More Spectacular Experiences

Tuesday 16 January

I was feeling a lot better this morning, although only managed a very small breakfast. We weren’t being collected until 0945, so were able to take our time. The driver arrived early and we were once again retracing our steps – this time back to Ollantaytambo, to the railway station to catch the Hiram Bingham train to Machu Picchu. When we turned off the main square, we had to pay a toll, before traveling down a narrow pot-holed lane behind a large lorry. It wanted to stop halfway down, but with a few toots from our driver, moved on to where he could pull over just enough to let us through – this is the only road to the station, which itself is the only way to Machu Picchu – except by using the hiking trails. We arrived about 45 minutes early, although the station was crowded with other travelers waiting for the standard train, due in before ours.

The Hiram Bingham train is a first class private train, liveried in blue and gold, which would transport us up the valley, whilst having “brunch”. When it pulled into the station, steps and a carpet were put out on the platform for us to use to climb aboard (quite like royalty), and our luggage (three back packs) was whisked off to the back section of the train. It only had two carriages – one dining car, one half car for a bar area, and the rest for the luggage storage. We were shown to our seats by a very smartly uniformed “maitre d” – we had been given a table for four to ourselves – and were immediately informed by another couple sitting on the other side of the train, that “brunch” was about to be served. The train had come from Cusco and we would be traveling all the way back on it tomorrow night. Warm rolls were already on the table and the first thing we were offered as the train pulled out of the station was a glass of wine – couldn’t be bad. By now I was very pleased to be feeling lots better than yesterday afternoon. The rest of the meal was delicious, all attractively presented, with excellent service. We had a selection of hors d’ouvres – including a very tasty asparagus pudding (about egg cup size) sitting in a pool of lightly scrambled egg sauce – the two flavours went perfectly together. There was also rare alpaca with an elderberry jus and a corn and olive timale with two different varieties of sliced tomatoes. It was a bit “nouveau cuisine” but very delicious. The next course was cannelloni stuffed with Peruvian cheese and artichokes, with a different cheese in the sauce and topped with finely chopped tomatoes. A chocolate pastry tart filled with sautéed pineapple and ice cream topped with a strawberry completed the meal. The wine glasses were promptly refilled as you supped and we had chamomile tea at the end of the meal. The itinerary promises a four course gourmet meal on our return journey tomorrow – something to look forward to. During “brunch” the train followed the river, continuing its twisty course around the mountains and over boulders in a murky brown torrent.
About ten minutes after we left the station, we could see the start of the Inca Trail – across a wooden bridge, and up the slope and then following a low ridge for a couple of miles. The guides and porters were busy cleaning the tents and equipment laid out over a field. The track soon veered up the mountainside and out of sight. It takes four days to walk to Machu Picchu from here, along the ridges of steep sided mountains – camping along the way – I am glad we are sticking to the train.

We arrived at Machu Picchu town (also known as Aguas Calientes) and disembarked to try and find our guide. We had been told his name was Herman, but it turned out to be German!. Our bags were collected and taken away to the hotel and a group of us boarded a bus to take us up the mountain to the Inca site. The unmade road was a series of rutted hairpin bends climbing up and up above the river below – I don’t know that I have ever seen a river racing so fast, for such a long distance, glancing over great boulders in its path – it had been rushing like that since the start of the Sacred Valley yesterday – and the local people say there hasn’t been much rain yet! We were deposited outside the Monastery Sanctuary Hotel, owned by Orient Express – why aren’t we staying there? - at the entrance to the Inca ruins. We were with a tour group from America and a couple of other young Americans (selected because we are all staying at the Pueblo Hotel, at the base of the mountain, and all speak English).

