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Machu Pichu
I can hardly believe we went to Machu Pichu. It was definitely one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. The mountains around are just mesmorizing. I couldn’t stop taking pictures as I walked. The entire area around Machu Pichu is just as impressive. We went with our group and the trip was incredibly well planned and we got to see several different sights of ruins near Cusco. We learned about the ruins and got to enjoy our time in the mountains(the sierra) it was pretty awesome. The first day we went to Ollantantambo and we were lucky to have an awesome guide who knew like everything about where we were. He actually had worked with excavators before and has found mummies! Hes also hiked the incan trail hundreds of times..amazing. So our first day we flew into Cusco at about 7 in the morning and got to walk around some ruins near ollantantambo. I was amazed by the mountains there. they were so incredibly green and most of them have the terraced hill sides that have been around for hundreds of years for purposes of agriculture or retaining walls. We learned about the cultures that created the ruins and just how impressive it is that all the stones are so big and perfectly fit together in all these places. They also used a lot of anti earthquake architecture such as having trapezoid shaped windows and doors, having interlocking rocks, and using a foundation of small stones. The more stones we saw the more impressed I was, there are some absolutely gigantic stones in saqsayuaman its just so icredible that people were able to move them and shape them and place them the way they are.
After the first set of ruins we went to Eddies house to eat lunch. It was awesome, he lives in the mountains in a tiny little town..its so picturesque and so tranquil, and beautiful. We had a great meal of traditional foods like calabasa, trucha, sopa de quinoa and others. We also got introduced to the mate de coca that everyone drinks up there as a way to prevent altitude sickness, it was all incredibly good. We headed down to the town of Ollantantambo which is an incredibly picturesque tiny little town snuggled in the green mountains. Our hotel was so cute and was almost right up to the base of the mountains, so cute. We were all pretty exhausted but managed to venture out to the main square of the town and ate a little at a cute café. We called it a night real early since we had to get up at 4 to get the train to machu pichu. The train ride in the morning was beautiful..i was so schocked by the size of the mountains that we saw, some were like 22,000 feet tall! That’s the tallest mountains ive ever seen! We rode by so many snow capped mountains, so impressive! We got out at the town of machu pichu which is like agua calientes and dropped our stuff at our adorable hostel , the town is also snuggled up against the mountains but there is quite a bit of tourism so you can tell its growing and getting more and more restaurants and hotels in it. personally I like the more rustic feel better with fewer tourists, but it was an adorable city.
The bus up to machu pichu was also impressive of course, it was an extremely steep windy rode and I was pretty happy that there was no rain or snow on the ground for the ride. We got up to the entrence and made our way quickly through the ruins to the base of huanapichu which is one of the mountains that has ruins at the top. Only 400 people are allowed to climb it a day so we wanted to get in in time. We started up, and its almost all steps the entire way. And quite steep. It was actually a little challenging just cause its so steep and some of the steps are so narrow, I just reminded my self that back in the day people used to walk up carrying stuff and they probably did it way faster then we did so I knew I could do it just fine. Again I was thankful it wasn’t rainy because it might not have been so enjoyable. The view from the top was so impressive. There were rocks perched precariously at the top that we could sit on and climb around. We could see all around and the view was just incredible it seemed like never ending green mountains..i could harldy believe it was all real and we were up soo high! There were even ruins of houses up there..incredible that anyone would live all the way up there! after climbing down we got a personal tour of machu pichu from our guide and he showed us all around the important spots of machu pichu and described the significances of the stones. We saw the spot where you can view the summer solstice and the ancient temples and the incredible architecture that is earthquake proof. We also learned how the Incans weren’t actually the group that did all the building because actually the word Inca is for the one Incan king and the work was often done by a mix of people groups from around the area. Different cultures specialized in certain types of work for example the Nazcas were brought in to help develop the water systems since they were so skilled in that. another incredible thing about machu pichu is that it was only inhabited for like 100 years, all that work for just 100 years before the Spaniards came. After our tour we headed on a trail to the puenta de los incas but we couldn’t get over the bridge since it was in restoration..still the walk was beautiful. We decided to head up the other mountain then and see the puerta del sol. The walk was much easier than wuanapichu and the view was amazing from the top it was a wide view of machu pichu and the valley below (valley sagrado). There were way less people there too so it was very calm and tranquil and we could just contemplate the view and enjoy nature. I was so impressed with the park because it was so natural and there wasn’t very much newly man made stuff there, it seemed pretty original in most cases and it wasn’t overly crowded, it got crowded at times but it was still beautiful and easy to enjoy.
