Back in Cusco, and after enjoying a few nights out on the town, desperately trying to learn salsa and cumbia dancing, I decided to do the grand tour of some of the many Inca ruins around Cusco, notably in the Sacred Valley and of course Machu Picchu. Cusco itself has many buildings built on Inca stonework as a foundation, and it is fascinating to see the immaculate way they made every stone fit. Some of the walls are over a meter deep. The ruins are often laid out in symbolic patterns, and the sacred places are positioned according to the sun, stars or even magnetic fields.
the twelvesided rock is a example of the precise way the walls are built.
The ruins at Pisac - agricultural terraces
Going to Machu Picchu is quite an adventure - at Ollantaytambo the road stops, and you either trek in or take the train. I took the train into the narrow valley in which lies Machu Picchu, the best preserved Inca city in the world. You then arrive in Aguas Calientes, where everything is tailored to welcome the hundreds of tourists that arrive every day. It is wildly expensive, and you should generally aim to stay there as little as possible. Now, the next goal is to get up to Machu Picchu as early as possible the next day, before the big rush. You can either walk up - about 3 hours, or take the first bus at 5.30 (stand in line at about 4.30) The site doesn’t open till 6.00 am anyway, so I took the first bus, buying all my tickets five minutes before the office closed the night before. I woke up at 4 am to the sound of pouring rain. This was definitely not the day for it to be raining, as the whole experience of the place is the amazing views of the towering mountains around the ruins.
Oh well - Machu Picchu looks very mystical and magic in the clouds, and after meeting Sylvie, a French girl on the bus, things looked better and better. Then, once you get in, you rush though the site to get to the ticket lodge for Hyanu Picchu - the mountain closest to the site, that you hike up by the ancient Inca trail the priests would take to make their sacrifices to the gods. They only let the first 400 people who get a ticket up every day. So, despite the rain - we were determined to conquer the mountain.
Ready for the climb.
Going through the underworld before arriving in the heavens.
Almost there?!
Well, at least the view is worth it!
Fantastic! It cleared up around 3 pm, and the rest of the day was amazing...
Atack of the Llamas!
After walking back down from Machu Picchu, I enjoy a well deserved dinner at Indio Feliz with Lars and Sylvie.
1 comment:
tres joli, je ne savais pas que les lamas etaient si dangereux
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