On entering the site the first feeling was WOW! – basically because of the size – it spread in a large semicircle around the side of the mountain – your first impression being of banks of terraces and walls and steps with lots of miniature people in the distance wandering all over it, like ants. We walked along the first terrace to a vantage point where we could get an overall view of the ruins. German pointed out the end of the Inca Trail high above us, where we could see a few brave souls striding the first short section to a gate near the peak. It’s hard to believe that a distance that took us less than two hours on the train, would take four days to walk – but of course they were going over the tops of the mountains. German led us around the site – along many paths to see the Temple of the Sun (the most important temple to Inca people) the Water Temple, sited next door to each other, and beside the Palace. The Sun Temple was semi-circular, the floor, less than ten feet square, with a huge rock covering most of it. It appears this temple was probably used to present offerings. There were only two windows – one on an east facing wall where the sun made a perfect square shadow for the winter solstice and the other further round the temple walls, to the south where it made a similar shadow for the summer solstice. The difference in where the sun rises at these two times of the year was either side of a nearby mountain peak. The temple was sited where the angle of sun’s rays met. Many of the doorways leading to these central temples had a second door carved into the rock frame, and holes on either side of the doorway so that they could be “locked” or tied in position to keep certain areas private. German thought that this whole settlement was something akin to the Vatican – where only the very important people of the area would visit and meet together. About 500 people lived on the site when it was completed.

We continued our tour around the citadel, going up and down steps to different levels, to see whole rooms – just the roofs were missing as they would have been thatched – all made of large stones, again chiseled to fit together perfectly without mortar for the use of the very important people, or smaller ‘brick’ type stones, held together with mud and itcha grass that would have been plastered over, and probably decorated with paintings and ornaments in Inca time, for the lesser mortals. There were more temples, including one named by Hiram Bingham as “the principal temple”, which was on the highest land in the habited area (the terraces of course went much higher). And there were storage houses – again high up on the mountain - large “laboratory terraces” for testing new plants near the plaza, a sun dial (with a rectangular chunk of stone on the top, slanting 15 degree east – supposedly to represent the fact that Machu Picchu is 15 degrees south of the equator – did they know that in those days?.

Some of the paths were very adjacent to sheer drops of more than 100 metres to the valley below, with no ropes, or notices to keep you from the edge. At one point we had to climb down one level (some 10 to 15 metres) on rough, uneven steps, on an outside wall, with only the river, hundreds of metres below, to see as you looked down. With a rutted wall on one side and a shaky handrail on the other, Colin found this very uncomfortable and was glad when we reached the next floor. We stood on top of columns at the end of terraces, to see magnificent views of the river winding its way in great loops the surrounding mountains, still with no safety features. In some places you had to use your imagination, such as at the site of the condor – two walls – wing shaped, and spread as if soaring using uneven blocks at the top representing the feathers, joining together at the entrance to a cave – the stomach of the bird - with a large flat stone lying on the ground in front of the entrance, etched with an eye and the characteristic white ruff. Through the gap of the wings you could see rocks with holes in, that were apparently altars. probably where animals such as llamas were sacrificed, as lots of bones have been found in the lower depths of the cave. Someone suggested that the altars looked like places where people could be chained up, but German assured us that the Incas did not have prisons – they killed anyone who committed a crime – just the one person for a small crime, the whole family for a larger crime and the whole town for a very serious offence! – what would they think of some of our namby pamby sentences today.

For two hours we listened to the history of Machu Picchu according to German – often giving differing from information than that relayed to us by Beatriz or Arturo – which was very confusing. When did the Incas come to Peru – 13th century - or in 1438 according to German? He believes the Inca empire can only be traced from the 9th King – what about the other eight – he says there is no evidence of these ruling an empire. Beatriz told us that most of the terraces were built by the Pre-Incas – but German was adamant that the Incas built them all – qualified, when asked by “at least around here”. And why did they leave this site if the Spanish never reached it – German said that there were two theories, the first being that the people left to escape an outbreak of syphilis, and the second was that they fled during fighting with other “tribes”. Arturo told us that they departed on the orders from the King to go to Cusco, sealing the valley as they left. No one could enlighten us as to why the site was built here – on this particular spot – German’s thoughts were that it was at the central point where light reflected between the sunrise and the sunset on these mountains – he had a diagram to show us – and as the sun was the most important of the Inca gods, it could have determined such a choice.

