Machu Picchu

We started out trip to Machu Picchu via bus from Urubamba to Ooyantamba. Ooyantamba is a small town that has become the new starting point for those going to Mach Picchu. This is where you catch the train that brings you through the Andes, along side of a raging chocolate milk colored river, and is the only way in. There are no roads so any buses that run the travelers up into Machu Picchu have to be freighted in via the train. We were met early that morning for out guide Hubert, who would be leading us for the next 2 days. We boarded the bus and started a rocking and rolling accent thorough the mountains.

The dental students were doing a different tour than us so we were back to the original 15. At km 88 is the where the people who do the 4 day trek into Machu Picchu disembark. 12 of us were going to instead do the 1 day trek.

Sadly Jamie and my mom had to stay back and would not be joining us as Jamie had been fighting a nasty bronchitis requiring frequent ventolin and codeine treatment. We figured the exacerbation of hiking up a mountain was not the recipe for a cure. Harry also was staying on the train as he did not want to hike in either.

So at Km 104 Justin, Kira, Jared, Amanda, Brian, Cam, Jared's assistants Chantal and Andrea, the other dental office assistants Bonnie and Sherri, Sherri's husband Ken, and myself, were led by Hubert, followed by Fred, another guide, into our one day hike.

The one day hike is approximately 12kms starting at the base of the Urubamba River, finished at the sun gate that over looks Machu Picchu. The trail follows the Inca Trail into the jungle of the Andes. It was absolutely incredible. I wish that I could do it justice, to explain how beautiful it was, but I know I cannot. You just have to see it.... Sorry.

Part of the great experience for myself was the physical challenge it presented. I have well established a couch-potatoe status. Hiking through the mountains, up the narrow and tall stone steps, of which there seemed to be thousands upon thousands of, was exhilarating!!!

The jungle was beautiful and unbelievably lush. Orchids hid amongst the trees, and lantana grew wild along the trail. Flowers and lush vegetation lined, what seemed beyond our little stone trail, steep falling mountain

We hiked for the morning, stopping for lunch at the Inca ruins Wiñaywayna, (wee-nya-wine-yeah) which means forever young. It was named after an Orchid which blooms all around the ruins. The Inca village was only recently discovered in 1941, as it hides high above the river, slated into the mountain face, above the clouds. It is 2500 m above sea level, it is believed to be a sacred place with chains of ceremonial fountains that feed into one another, and terracing that slopes down the mountain face. Surrounded by waterfalls and streams it was a beautiful and surreal spot to sit and have lunch.

After Wiñaywayna the trail become much easier and the pace and our breathing and heart rates became much lighter. the gorgeous vegetation and scenery continued, without the daunting stone steps looming in front of us. Over the next 2 hours we continued through the jungle, until arriving at the aptly named "Gringo Killer". A wall of steep, shallow, slick, stone steps that seemed to rise in front of us at a 90 degree angle. In reality it was not as terrible as first anticipated, more of a grin and bear it experience, and less lactic acid build up in my quads than expected.

This led to the entrance of the Sun Gate, which provides the iconic views of both Machu Picchu and Winaypicchu. It was an amazing feeling to stand there and look at the lost city of the Incas.

We left Machu Picchu to take the bus down the switchback road into Agua Callientes ( Hot Water) named for the natural hot springs that are just outside of the small town. the town is specifically for the visitors of Machu Picchu. Here we met Jamie, my mom and Harry who had taken the train into the city and then did some day excursions offered by the hotel. The went to see the speckled bear rehabilitation center, and did an orchid tour, as there are over 250 different species of Orchids in the surrounding hills.

The next day the whole group took the bus up to Machu Picchunfor a guided tour of the site. Discovered in 1911, the ruins although the most famous, was really only a small village of 300 people, and was built in 70 years. It was abandoned while still in the process of being built for unknown reasons. As it was undiscovered in the Colonial times by the Spanish, it remains relatively intact.

It is unbelievable to see how they interlocked each othe the large granite stones without the modern technology we have today, the pain staking work it must have been to cut and shape each stone, so that it fit perfectly with the next required no mortor to hold them together. On one wall you can look down the lines in the brick work, they are perfectly straight.

The trip was finished by returning to Agua Callientes for lunch, and then headed back to Cusco for the night.