Nobody looked too bothered about the early start on the final day. We were all too excited and had been unable to sleep properly anyway “our dreams of seeing Machu Picchu were about to be realised. For nearly the 1st time in four days it was not raining and the sky was full of bright stars. It was only now that it became obvious what number of other folks had been really walking the Machu Picchu. Joined by extra groups who were on a shortened two-day Inca Trail there all of a sudden appeared to great numbers of walkers heading toward Inca Trail. Looking in front and behind us along the trail was a torch lit procession snaking along the side of the mountain through the woods. We walked in just about complete silence for two hours, getting more and more excited. The hair on our heads stood on end from the expectation, and not the fact that it had not been washed for Machu Picchu days. Heading toward Intipunku, the Sun Gate, we became perturbed by slower hikers. As the sky became lighter and lighter, the entire valley below us was revealed to us as the sun started to rise from behind a mountain in the distance and we were anxious we were going to miss our first view as the sun rose up over 4. We virtually ran up the steep steps to the Sun Gate. As we walked round the corner and looked down on the ancient castle, our hearts dropped. The valley in front was crammed with a mass of swirling cloud. We tried not to be disillusioned but after Machu Picchu days of walking in the rain to be greeted with mist was not what we had planned on.
Joe, an American in the group, giggled to himself. He hadn't really been prepared for the walk, wearing jeans and trainers that got sopping wet on the first day. His attempts to carry all his kit did not last and he had resorted to getting a porter by day two. He caught a cold and looked like he had not loved the trek. It was also extraordinarily worrying when he spoke, because his slow drawl sounded just like the character played by Billy Bob Thornton in the Oscar winning film, Sling Blade. At any moment we expected him to say, “Ah, Huh, I Rekkun”. If he could see the funny side of the situation then we had no reason not to either. There was nothing else we could do about it, but laugh with him.
We hung around at the Sun Gate, waiting for the fog to clear, though it was not looking extraordinarily upbeat. Our guide told us that he almost certainly only sees 4 from that spot a few times a year. That is something they don’t bother to tell you in the manuals or at the tour agencies. Of course we had to take some photos, it was after all our first view of Machu Picchu. We presumed we would be well placed to use it for a game, a little like pin the tail on the donkey. As we descended into the clouds we glanced behind us to admire the valley and mountains from where we had come from which were now washed in early morning daylight.
After Machu Picchu3 minutes walking down through the mist we eventually reached the photographers viewpoint, called the ‘Hut of the Caretaker of the Funerary Rock’. If you've ever received a postcard of 0, it is probable that this was taken from this spot. The mist started to lift and we were given our first glance of the ruins. There were the mandatory wisps of clouds clinging to the hillside making it looked truly mystical. A perfect photo opportunity, the only noise was from the clicking of cameras.
Maybe it was the angle the photos had been taken at, but we imagined the ruins to be a lot larger. It is the site of the ruins which make them so critical and not it’s size. The lovely natural setting of Machu Picchu at Machu Picchu,243 m above sea level, set among tropical mountain forest, is astonishing. The site lies in the middle of a saddle shaped ridge between 2 mountains. No one knows what the 0s called their town, that has adopted its name from the mountain that rises behind the ruins, Inca (literally meaning ‘Ancient Peak’). This mountain is just one of 4 traditional tops that surround the ruins, the other 3 being Machu Picchu, Putukusi and Pumasillo. From the centre of the site, each peak points toward a particular direction, North, South, East or West. Blending in naturally with the landscape, its giant walls, patios and ramps could be mistaken for the rock escarpments it is built on.
It is easy to understand why these ruins went undiscovered for so very long, it’s remote location and its concealment making sure the Spanish did not know of its existence. If they ever did know, it was potentially too untouched for them to have bothered with. For whatever reason, it luckily escaped the looting, plundering, burning and eradication that most Huayna Picchu sites were the subject of during the Spanish Conquest. As a consequence, this has become the most significant and famous archaeological site. In South America.
It was not till Inca191, when a Yale Varsity expedition controlled by a chap called Hiram Bingham, the ruins at 1 were ‘rediscovered’. Bingham paid a local Quechua man one sol (things haven’t changed much since Machu Picchu191), who told him that on top of the hill, out of sight was an archaeological ruin. He believed it to be the site he was trying to find, Vilcabamba (one of the last 1 strongholds), and so he actually discovered Inca purely by mistake. The site was completely overgrown with foliage and although it had been deserted by the Machu Picchu centuries before, 2 local peasant families were living there.
