Cuzco and Machu Picchu, Peru
A Travelogue by
Karen Soro
Note: Our trip to Machu Picchu was part of a longer tour that included other wondrous places such as a cruise through the Galapagos Islands, touring the cities of Cuzco, Lima and Quito, and day trips to other inexplicable sites such as Ollentaytanbo. Since it was so action packed I have decided to break it down into smaller segments. On our trip the group began this segment of the journey in Cuzco, the ancient Incan capital, and returned back to Cuzco after three days of exploring the Machu Picchu ruins. We were amazingly fortunate because just a few days after we departed a devastating flood washed out the entire valley and railway. Some people who were hiking the Inca trail were killed and tourists had to be air lifted out of Aguas Calientes . Looking at the new itinerary of the Smartours tour it seems they have had to rearrange some things but I am sure it is still absolutely fantastic ( and, as always with Smartours, a true value.)
So this adventure begins high in the Andes Mountains at a town, once a Kingdom, called Cuzco. Cuzco was center stage for the glory and the demise of the Incan Empire which extended through all of Peru, Ecuador, a large portion of Chile and corners of Argentina and Columbia. Cuzco literally means “Navel of the Universe” in the Incan language and it is there that they erected enormous temples to the sun and huge complexes for their royalty. The town is also where Pizarro and his brothers set up the first Spanish stronghold as witnessed by the large numbers of Catholic churches (built right over the top of the Incan temples!) and huge cobblestone plazas and streets.
Cuzco is a lovely town, full of native people and their llamas donning their brightly colored attire. There are open air markets, buskers, vendors, restaurants and shops of all manner. There are great hotels, tidy bed and breakfasts, parks and an inordinate number of ancient sites to explore. We stayed there for three days and took part in some remarkable excursions to see sites like Sacsayhuaman- which rivals Machu Picchu.
Sacsayhuaman occupies a site on a mountain above the old city of Cuzco. It is an ancient fortress built of megalithic stones- some weighing 300 tons that were transported 50 miles across the rough mountain terrain. The Incas did not even possess the knowledge of the wheel and they had no horses-so how this feat was accomplished is a mystery. In fact, the Spanish, upon first seeing this site, declared that it was the work of demon and evil spirits. Later the Spanish dismantled the top stones to use in the construction of their cathedrals. Needless to say, archeologists are still investigating the site and in recent years have begun using ground penetrating sonar discovering that the stones are actually laid much deeper into the ground than once thought, and thus are even larger and heavier. There is also evidence of a massive flood.
In the evenings we visited the main plaza in the center of town called The Plaza of Armas (Square of the Warriors). It has numerous restaurants, lovely artisan shops and two imposing cathedrals. We got a seat a fantastic restaurant on the second floor of the arcade surrounding the plaza listening to a native band play the haunting pan flutes (my favorite!) and watching the moonlit Andean world go by. Wonderful!
After taking in as much of Cuzco as we could, we boarded “The Hiram Bingham” vista dome and set out on a journey that took us through some of the most amazing scenery on Earth. The train follows along the course of the raging Urubamba River and makes five switchbacks, called “El Zig Zag”, to enable the train to climb the steep incline and enter a very narrow swath of land known as the Sacred Valley. Quick glimpses of The Inca Trail and ancient terraces would appear like ghosts out of the jungle and the rocky mountain tops towered for hundreds of feet above the glass roof of the train. We were served afternoon tea on white linen table cloths as the train slowly made its three hour hourney to Aqua Calientes.
Aguas Calientes (meaning hot springs) looks like a town straight out of a scene from Indiana Jones. It is situated deep in the jungle and two roiling, muddy rivers converge in its center. The hotels and shanty houses of the residents cling impossibly to sheer the sides of the mountains and extend over the banks of the rivers. Laundry fluttered from the rooftops. We stayed at the Inti Inn, a small hotel tucked down a tiny stone alley. The hotel was extremely clean and comfortable and there were loads of great dining choices nearby. It was the perfect base to explore Machu Picchu!
