we were back at the El Mercado, where it almost didn't seem real that just a week beforehand we were preparing to leave for our trek.  Now, our time in Peru is almost at an end - we fly to Lima tomorrow and then head back to the US late on Saturday night.  This is always the most bittersweet part of a trip - but for now, its still my birthday and I think its been a pretty damn good one!!  Thank you to everyone for all your wonderful birthday wishes - its been brilliant!  Now I just have to figure out how to top this one next year!!

Final view of the mountains with the light
shining on the top.  Anyone else fancy
a Toblerone?