All too soon it was time to leave and reminisce about all we had seen and heard. We were taken to the Monastery Sanctuary Hotel for “afternoon tea” of sandwiches, cakes and scones, buffet style, with a choice of teas. It was very pleasant to sit in the dining room, munching, while looking out over the valley. There was a short shower while we were here – lucky it didn’t rain while we were out on the site, it would have been quite treacherous in parts. The bus then took us all back to the town at the foot of the mountain, where we were guided to our hotel for the night – back along the course of the river, through the town, to another enclave surrounded by large leafy shrubs and bushes, with white painted stone buildings, red tiled roofs and lots of dark wood. Our room was a sizeable oblong shape with a semicircular end where comfy chairs sat in front of an open fire set in a large raised stone grate – it would have been nice to light the fire, as it was quite chilly here at night. There was a very tall bathroom, with an apex ceiling which was very cold, but a room heater on all night – not so efficient as yesterday’s, helped warm it for the morning. All very comfortable, and the only sound we could hear was the river rushing by below – it sounded as if it was raining hard all night – and the birds tweetering.

I had a chance to catch up on a bit of blogging, as we had booked for a late dinner at 20.30, - we were told there were two sittings, and we were not feeling hungry enough to eat at 19.00. We made our way to the restaurant, down a series of very uneven steps winding through the gardens. Outside the restaurant and in the bar, lots of tall ‘church’ candles illuminated the way, which was very romantic. The restaurant itself was a quite light, but very pleasant room - a bit like a conservatory - with Georgian windows all round, which we presumed looked out over the river. Still not feeling 100%, I chose a simple salad to start, followed by chicken in a mushroom sauce stuffed with cheese and basil with a potato pie. The chicken was very tasty, but the potato pie was two cubes of a strange mixture of a small amount of potato in a sort of Yorkshire pudding mix – probably made with quinoa! Colin chose mushroom soup followed by spaghetti with sun dried tomatoes, olives, garlic and onions, which he enjoyed. On returning to our room there was a short time to blog before bed – I am still endeavouring to catch up the entries for the last few days. We don’t have to check out till 11.00 tomorrow morning, so hopefully will be able to have an extended lie in.

Over dinner we had discussed what we had seen, and both agreed we weren’t so blown away by Machu Picchu as we had thought we would be. The size was impressive, but a lot of what we were told was “opinion” of what happened, and was confusing. We got to thinking about the old castles and historic sites we have at home, many much older than Machu Picchu and more complete – Machu Picchu was only built at the end of the 15th century - where archeologists have been able to determine more accurately what actually happened, when and how and why. At the beginning of the 20th century Hiram Bingham was a lecturer at Yale University on South American Cultures and thought he should find out more by visiting those countries. He came to Peru via Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. He had read about the Incas in Cusco, and about the lost tribes of the mountain areas and decided this was the area to explore. When he came to Machu Picchu he was not the first visitor, others had been ten years or so before – and probably ransacked the site of any gold, silver and precious things, as none were found by Hiram Bingahm. The local people told him about the site, and arranged to show him to the place, where he found two families living where the Monastery Sanctuary hotel stands today. One young boy from one of the families showed Bingham round, but only for forty minutes, before he left, to bring back experts to help him excavate the site. Following the excavations Hiram Bingham returned to America and published a great deal about his findings, but did not return to Machu Piccu until 1948, when he inaugurated the Hiram Bingham Highway, the twisty road from the river at Aguas Calientes up to the ruins. In the intervening period the railway had been built, which vastly improved the access to the Inca site.

Hiram Bingham and his team had explored the ruins and found amongst lots of other relics, a wooden tablet with strange groups of differing lengths of vertical lines that were believed to be the message boards used by the runners from town to town. We had seen evidence of the messaging posts back at Saqsayhuaman – a small stone hut on the ridge of the mountain which was like the Pony Express posts - except men ran, rather than being on horses, from one post to the next, here about 10kms apart, to pass on messages between tribal leaders. German took it for granted that no one could read these tablets or understand what the messages said, as those who could have read the writings were all taken away as slaves at the time of the Spanish conquest. A photo showed the tablet and the writings looked like a print-out from an electrocardiograph. Experts from other ancient civilizations have been able to decode the writings and further understand the different cultures, so is it just too early for this to have happened here? – it has only been just less than one hundred years since Bingham’s discovery. Also they do not appear to be excavating this site any more, and I am sure there must be lots more to be discovered about the Incas here, as it has always been presumed to be an important site - they are still digging at Saqsayhuaman and finding more relics and information about the Incan Empire today. But we were very pleased to have visited Machu Picchu, and seen the ruins, just did not leave with the same Wow factor as we entered.