Sunday, May 26, was the day – the whole point of this part of the trip: Machu Picchu. I came down to the dining room when it opened at 5:30am to get the blog up. The connection had been so bad the night before I went to bed in frustration, and thankfully there were no problems in the morning. (Or this morning for that matter, either in the room or here in the dining room, where I am once again at 5:30am!)

This hotel is a Marriot property so the breakfast was eerily similar to our Lima experience. They did have quinoa pancakes on the menu, which was included in our breakfast also, so we got those, shown above. They were good.

We left the hotel at 8:30am and made this one stop on the way, to see this thing called a Skylodge.

They are these pods up on the cliffs that you have to climb up to to stay. And it’s like camping – whatever you take in, you take out. Including whatever waste you create. You figure it out. No thank you on So Many Levels.

We were headed to Ollantaytambo, a town and arhaelogical site, one of the literally thousands of sites Peru has, more than any other country in South America. Shown above is an aqueduct built during the Incan period, still running after 600 years. We also learned here, something that would be repeated throughout the day, is that there were only 14 Incas, which was the term used for the ruler. The people of that culture are known as Quechuan, as is their language, which is still the native language in much of these parts.

I mentioned Emperor Pachacuti in the prior blog entry, and he built this town and ceremonial center, including a temple to their sun god which was actually never completed. But this is one of the most complete and largest sites so is one of the most significant archeological sites in Peru. One of our guides took this photo of us. After, I went up and Ash stayed back to rest as he woke up not feeling great and wanted to reserve his energy for what was next.

It was a good climb and this was the first time I was using the walking sticks, purchased hours before we left Sacramento, and boy that decision paid off all day long. I’m strong but not sure-footed so hikes can be challenging. The sticks helped a great deal. I’m sold.

We learned a lot about the terraces, which we’ll see again later, and how the different widths were used for different things, but mostly all related to agriculture. We heard a lot of details on this day so you will thank my poor memory that you’re just getting a very abridged version.

I almost didn’t capture this but was very glad I did later in the day: flying steps they called them. Rocks that jet out from the wall to help you climb. Still being used 600 years later. Although here they are off limits. You’ll see them again later.

This valley view from up top was spectacular.

These are pink granite rocks they’d pulled over from the other side of the mountain and started carving for the creation of the never-completed temple.

When I was done I found Ash at Incabucks, with a surprisingly familiar logo, having coffee with some of the others who had stayed back.

There was a huge crowd and procession related to a celebration of the Holy Cross in town that made it impossible for the buses to come pick us up to go to the train station.

Most folks walked, Ash suggested we take a tut-tut, these little motorized vehicles which he is familiar with from India.

Julian was our driver.

Inca Rail is one of two lines to Machu Picchu and the one we were on from the small and crowded train station.

Our groups were in the first class cars  – 3 seats across instead of 4.

And I doubt the other cars got lunch. This was a lovely quinoa salad with asparagus. I really do want to eat more of that.

We had lovely views throughout the trip, although the ride was very loud and bumpy for the entire 1.5 hours.

There were also windows at the top of the train to give you a grander view, which was particularly helpful when looking across the train.

The main was panko fried trout with scalloped potatoes, above, and dessert a brownie with nuts below.

The train stops in the town of Agua Calientes, above and below, where we were transferred to a bus. There are no private vehicles allowed on the road to Machu Picchu.

We got to Machu Picchu about 1:30pm. The tour had arranged the tickets, but passports were needed to get in, which they reminded us about many helpful times. They split us into 2 groups: easy and hard. We, of course, chose hard.

“Hard” essentially meant “higher” which to us was the point. Why come to the Andes if you’re not going to go high? This structure on the left we are making our way towards is called the guard house, and has been sitting on that hill for over 600 years. You’ll see it again later as a reference point.

This was our first good sighting of the site. Ash wanted a photo of this pose to upgrade a similar shot he got when he was here the first time in 2016.

A little family a llamas up on the cliff.

This is in some ways is my favorite shot of the day. I like to look back during a climb to see how far we’ve come. This shows where we’ve been with the folks still climbing, what’s next with the higher terraces on the left, and where we will end up below in the main part of Machu Picchu in the background.

And those terraces on the left kept going up behind us.

Ash’s instinct to sit down for this shot was spot on. It’s already my profile pic on Facebook.

