Waking up early was not a problem, but let me tell you about the rainy season.

At 4:30 am we started our walk to the train station. The train was very nice, good coffee, nice cookie, and no turbulence other than some swaying back and forth. This train ride was $140 each if I remember correctly so I guess they figured they can afford the little snacks.  

I wish more pictures would turn out on the 2 hour ride down to Machu Picchu (MP).  Yes, down since Ollantaytambo sits at 9,160 feet above sea level while MP is at 7,970 feet above sea level. What I found interesting after getting off the train is that there is some a large a confusing flea-market-ish set of tourist trap shops before you get into Aguas Calientes. Very easy to get lost and absolutely no signage to point you in the right direction. Just row after row of booths. After blindly finding our way through to daylight we consulted thriftynomads.com to figure out where the buy bus tickets. No signage but the booth was obvious to find once we learned it was under the walking bridge we crossed…

Round trip busses cost $12 each and finding a personal tour guide had a very taxi-driver competition feel to it. Since we paid $44 per person to do MP mountain and MP, we opted to climb the mountain first. The more famous climb to the sun temple and moon temple on Huayna Picchu, which is Incan  (Quechua) for young mountain, had its limited 400 daily tickets sold out for weeks.  The Machu Picchu Mountain (Quechua for old mountain) was to be the best overview of all of MP available. What they fail to mention is the summit is a 10,007 feet above sea level.  That is an elevation gain of  2,037 over the short 1.2 miles of trail.  It was a LOT of wet steps.  Oh, I forgot to mention , cloud coverage made it impossible to see far … sad day on that note.

Here was saw our first hints of the ruins.

but the clouds won

The rain and ridiculous amounts of steps only made a slwo, but not deterred.  Summer could sprint up the steps while I needed breaks.

After about 1 hour and 45 minutes, we got to the top!

Well, the top was just clouds… so we ate a sandwhich and left.  Getting down was easy!

Easy and slightly scary.

While we hiked, we met a freelance tour guide who offered us a private tour of MP when we finished the mountain. Normally, tour guides cost $40 for a couple, but after his tour and getting to know him plus seeing his photography skills, we paid S/.180 which was more, but it was worth it.

Here is where I could write a book about the Machu Picchu ruins. I’ll summarize and provide a few of the better pictures.

MP was made famous by Hiram Brigham an American searching for a fabled alternative city, Vilcabamba or “the lost city of a Incans”.  MP ruins were known by locals and two families even farmed close to or at the ruins.  This wasn’t Vilcabamba but Hiram insisted it was.

The ruins saw extensive excavation, restoration, and preservation from the 1913 to 1983 before becoming a world Heritage site. Restorations were stopped and the focus became archeology, education, and accessibility.  To understand what I mean by this, Google an area view of a road approaching the ruins.
There are different opinions as  to why MP was built, but I won’t go into that. In short,  it was a sacred site, had great geological resources, fresh water, and could grow crops year round, and in a safe location.  Some belive this was a site of pilgrimage  (Inca trail and sacred Valley information is a great read), but they do know it was a sacred place and probably home to the area governor and nobility.

Terraces served to prevent landslides and aid the foundations of the 500 to 1000 residents that may have lived there over the 100 year suspected lifespan of the city. Of course they grew crops and had botanical gardens with pumpkins, squash, potatoes, corn, and so forth.

The city was built on granite stones found all over the peak, but what few know is the engineering skills and accomplishments that is featured at MP. For instance, melted glacier water was brought to the city via a very long aqueduct through the sun gate.  From there the water main split the city in two zones before going to irrigation and to homes.

One side of the irrigation was for the general population and the other for politicians and religion.  

One temple dedicated to the sun was built into and shaped specifically for tracking the movement of the sun between winter and summer solstice.  

each window of the elegantly carved and rounded turret is sized and faced to best display the solstice sun.  This was believed to aid in planting seasons and crop rotations. Under this turret is a Crack in the granite where, during the winter solstice, the sun shines directly on the earth.  It was believed this was when the father sun fertilized mother earth for each upcoming year.

Another amazing fact about the ruins is that it hasn’t fallen over or crumbled after hundreds of years.  The site is on two large and active fault lines and even earthquakes didn’t knock it down. The Incans were able to create tight stone block where not even a credit card could slide in. They also added an almost tongue and groove system to prevent the blocks from moving.

Machu was never completed and according to our guide, probably would continue to build for another 100 years. The Incans were master engineers and innovators, but Machu Picchu succumbed to disease, civil war, and the Spanish and abandoned the city.

At the top and above a courtyard an unfinished temple still sits unfinished.

This gives us a it’s glimpse into the carving and shaping techniques the residents used here and elsewhere.

Rain makes photography tough, so I strongly suggest you visit. Ask me questions as to how to maneuver this crazy setup they have and what traps to watch out for!

Anyways

Next to the unfinished temple was a large stone. This stone seemed to be nothing special until you compare it to a compass. Each corner of this stone points to the correct directions of a magnetic compass.  The north corner points directly to Huayna Picchu as well as magnetic north.

Just below this compass is the courtyard for gatherings, sports, and other events. 

and west of the courtyard is believed to be Terraces dedicated to experimenting with new crops and and greenhouse nursery type location.  An excavation revealed a multitude of seeds and pollens in the soil here.

This place was just astounding! The tour was worth it and really brings to light just how incredible the Incans were.

I could keep writing about the other temples, the homes and workshops, the foundation and water management but I think it its best to leave it to your own discovery!