Bay 09: Machu Picchu

The day is finally here, I cannot believe we are heading off to see the city-in-the-clouds, discovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, a professor at Yale University, Machu Picchu remains a mystery to all but is one of the finest examples of Inca architecture to have survived the plundering and destruction of the Spanish Conquistadores.

We are off early to beat the tourists coming in on day trips by train from Cusco (our guide tells us we are not tourist, but rather we are “Explorers”). After arriving at the lost city we have a two hour tour with Jesus, our guide, before being set free to wonder amidst the houses, storehouses, temples and agricultural terraces.

The overall layout is incredible, two separate residential areas separating the different classes. The Temple of the Sun with its two windows to track the winter and summer solstices and finally the sacred rock alters at the top. The stonework is phenomenal with over 70% o what we are looking at being original and untouched by time or nature. This particularly important as Peru is subject to significant earthquake activity which would have toppled most other buildings There are two kinds of stonework here, simple stone and mortar masonry and the work reserved for the most important buildings where each stone is cut precisely to fit with no mortar of any king used to hold the wall together. In some places we find stones with as many as 14 right angle cuts to fit together, and this all being done without the Inca’s having the advantage of knowing Iron tools of any kind. The work we are seeing is all hand cut using other stones with bronze and gold hammers and chisels.

After wondering around the city for a while the group splits and the majority of us head off to the “Gate of the Sun” which served as the main entryway into Machu Picchu from the Inca Trail where the Emperor would have arrived, being carried on stretchers. The climb to the gate is about an hour each way up a inclined rocky “road” with steps along the way. With the sun now beating down pretty directly it is quite the effort to get there. We do make it and WOW is the climb worth the view, the panorama of Machu Picchu is beyond words, I cannot even imagine what the Incas or other visitors would have been struck with as they emerged from the jungle trails to see this magnificent work of art!

We head back down to join the rest of our group how have chosen to take a separate trail to the Inca draw bridge. After regrouping we head down off the mountain back to the village where we have a buffet Peruvian feast at Toto’s Restaurant just off the main street overlooking the white water rapids of the Urubamba River. This river when joined with the Salkantay River will be the main sources of the Amazon River.

After lunch we prepare to say goodbye to most of the rest of our group. The “official’ tour ends this afternoon with all but our family and one other couple, Carol and Marc from CT, heading off on a 6:00 PM train back to Cusco. Again, it is incredible the relationships that can form in such a short period and how wonderfully lucky we were with the group we were paired with. By the end of our second day together the 13 of us plus our two guides had formed friendships that allowed to truly enjoy the trip together. The children as well were matched up very well with Sarah and Kelsey both having finished first year at college while Nick and Tissh from the Netherlands both had a terrific time and shared soccer/football as a common passion.

Later in the evening we caught up with Carol and Marc for a wonderful pizza dinner where we even managed to talk about politics and religion without offending anyone.

The Creegan's have one more day to explore Machu Picchu before starting our travels back to Boston. So we are off to bed for a bright and early start.