We caught a bus from town the following morning and began our final assent to the ruins of Machu Picchu. A thin gravel road carved into the side of the mountain zigzagged its way up the steep incline. About 20 full sized buses traveling in each direction slowly made their way up the hill- gears grinding... honestly, these were some tense moments! I kept my gaze steadily on the bus floor and tried not to look!
When we arrived at the top , early that summer morning ,the mountain was shrouded in a thick blanket of fog. As the day warmed and the winds crept in, the mist lifted we could see terrace after terrace, dwelling after dwelling, fountains, temples.....all cut from enormous stone.
What was this place....? Well that is the question, isn’t is? I mean thats why you go! What is it indeed! Who built it? Why? When? How?
Here is what we KNOW- A historian and adventurer from Yale University named Hiram Bingham first stumbled upon the ruins in 1911. He was actually looking for a place called Vilcabamba, the fabled lost city of the Inca, when he was led to the site by a local guide. Bingham was convinced he had found the lost city but further research showed that is could not possibly be Vilcabamba- but he had found something that no white man before him knew existed.
When giving their tours the guides on site have their pat answers for the tourists questions - none of which makes any sense to me whatsoever. Here is the standard spiel- the city was built between 1450 and 1470. Somehow it eluded Pizarro and the rest of the Spanish marauders that destroyed the Incan empire. Then, with the entire Incan empire either dead or subdued, it fell into disuse until Hiram Bingham “discovered” it in 1911.
And that is pretty much the end of what they KNOW.
But you don’t go to Machu Picchu for what they know- you go for what they don’t know. It must be one of the most mysterious places on the planet.
What seems very apparent to me, just at first glance, is that Machu Picchu is a very ancient site dating back thousands of years not hundreds. There are at least 3 different building “periods”, the earlier of which were much more advanced than those of the later years.
Look at my photos carefully- the base or bottom of the structures are monoliths! These are stones weighing hundreds of tons and fit together with amazing precision so taht a piece of paper can fit between them. Now, as I understand it, scientists can not know when a stone structure was built- they CAN date the rocks by looking at what fossils are in them- they CAN carbon date the remains of humans and animals that they find among the ruins- but they cannot tell when a rock was carved and put into place. So when was the foundation of Machu Picchu laid? It’s anyone’s guess.
How was it built? These stones are enormous! And while there was a rock quarry on site- how do you budge stones like that? We don’t know. What they do know is that there were never any horses in South America until 1524- only llamas and alpacas-and they didn’t have the wheel- so whoever did it, whenever they did it- they moved those stones into place by some unconventional means.
Upon the monumental stones of the foundation there are scores of rocks (smaller but still huge) that are cut with uncanny precision and laid row upon row making up a maze of dwellings, halls, fountains and walkways.
Lastly, there are smaller stones that people of with a lesser skill set, piled up on top of the others, obviously to repair the existing structures -this part of the construction appears to be akin to walls you may find along the county roads of Ireland or the “slave” walls found in parts of the southern United States.
The Incas are given credit for the construction- but the Incas themselves will tell you that they did not build Machu Picchu- or Sacsayhuaman, nor many of the unexplainable monuments that dot their landscape. The Incas tell a story about a cataclysm and epic flood that happened many thousands of years ago, when the “Land of Mu” sank during an earthquake. Some of the people of Mu had been forewarned by a prophet and they set sail to various parts of the globe. Some of the people found their way to the Andes where they met another race of beings called the “Apu” who already existed there, dwelling inside the mountains and among these gigantic, monolithic structures. The people of Mu asked for, and were granted, permission to stay in the new land. The people who came from Mu were the descendants of the Incas - but who were the people who were already there? And where did they go?
All of these mysteries are fun to contemplate when you are among these impossibly beautiful ruins. You can almost feel the air crackle with electricity, and indeed, it is said that there are powerful vortexes of energy on the mountain. While there are always a lot of tourists around- the place is vast and there are plenty of opportunities to wander away and have some time alone. And hey, If you are not into that you can always follow the guided tours- the views are just as jaw-dropping and stupendous and you will be glad you went!
How to go- We went with Smartours- http://www.smartours.com/galapagos.shtml
They take care of everything!
