Machu Picchu: Part 1

I'm delaying writing my post on Machu Picchu because there's so much to say. I've been trying to decide if I should try to do a play by play or if it's impossible. There's so much going on around me and so much exploration that in some ways I feel as if my brain can't form sentences at the end of the day. So, I'll give it a go and see if I can provide something ya'll can follow. 

We took Peru rail from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes on December 28. It took us about 1.5-2 hours in a taxi to get from Cusco to Ollantaytambo, and after chilling for lunch in Ollantaytambo we took the train to Aguas Calientes. We intentionally went a day early so that we could have the entire day at Machu Picchu. What was really interesting to me was finding out that Machu Picchu was known by a few outsiders and by locals period to 1911. In fact, locals even used some of the terraces to farm. Hiram Bingham is credited with "discovering" Machu Picchu, but in reality what he did was make the world pay attention and care about it. I was so interested in his story that I actually just bought his book that he published after Machu Picchu was excavated. The forward to that book is written by another author who appropriately says that Hiram Bingham should be credited with the "scientific discovery" of the site because without him it's likely that the world wouldn't know of Machu Picchu. Bingham was a Yale professor and negotiated support from National Geographic, who published Bingham's findings and a photo essay of the excavation of the site.

What was even more fascinating was learning that even though Machu Picchu was "discovered" in 1911, it didn't become the popular attraction that is is today until the early 2000s. It was named a modern wonder of the world in 2007. Apparently in the 1980s and 1990s it was still possible to actually camp on site! I can't even imagine how phenomenal that would have been. I had a random conversation with an airline pilot from the States who said he had been to Machu Picchu just five years ago and that the organization and formalization of accessing the site changed dramatically. A lot of credit goes to Melissa for researching and organizing our trip because she was able to purchase our train tickets and tickets to Machu Picchu from the US. The pilot told me that you used to be able to just buy everything the day you visited. As I said in a previous post, Melissa also secured our Huayna Picchu tickets in July because they are in such demand. 

So, we arrived the day before we planned to go to Machu Picchu because we knew that people try to get up to the site for sunrise. Also, our Huayna Picchu tickets were timed and we knew we had to enter that hike between 10:00 and 11:00 AM. We decided to try to catch a relatively early bus so that we could see the morning view that's typically partially covered in fog/ clouds, so our hike, and then tour more of the site after. Our hostel was crazy loud and we were very excited so it wasn't very difficult getting up early to catch a bus. We were in line for the bus at just a few minutes after 6:00 and we waited approximately 30 minutes to board a bus. If I remember correctly, at that point busses had already been running for 30 minutes or so for everyone who tries to get up there for sunrise. We had basically no desire to be part of that group.

 

On the bus ride up to Machu Picchu all I could think was, "Thank God my mother isn't here and thank God she doesn't know that is what we're doing right now!" Mom, you would have freaked. LOL The entire ride up was steep and narrow switchbacks with two-way traffic on stone roads that drop off Dow  to the valley floor. Multiple times our bus had to stop, reverse, move even closer to the edge, and then proceed. I had the pleasure of riding in a seat at the window and had to keep repeating the same sentence to myself, "People do this every day, all day..." At some of the turns of the switchbacks I legitimately thought the back end of the bus hung over the cliff edge. It was maybe the most nerve-wracking bus rides of my life! But it was so worth it. So so so worth it!