I jumped in on a group of friends from California on their
trip to Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu. We struggled through 2 full rainy
days in Aguas Calientes – the closest town to Machu Picchu with a full touristy
atmosphere, inflated prices, a shitty market of manufactured souvenirs, and a absolutely badass river (tried to upload a video with no success, my apologies).
While Sacsaywaman was my first peek at the works of Ancient
Incan cultures of Peru, it was nothing like what I was about to see in the week
to come. Everyone has heard of Machu Picchu – one of the most well-known archaeological sites in the world, second maybe only to the pyramids in Egypt. And
everyone has seen the stock picture from the ‘Caregiver’s Hut’:
But unless you have actually found yourself sitting in front
of any one of the temples, it’s difficult to grasp the truly incredible nature
of the place. First, the location of this ancient city/place of worship is
situated atop seemingly impossible peaks. I can understand why the Incans would
build a city at the top of these peaks: because it is a downright beautiful
sight. But, how they managed it is a completely other story. The peaks are so
steep that you can almost see the Rio
Urubamba on both sides of you. We hiked Wayna Picchu (the peak standing
just behind the ruins in all pictures). If the slopes on which Machu Picchu was
built weren’t steep enough, the Incans had to build Wayna Picchu on slopes even
steeper. The path up is basically stairs, that most of the time necessitates
using a rope to pull yourself up. The site is truly an engineering marvel and
it is not a bad view either.
Granted I am no expert, but the stonework is unbelievable. Every
angle of every stone is matched with precision that is overwhelming. Supposedly
the site is seventy percent original work with the other thirty being the modern
day mason’s attempt to duplicate the work of ancient Incan stonemasons.
We spent nearly the entire day at Machu Picchu. The early
morning was spent climbing Wanya Picchu, ate some lunch and did some more
exploring., before walking home. After we descended Wayna Picchu and with some extremely fortunate luck, the sun came out
from behind the clouds.
We were told you were not allowed to bring bottled water so
I had a liter of water for an entire day of hiking around at 7,000 ft. By
mid-afternoon I was definitely parched. And after realizing that I was salivating
of the sight of a puddle, that I had better find some water. So, luckily the
Incans had a solid water distribution system that afforded me with a source of
clear rainwater straight into my Nalgene. I was happy to drink some sacred
water from ancient Incan stones (sterilized of course by my magic, modern day
UV light wand).
There are two ways to get to Machu Picchu from Aguas
Calientes: walk or take a bus. We chose to take the bus up to Machu Picchu and
hike down in the afternoon. In my opinion, it’s the best way to do it. Everyone
we saw who had hiked up, looked like they were on an Auschwitz death march with
their heads down, faces with a scowl, and soaked in sweat or rain. Not one of
them looked happy or approachable. It took us until the hike down to realize
why everyone looked like this. The walk is about 8 km of switchbacks by road.
But, stairs have been built to eliminate the switchbacks. So, after countless
steps, basically straight up a mountainside, these people had to of been
drained. I was glad to have only walked down instead of up.
All in all, I would call it a very mystic experience.
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