SUNDAY – MACHU PICCHI

 

Well it was everything it was described as being – truly spectacular. We got up at 4:00 am to be on one of the first buses to leave from Aqua Calientes and were succcessful in being close to the head of the queue. We were at the entrance to Machu Picchu, again close to the front of the queue shortly before 6:00am.

The only way to Machu Picchi is by bus from Aqua Calientes (or a several hour walk up the mountain range) and the only way to Aqua Calientes is by train from Ollantaytambo. There is no road access. Everything, including the buses used to transport people up the mountain, has to come in by train. The bus system is very efficient. I don't know how many buses they have but buses just keep coming and leave as soon as they are full. A large number of people can be transported up the steep curving mountain road in a very short time. The picture above shows a bus crossing the bridge before starting the climb. The photo below shows the train

 

Fortunately the complex is very large so, while there are an enormous number of people visiting the complex, we did not find any area particularly crowded.

 

We now know that the complex was being built around 1450 and abandoned during the second half of the 16^th century but it was never lost in that it was occasionally visited by local farmers. It attracted the attention of a Professor Hiram Bingham in 1911. The Peruvian government has been promoting conservation and research since the 1930's and the railway which opened it up for mass tourism was built in 1949.

 

The photo above shows the road winding its way up the mountain. The complex is truly worthy of its World Heritage listing.

We had a two hour guided tour with Jay. Reni had very cleverly arranged for us to meet him at the Guard House which is the building at the top of the photo above being the highest point of the main complex so all we had to do was to climb the hundreds of steps to get there and it was all down hill from there. There are outlying parts of the complex that you can walk/climb to including the Sun Gate, The Inca Bridge and the very high Wayna Picchu pictured in the background below but we didn't see the need to do any of those. What we did was sufficiently spectacular. We are now back in Cusco until tomorrow when we head for Puno.

The photo below is our delightful little tour group.

 

A humming bird felt the need to pose for us.

 

 

Llamas have free run of the site.

There has been a small amount of earthquake damage. We are told that this occurred prior to the restoration of the site.