Hiking the Inka trail to Machu Picchu Day 4

Today is the day I've been waiting for for so many months. We finally visited the impressive, one and only, Machu Picchu!!! It-was-incredible!! Machu Picchu exceeded our expectations in every way. Its size, its stonework, and its location and views to the Urubamba valley, all of it was stunning.

Ok, excuse my enthusiasm and sorry in advance because this is going to probably be a very lengthy post. Here it goes:

We got up early at 3am but only really started to walk at 5am as that is when the gates to the last part of the hike open. I guess you are thinking why did you get up so early then? The answer is that we had to because our porters needed to pack all our stuff and arrive at the train station by 4 o'clock to get the train back to Cusco. Brutal! They definitely work hard, don’t they!!

As we walked towards Machu Picchu, we were told that our first view of the citadel would be from the Sun Gate. The Sun Gate is a temple and was the official entrance to Machu Picchu for the Incan royalty there. During the summer solstice, the sun shines through the door of the Sun gate when looking up from the main Machu Picchu temple window below.

It took us a couple of hours to get to the Sun Gate (climbing up the famous Monkey Steps - so called because they're steep enough to swing on! - which Ismene and I found such excellent fun, but Ioanna thought otherwise) but once we were there, we were all completely speechless. You get the first glimpse of Machu Picchu and the views were really breath taking. I will never forget looking down at Machu Picchu when the sun first hit the terraces. Just stunning! 

After spending some time to take in the amazing views, we started descending towards Machu Picchu and saw the whole city clearer from the terraces which nowadays are used as the main viewpoint for the site. The closer we got to the site, the more amazed we felt. 

I hope I haven't exhausted you completely with all the history because the main lesson is just about to start.

Firstly a few fun facts for you: Hiram Bingham was an American academic and explorer who first found Machu Picchu in 1911 with the help of a local farmer and a nine year old boy called Pedro, who is
known as the “first tour guide of Machu Picchu". Hiram Bingham was looking for the last lost city of the Incas and was on an expedition at the time. Pedro (the boy) showed Hiram Bingham around the site, but in the end, Hiram Bingham only stayed for two hours (less than tourists are allowed nowadays). That is because he decided that Machu Picchu can't be the lost city of the Incas and moved on towards the Amazon to continue his search. Apparently, he then found another Inca site, but as it was smaller than Machu Picchu, he decided to come back again to Machu Picchu with a newly organised expedition and explore the site a bit more carefully this time! That was lucky I guess... 

Now a bit about the actual site: As we learnt on our tour, Inca cities were divided into four sectors - the royal/religious zone, the popular zone, the agricultural zone, and (in Machu Picchu) the sacred plaza.

We started our tour at the main temple. This consists of a Sun (Inti) Temple above and, below the temple to Pachamama (Mother Earth) and Unu (Water God) so all three of the most important Incan gods in one temple. The Pachamama temple was in a triangular shaped cave with no seats and just enough room for the priest. We ascended the stairs towards the Sun Temple and though we could not enter, we could see the difference in stonework quality from the nearby priest’s house (whose rooms are good quality stonework). This was the amazingly straight cut rock on rock construction, with no mortar!

After this, we went to the King's house which was also incredible. Archaeologists say it must have been the King’s house as below him there is the water fountain street, so that he could have the first flow of water that enters Machu Picchu. In between his two rooms was a water mirror were if you pour water, you can see a reflection of the sun so that the king could talk to his father, the Sun (I mean, Incas didn’t have sun glasses)!

Fun Fact: did you know that Inca beds were made of stone and hay?

One of the most interesting buildings we visited was the Temple of the Condor. The Incas had carved a condor into a rock on the floor. Its head was on the floor and its wings were part of a different rock sticking up. The stonework was a bit odd, the room around the stone condor was nice, but on top of the condor there were some chambers for the priests to connect with the gods, and the stonework there was rather, well...drab. It was so 'un-Incan' as a construction which made me admire them even more for their ingenuity. 

Here is an ironic anecdote: Even though the Spanish conquistadors never reached Machu Picchu, Spaniards still found a way to destroy it. How did they do that I hear you ask? Apparently, when the Spanish king Juan and Queen Sophia came to Machu Picchu, they took a helicopter. They decided to land the helicopter in the middle of the main square but because there was a rock in the way, they got the rock cut down so they could land the helicopter, disregarding the fact that the rock was probably another sacred or important rock. Silly, isn’t it? 

I was so glad we did the trek, and was so proud of all of us for having made it. I really loved visiting the site and learnt so much from our guide JP and, although we were all tired by the end, I was sad when it was time to go. As a goodbye present, JP gave me and Ismene a replica kipu (knotted string used by the Incas for accounting and memorising) and a special haematite rock made of 70% iron, like that which the Incas would use for working stone in Machu Picchu. Very special gifts, from a very special guide to remind us of a very special adventure...

After lunch in Aguas Calientes (the nearby town), we said goodbye to our trekking companions and enjoyed the amazing train ride back to the starting point in Ollantaytambo. The scenery was beautiful and we could still see Inca sites all along the valley from the train.

Next time I write, we’ll be back in the Amazon rainforest so another amazing adventure awaits us. You definitely can't say that this is a boring blog...

(You can read about Day 3, Day 2 and Day 1 here if you missed the posts)