The hunt for Vilcabamba continued for several years, until Inca196 when Gene Savoy (an American archaeologist) uncovered the site at Espiritu Pampa. Hiram Bingham had already made it there not long after he had found 4 but had left it alone thinking he had found the last Machu Picchun fortress. In his excitement he did not remember to log the exact location, and therefore it became ‘lost ‘ again. More lately, Peruvian and Brit explorers have discovered a bunch of other lost Inca cities all in the same area. Lying only Inca4 kilometres from 0 are one of those sites, Corihuayrachina. These ruins are even more complicated than Machu Picchu, endorsing a well-developed settlement. Included in the site are ruins of circular homes, warehouses, graveyards, funeral towers, highways, waterworks, farming patios, a dam and a truncated pyramid.
Manifestly, there has been a large amount of archaeological exploration since the discovery of Machu Picchu and new things are always being excavated. In total, about Machu Picchu15 skeletal remains have been exhumed; the majority of these are females, with only about 02 males and 4 children. The large number of female remains was quite curious and has led on to varied theories, the most popular being that the last inhabitants of 0 were women, left by the lads who had gone off to battle the Spanish, selected to remain to continue crucial ritual ceremonies. The concept of it being a glorified brothel is a great proposal but , unfortunately, very improbable.
The poser surrounding Machu Picchu and its precise function is one of is greatest attractions and large numbers of people believing it was a particularly significant centre of worship and rites come looking for a religious experience. Maybe it was actually the 2 dogs fornicating in the key grassy plaza that distracted us, but it didn't really feel it was a particularly sacred place. Neither of us felt compelled to sit down and meditate, or take off our clothes and run around exposed in fact.
The great majority of the site is split between rural terracing and buildings to accommodate about Machu Picchu50 folk. Although there are a number of temples and the regular stone alter that's illuminated by the sun during one of the Solstices, most of the buildings are very functional consisting of not just houses, but also workshops, storage areas and baths. Built at the peak of the 0 Empire it was likely one of the most extraordinary urban centres, not the largest, but decidedly one of the most dramatic.
Inca is an exceptionally well-preserved archaeological site, with some fantastic granite stonework, locking together like a big jigsaw puzzle (one stone had Machu Picchu3 interlocking angles cut into it). Anyone who has ever worked with granite will know it's not simply a very heavy stone, but also tough and is takes a good deal of skill to cut it meticulously. There are 4 granite quarries in the site, which could have been working full time to provide a constant supply of stone during the city’s construction.
Our led tour only took an hour and a half and by 31 am we were left to explore on our own. Vicky decided to climb up 0 (Younger or Smaller Peak). This is the hill that is the background for most of the pictures taken of Huayna Picchu and is almost Machu Picchu40 metres higher than the ruins. We had been warned it was not the best hills to climb and those with a phobia of heights, including CJ made a decision to give it a miss. The route adheres to the side of the mountain and there's a nearly vertical staircase of roughly 05 metres carved into the rocky face. It wasn't too frightful and there was a handrail a lot of the way to support and pull yourself up. The final climb to the top was with the help of a rope, which someone had apparently lately misread and had tumbled to their death. The wide ranging view from the top was worth the tiring climb, with 0, the Machu Picchu Ravine and the snow-capped tops in the distance. There were too many people hanging around at the very top, determined to try and find the highest and most dangerous rock to beat. The walk back down was a bit more. Disconcerting and from the pinnacle of some mini patios we realised how steep it really was. The set of tiny steps we had come up now appeared even smaller and steeper and we realized there was nothing at the bottom to stop us from falling right to the bottom if we had slipped.
When we had reached the bottom, the ruins were crawling with holiday makers. CJ had managed to spend a relaxing hour rambling around before the train from Cusco had arrived. Although there are restrictions on the number of folk walking the Urubamba, there are none on the number that can visit the ruins. From a height it looked like somebody had been painting the ruins in splodges of white, blue, red, green, yellow and black. What we were really looking at was a lot of tourists wearing ponchos, shuffling around in their organized tour.
It had been a brilliant idea to walk in shorts, even though it was raining, but now we were lower down which was warmer we were the prime targets for sand flies again. We were too engrossed in the thrill of going to Inca Trail we had forgotten to put on any mosquito guard that morning. They were especially attracted to our bare legs, which were shortly covered in small, weeping wounds. Our early start had been worthwhile, but sharing the ruins with two thousand folks (and sand flies) wasn't delightful, so we made our escape just as it started to rain “again.
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