And this is already my background pic. Am I thinking about these things while I’m taking them? You bet.

I’d read a lot preparing for this trip about how MP has been ruined by tourists, the crowds make it hard to enjoy, etc. I took this shot to show in fact, yes, there are quite a few people, but it all felt very manageable to me. On a Sunday. So don’t let that scare you away. Everyone was also super cooperative about taking turns at certain spots – like that corner where we are sitting down above – to allow everyone an opportunity to get their shot.

This trail is a continuation of one we picked up from that one rise I showed a few photos ago, which had come out of the mountains and is the end of the famous Inca Trail, a hiker’s dream (nightmare for me) which takes 4 days. The door there right of center is the official entrance to MP from this trail. One of the guides was taking photos of folks walking through. There are 48 people on this tour with us, by the way, with 3 guides and one guide leader.

This is NOT that entrance, but another door we had to walk through later which actually had a better view with the mountain in the back. With the added benefit of not stopping crowds to take it. Top 3 of my favorite shots of the day.

This room below is the sun god temple. I’ve already forgotten 95% of what they told us about this, but I remember the most fascinating part, at least to me. See that window in the middle of the photo? Every June 21, their winter solstice, at about 6:35am the sun shoots directly through it. There are actually a couple of places here where stuff like that happens. This civilization had figured out quite a bit about how things worked by studying the earth’s patterns, and used it to plan how to farm, where to plant what (what grows at 8k feet vs. 11k feet vs 14k feet), etc. It’s fascinating stuff for a group we would consider uncivilized by today’s standards. Their respect for nature is something we could use more of.

Just more terraces, but what a view, eh? Archealogists believe there were about 500 people living here in its heyday. But they still don’t know exactly why it was built or why it was abandoned. The most popular theories are it was a royal estate and abandoned because of a drought in the late 1400s. By the time the Spanish came across it mid 1500’s, it was already abandoned so they left it alone because there was nothing to take.

I don’t have a particular objective of this photo other than another perspective. I had a bunch of these that didn’t make it to the blog but decided it didn’t hurt to add one.

Looking over to the other side of site, a llama grazing on a terrace of grass. Do you think they appreciate that view? This is in my top 5 of the day.

There’s a pretty big open plaza in the middle where there were markets and other gatherings back in the day. Today, just guys taking care of the property with weed trimmers. They are employed by the Ministry of Culture which is responsible for the site.

The only point of this photo is the guard house in the distant center, to show how far we came.

Making our way down, vertigo kicks in, but it’s still gorgeous, with Ash taking a photo at the bottom.

We broke away from our group at this point who were going to take busses back down, but Ash had another plan. Our last llama of the day.

And our last look back at the site before we exited. We were here about 2.5 hours.

This sign and trail is right at the main entrance where the busses leave you for tickets, toilets, etc. Notice the zig zag line on the left. That’s the bus route that we came up on, with 13 switchbacks. See the squiggly line on the right? That’s the hiking trail. For months before this trip Ash would ask “are you going to run down to Agua Calientes with me at the end of Machu Picchu?” Without any context, I had no way to answer that question. But here we are. I, of course, agreed to do it, and it was interesting how concerned the guides were that we wanted to. But given the schedule they were on – teatime at a restaurant in town and leaving for the bus station at 6:30pm – we knew that starting at 4:20pm gave us plenty of time. We were already the first ones back to the center so had a head start.

The one shot of Ash on our way down to give you an idea of how steep it was. And it was pretty much like this, or worse, all the way down. They say one mile but boy did it feel longer than that, all downhill. If I didn’t have the walking sticks, I would never have made it.

But how else do you get beautiful shots like this?

Remember the flying steps? We actually had to use them for a teeny portion of this trail. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried using 600-year-old steps jutting out of rock but clearly it was all fine.

We met up with the rest of the group at the restaurant around 5:50pm. We rested with a bite to eat and something to drink before getting on the train.

Dinner was on the train again, starting with an asparagus, mushroom and cucumber salad.

Roast chicken and potatoes in passion fruit sauce. The blurriness of the photo is simply a function of the bumpiness of the train!

And a simple fruit cup for dessert.

We were TIRED when we got back to our room about 9pm. I didn’t even attempt any work on the blog. We took showers and went straight to bed.

Today we are “bags out at 9am” and make our way back to Cusco where we will spend the night. Tomorrow, we start making our way to the Galapagos.