We caught the last bus out of the park and headed back down to agua calientes where we rested for a bit and headed to dinner. Our dinner was pretty great three course meal in a restaurant I thoroughly enjoyed it. we called it another early night since we had to get up again early the next day to head to cusco. In the morning after a great breakfast we took the train abck to the ollantantambo and climbed up the ruins there. the air was way thinner since we went up in elevation from machu pichu so we took it a little more easy. We learned about the symbols of the rocks again and how they were formed in the shapes of animals it was impressive. We also learned how the name meant the resting place of ollanto(spelled wrong) anyways it was the resting place of a general in the Incan army. The town stil has some original incan foundations too, impressive. After we got our shopping day in the market at pisac. The market was filled with bright beautiful colors that we had seen everywhet. Its incredible how the people wear all these beautiful colors, the andes womens clothes are amazing. So much is made of alpaca too, its almost unbelieveable how pretty the colors are. The market was slightly overwhelming and sadly I was almost overcome with consumerism. Its sad though, as beautiful as the mountains are and the colors..there is so much poverty present in those areas. We saw every day so many women and children dressed up carrying llamas asking tourists for pictures or selling their goods on the sides of the road. In the market we bought choclo-(corn) the kernels are huge and almost crunchy ..soo god and its eaten with cheese. Then to my pleasant surprise a cute little woman had a cart on the side of the street with a bench in front of it and she was selling meals for 1.5 soles. WOAH! We sat down and I got my fix of yucca which I absolutely love, and a chile relleno like thing I think its called ricoto ..relleno or something, and rice. It was wonderful. Then we took the bus through the beautiful paisaje(landscape) to saqsaywaman. The views are just so incredible its almost unbelieveable I felt like I was going through a dream. We arrived at saqsaywaman and saw some of the most gigantic stones ever. The wall was still pretty intact and the stones were huge!!! Like twice as tall as me! crazy! We had an awesome view of the city from there , Cusco is way bigger than I imagined! The clouds started rolling in and rain covered the city..the lighting was pretty spectacular too. We headed into the city and our hotel was in the Antigua area pretty close to the main plaza Plaza de Armas. For dinner we headed out and went to a local place..tried cuy which is guinea pig..i didn’t like it too much but Im glad we tried it! Friday we had a free day so we hung out around the city and went to museums. We went to one museum that had a lot of ancient artifacts that were pre- Incan and there were mummies! We took a mini city tour just randomly walking around and saw the rock with 12 edges..amazing. we found a gem of a restaurant off the beaten path too..so glad we stopped by it was literally about a hole in the wall but it was clearly very local..extremely cheap like 3.50 soles for the menu of the day and the food was great. I loved the atmosphere and we all walked away extremely content with it. we visited the San Blas neighborhood and then took a trolley tour of the city. that was cool cause it showed us the other parts of the city and we learned a little more about the history. I really liked Cusco a lot, its such a beautiful city and the history is amazing. The original name is actually Cosqo , which is in quechua and means the navel like it’s the center of the world kind of. We went to a cultural center that presented traditional dances and at anticucho in the street ( cow hearts ) very good actually, I also was pleased to find fried yucca being sold on the street and got my fill there as well.
Our last morning in Cusco we went to visit the Catedral. It’s the most rich church in all of South America. so much of the inside is plated in gold… its incredibly elaborate. It had the European architecture and the paintings inside were very European influenced but they were painted by indigenous painters. The painters weren’t allowed to sign their work either but they managed to fit in some indigenous influences for example the picture of the last supper had cuy as the main dish and also included local fruits in it. Francisco Pizarro the conquistador was also depicted as Judas. then we went to coriconcha which used to be an ancient Incan temple and still has the Incan architecture but then it was turned into a Spanish church so it also has European architecture. We headed back to Lima in the afternoon after a wonderful, very full, very interesting and beautiful week. Im having the time of my life.
