Sacred valley and Machu Pichu

At about 0800 our guide Timas and our driver met us at our hotel to drive to Agua Callientes via the sacred valley.  We packed just enought clothes for overnight in our bags and headed out.  Our driver headed out thru the narrow and steep streets of Cusco until we left town and got on to the highway.

After an hour or so we pulled up at a craft area where we got out.  The people at this craft area put on a demonstration of dying, spinining and weaving alpaca and wool.  Somebody brought over a class of coca tea and we watched the demonstration.  After of course we had to buy some stuff and then we headed out.   

About 5 minutes later we stopped again and got out of the car.  With our guide we walked through the streets which had crafts for sale.  We arrived at a church which our guide pointed out was built on the foundation of an Inca wall.  We kept on going, rounded a corner and came upon this.

Walking on a little further we can upon these terraces with this spectacular backdrop.  At the bottom of the ravine according to our guide was the Inca trail.

We drove on stopping to view this:

The sacred valley is at the bottom.

We then drove to Moray below.  This is not the work of aliens.  Essentially these are sinkholes due to tectonic activity and the Incas terraced them.  The purpose of these terraces was agriculural experimentation as each terrace represents a separate microclimate.

We then went on to this impressive Inca site.  We climbed up the terraces and walked around coming down by a different route.  

 The town is overlooked by an Inca man.

After spending about 2 hours at this site it was off to catch the train to Agua Callientes.

 

The train ran along a raging river quite often right above it.  It was possible to see Inca terraces along the side of the river.  The scenery was impressive but at the same scary.  We rode gradually downhill and the vegetation gradually changed to jungle.  An hour and a half later we pulled into Agua Callientes and got off the trail.  We walked through a gaunlet of vendors before getting to our hotel.  

Agua Callientes sits at the foot of the mountain that is Machu Pichu.  It is an impressive setting with steep mountains rising up on all sides and the raging river running through it.  It is a mixture of a tourist town and a boomtown with many buildings half built.  One expects to run into Indiana Jones or a James Bond villian.  

Our guide met us at 0800 the next morning and we got into a long line-up for the bus to Machu Pichu. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the front of the line.  

 It was raining moderately hard.  We got seats at the front of the bus.  This was a mixed blessing.  We did get excellent views as our bus navigated the switchbacks, however we got to see how close our bus was to the end of the road and how steep the drop was below us.   Many switchbacks later our bus driver stopped, turned the bus and started backing up the mountain.  Great, I thought, he is going to show us how good a driver he is by driving the rest of the way in reverse,   He was only parking however.  The road had been blocked earlier by a rock slide and we had to get off the bus, climb some stairs and get on another bus, arriving shortly at the entrance to Machu Pichu.  

We negotiated the entrance relatively fast and this is what we saw right away,

I had expected Machu Pichu to be impressive but had no idea how impressive even in the early morning rain and mist.  Aside from the terracing and buildings the natural surroundings were sherely awe inspiring.   It is hard to think of a place where man made and natural features are juxtaposed so intimately.  

It was raining moderately hard in the early morning.

As our guide walked us through the ruins the weather improved and we were  soon able to see the surrounding mountains.  Below is the temple of the sun.

We had tickets to climb Warnu Pichu the steep peak below but declined in view of the rain and the narrow stairs.  Later we climbed up the Sun Gate trail and were able to see this vista below us.  

 

The Sun gate was about and hour out and 30 minutes back. The Inca trail arrives at Machu Pichu at the Sun gate so maybe one year we will walk thru it.  

Our guide had left us so we walked down to the bus, making not to sit at the front and 30 minutes later we were in Agua Callientes where we went for pizza and Mary had an Inca Cola,

An hour or so of shopping near the train station and we boarded our train with our guide.  To distract us the railway put on a fashion show of alpaca goods and Mary bought even more alpaca.   We didn't take the train all the way to Cusco but got off at the first station where we had caught the train and our driver was waiting for us and we had a 1.5 hour drive back to Cusco where we checked back into our hotel.  

We were pretty worn out, we had had two pretty amazing days.  A light supper, a couple of glasses of wine and off to bed.