Machu Picchu

What a wonderful way to finish off our 4 month adventure. We took a scenic bus and train ride from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes along the base of the Sacred Valley and still fast rushing Urubamba River............earlier year rains had caused a 10 metre rise in the river inflicting much damage to the towns and railway along the way, leading to the closure of Machu Picchu for 6 weeks in February and March. Aguas Calientes itself was still undergoing extensive repairs to the roads and buildings throughout this hillside village which was built at the bottom of the valley below Machu Picchu. The next morning we got up early and caught a bus up the mountain, arriving at Machu Picchu just before the 4 day trekkers came through the Sun Gate on the Inca Trail to meet us at the entrance. Caity, Rachel and Javier were all in good spirits and relieved to have successfully navigated the 45 km trail (and cool nights in a tent). Their guide, Richard, then gave us a wonderful 3 hour tour of Machu Picchu. He has done this over a hundred times but he spoke passionately about this New 7th Wonder of the World and we appreciated his insights. Despite being over 500 years old, and only discovered 99 years ago, the buildings are in terrific shape due to the fact that the Spaniards never found them and plundered them like they did with the rest of the Inca ruins. It was a special place used by the Inca nobility and from the design, great detail was given to the positioning of their sacred places, and it was clear that their smartest minds were involved in the creation of this small city which was home to less than a thousand people (a small fraction of the 15 million Inca population). It was a spiritual feeling to just sit and fall into a trance in this mountain-top treasure. Richard then left us for a couple of hours to do more exploring on our own before meeting us for a late lunch back in Aguas Calientes.

Once there we had a wonderful meal topped off by a nice surprise when he told us that our accommodation for the night (3 rooms for the 5 of us) was included in our package.........this is still a mystery to us since he had booked us into a wonderful hostel that was much more expensive than the place we had made our own reservations for (and this was not supposed to be part of our package). We felt so guilty staying in this palace for 'free' that despite still feeling full from lunch, we felt obligated to have the $9, 3 course dinner which the hospitable manager was offering. I had the Peruvian version of surf and turf...... a spicy, trout appetizer followed by guinea pig, a national specialty down here (which we had all avoided until now). It was likely made more palatable by our pre-dinner outing down the street where we discovered four-for-one happy hour and played several card games during our six rounds of drinks. We all slept well last night, especially the trekkers who were pleased to be back in a bed for the first time in 5 nights.

Today we are having a lazy final day in Aguas Calinetes before taking an evening train and bus back to Cusco where the four of us will have a final sleep before beginning our journey home while Caity goes solo for her final 3 weeks and travels to places along the coast of Peru which we had previously enjoyed, prior to her arrival.

We will post some trip highlights (there were many) when we get home on Friday.

Cheers................mike & rhonda