Didnt wake at 4 but we made it to the 7am bus which took 30 minutes to grind its way back and forth along a series of swirchbacks that lifted us about 400m to the site itself. Not a scary ride at all and quite scenic.
We were perplexed and somewhat irritated to be asked yet again to produce our passports for admission - then they confiscated our lunch . . . and wanted 3 Soles to keep it for us. We followed habit and strode past the guides waiting outside. The scene opened before us. The site was about 250m square - high peak to the left with Inca buildings, another highish ridge ahead and to the left with more buildings, terraced grass patches draping down the flanks all round, retained by stone walls, a very high almost vertical peak on the right corner and scattered buildings sloping downwards to the right. All around, the edges plummeted almost vertically to the river faaaar below, with the train line visible in parts just next to the raging water.
I just loved the building on top of the undercut rock. Lovely
Us ruining the postcard perfect picture - so there is another below.
Almost at once, we heard Tim´s distinctive braying laugh coming from the left peak, where the hikers had just arrived.
The last part of the Inca trail. Sun gate at top of pass and trail coming down
But J wanted to push forward to the other mound on the left. We wandered forwards, eavesdropping various guides in various languages, telling sometimes contradictory stories about what the site meant. It was an astronomical observatory, a seat of learning for people of great intellect, a religious centre and a political power base. Everything but a castle - and in truth there were no signs of fortificatins or defensive works.
Mirror pools in front of windows to catch sun and moon light to help illuminate the room
The walls were exquisitely finished. Better than anything we had seen before. Every block dovetailed its neighbours. There were quite a few workers tending the place . several were painstakingly removing moss from the joins and sweeping it up for removal. The buildings were all roofless, but there were protruding stone pegs that were obviously intended to support a roof and the end gables were inverted V shapes, showing inclined roofs. The walls were all about 2´ thick, with smallish windows that would not have allowed any rain in. Drainage channels were built into and under everything, with the water draining off into the grass beds, which would have been filled with crops.
Terraces
We paused to take stock - this was a major site and we had spent a lot getting up here. J has become very keen on Incas and their culture and was agog to milk every possible snippet from the site. But she was happy doing it our own way, although we considered going back for a guide (which we later learned would have cost us $40 for an hour eeew) We realised around then that the guides were in fact just taking their clients for a shortish walk round the central parts, pointing out the major attractions out on the edges and going into detail only about a few issues. So the perception of a guide as a person who would walk round with you all day, regaling you with tales of antiquity and bestowing fresh insights into the Incas and their atchitccture, was mistaken.
In retrospect, we made the right choice and came away with a personal view that reflected what the guidebook said and incorporated the various views outlined by passing guides.
We bumped into Gordon around lunchtime, and learned that the trek had gone well. A couple of people had been quite sick and had a torrid time on Day 3 - with no option but to hike on. It was ALL steps - big steps - thousands of them - up and down and high up and right down and again. They rightly felt they had achieved something. Somewhat later we met Yvonne and Peter and later still bumped into Tim, Koen and Jamie who had just done the perilous and almost vertical ascent of what we called Fools´ Peak which is limited to 400 climbers at a time and towers over the whole site.
Yes, they climb that mountain, record is 22minutes. Can see people on top and walking up in pic below. Also llamas on grass area above pic
I found my own piece of Heaven on a narrow ledge which had a bare square slab of stone near the edge. It faced Fools´ Peak to the left, a sheer drop to the rushing river in front, beyond which high mountains towered thousands of feet above us, with some snowy peaks at the back, and the sprawl of Inca buildings to the right, with more mountains behind. Sitting on the slab, I almost felt on the brink of a sheer cliff - something straight from the sets of Lord of the Rings. We should have been beset by mythical monsters and warded them off with Inca spells. I hauled my faithful Rivers hiking shoes off and scrunched into a half Lotus.
I could have stayed there all day, just absorbing the sounds and being conscious of the valley and the mountains. But somebody needed to go and then got a headache so we found a surgery where they sold us a headache pill (reluctantly - they really wanted to give me a full examination and prep me for open cavity surgery). And I wasnt even the patient! Then we retrieved our lunch and ate most of it (you have to love cargo pants) and went back in. The migraine never materialised and J went off to explore the Sun Temple while I found my way back to my ledge, which by this stage overlooked a couple of girls doing a full yoga routine.
Astronomical stone - or Hitching post of the sun.
The best stone work in whole site: The Sun Temple
Three window temple with Andean Cross in foreground (3 step slab)
Funeral rock in cemetry area
Chincilla, only one of these about
Several of these about
Let us deal with this hypothetically . . . just say IF you needed to go, the site appeared to offer myriad tiny little roofless rooms where you could hope to spend a few seconds undisturbed without having to exit the site and return. But (if that had happened) you might have discovered that each of those little rooms was actually overlooked by one or two other areas where visitors from all 4 corners of the world might suddenly have popped their heads over the edge and surprised you. Lucky that didnt happen hey. Oooh and there were guards who seemed to have telepathic powers and woud bob up unexpectedly just when you were about to take a sip of water from your (strictly forbidden) recyclable bottle.
We left at 1pm after 5.5 hours - well satisfied with our day. There is no doubt it is a remarkable place for the unique combination of the site itself and the extraordinary mountain surroundings.
The usual 3 course lunch with the inevitable and delicious asparagus soup. Spent the afternoon putting photos into the blog, then out for pizza at a local restaurant, where they tried to add 10 Soles for Tax. We just crossed it out.
Colourful isn't he - we had lunch here
Condor, Puma and Snake. Three main icons to the Incas
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