How Machu Picchu? Ziplines and Mountain Climbs in the Sacred Land of the Incans

Our eyes were a little heavy-lidded as we crawled out of bed at 4am that morning.  Whatever physical issues we might have had though, we were both as excited as 5 year olds on Christmas Eve.  We were going to Machu Picchu!  This part of the trip was something that I kind of wanted to do, but had never really been blown away by the excitement or fame of it all.  Now we'd seen Cusco and other Incan relics I was 100% raring to go.

Another wonderful couple of omelettes later and we were in the back of Mario's car as he drove us the 2 hours across the high sierras to Ollantaytambo where we were to catch the train to Aguas Calientes.  AC is the small town just below Machu Picchu that serves as the holding point for the thousands of tourists that pour into this mountainous domain each and every month.

We arrived with time to spare, so took some snaps and waited comfortably for our train.  The whole trip, from the rail tickets to the hotels up in AC, to the tickets into the ruins....well......it's not cheap.  The Peruvians might be stuck in a bloody remote part of the world, but they appear wholly adept at light fingering their way through your travel budget and this had certainly made me a little cynical of the whole excursion.  There is something decidedly "off" about being utterly fleeced when trying to visit one of the wonders of civilisation.

Then the train turned up and we realised that perhaps we weren't getting that badly stiffed.  When you consider the utterly inhospitable nature of the terrain, the cost of maintenance and the frankly luxurious nature of the train we were on.....well....I started to fall back in love with our Peruvian hosts.  This was by no means the ridiculously priced Hiram Bingham train, but easily compares with the best first class carriages back home.  Hiram Bingham was the name of the first gringo to find Machu Picchu.  Frequently you'll hear people mistakenly trying to claim he discovered it....mistaken because they omit to tell you he had a local guide show him the ruins, so he could then claim discovery!  Got to love the spin Hiram put on that story :)

Our tree house

It's just under 2 hours to AC and when we got there a lively little gent from our hotel was there to greet us and escort us to our tree-top home.  Yes.  We were staying in a tree house.  It was a trifle rustic, but the restaurant was great (though breakfast was shocking!) and our room was just ridiculously romantic with a wonderful view of the mountainside.  We didn't have time to relax though, because we were immediately up and away to Santa Teresa and our ziplining excursion.  Once again guided by someone from the hotel, we boarded another train and took an hour long journey up the road to the hydroelectric plant train stop.....where we jumped into the most dangerous cab journey ever!

You tell me!

The car was being held together by bloody mindedness it seemed, as all the rattles gave testament to the ridiculous driving style of our chuaffeur.  After a brief argument with him (he wanted to squeeze 5 of us on the back seat and 2 on the front passenger seat) our guide clambered into the boot and we were off.  Haring along a road that was still being constructed and that hugged the side of the mountain in a very precarious way.  Julia was not impressed.   By the time we arrived, covered in dust and shaken, we were both wondering whether this hadn't been a bit of a mistake!  Turning up in a deserted town in the middle of nowhere and finding the zip-line tour operator office is closed won't help either!

Zipling is a simple enough thing.  Tie a metal line between two points, one higher than the other and then attach a wheeled mechanism to it.  Then attach yourself to the wheeled mechanism.  Then let gravity do all the work.  Simples.

Julia loves a good zipline.  Thing is....we had been told that ziplining in South America was a dangerous activity with people regularly falling to their deaths.  Now we hadn't checked this statement out, but let's just say that after our journey here, Julia was staring at the closed office and the empty town and wondering what the hell we were doing here.

Not to worry though - husband and wife turned up and after a briefing (i.e. a 5 minute chat that can only be called a very briefing!) we were off to the first departure point.  I won't bore you with the details, but the various zips we made were RIDICULOUS!  Hundreds of metres long, hundreds of metres up in the air above a valley with a massive river raging through it and with a smattering of rain to slicken things up, neither of us felt particularly safe.  Julia was first up and though we were apprehensive, the whole day went wonderfully well.  Up until the last task, which was a wire bridge about 70 metres above the valley floor.  Christ. On. A. Bike!

Tumbleweed Moments

Imagine a rope ladder, but with steel wire instead of rope.  Imagine two guide wires at hand height.  Now imagine it 400m long.  Across this we had to cross and boy oh boy did it challenge us.  As it ducked and dipped, bobbed and weaved and swayed we gripped the guide ropes like grim death.  Horrible.  By the end I was drenched in sweat and Julia had exhausted every swear word in the English and German languages.  Luckily I had turned my helmet camera backwards and have a great video of her traversing the bridge and turning the air blue with every step.

By the time we were back in the office we were all smiles again.  All we had to endure was another crazy cab journey back to the train station and then it was a shower and a lovely dinner before an early bedtime.  Our driver didn't disappoint and somehow his car managed to make the previous one look like a Rolls Royce!

Back at the ranch and it was time for a massage.  Oh dear.  Oh dear oh dear oh dear.  We had never heard of an Incan Massage and so thought we would give it a go.  I did.  Julia unfortunately ended up with the masseuses boyfriend who a) didn't know what a massage was and b) just made her feel creeped out.  Disappointed?  That doesn't even come close.  Kind of ruined her (our) evening and even though we had a wonderful meal before we went to bed and tried to sleep, it was not going to be forgotten.  Ever.

The football tour pose

Smile!  It's 4.30am

Well.....it might be.  Because today was the do we climbed up to Machu Picchu.  I say climbed.  I mean we got driven by bus.  So after one of the most pathetic breakfasts ever served in a hotel, we boarded the bus and were driven up to Machu Picchu with 50 other early morning freaks.  Yup - getting up at the crack of a sparrows fart was becoming a habit and we were not breaking it today.  After a hairy journey up the mountain switchbacks (made worse only by the thought we were going to have to come back down) we arrived at just after 6am.  Properly rubbish under any normal definitions, but today was different.

Told you it's big!

We were to climb Huayna Picchu at 7am......2 of the 400 people that would make the climb each day and so had about 30 minutes (after the queue to get in) to get over the initial "WOW!" moments and make our way to the entrance to the holy mountain's passes.  Quick maths tells you we waited about 30 minutes in the queue and then a short memory will remind you that we went "WOW!".....repeatedly for the next 30 minutes.

The beginning of the climb....easy to tell that.....I am still smiling

Machu Picchu is BIG.  I mean REALLY BIG.  Actually it's many, many superlative and excellent things, but the first thing that hammered home was how much of it there is.  This isn't a couple of ruined temples on a mountain.  It's a whole bloody village, complete with various temples, store houses, guard houses, field network and stellar observatory!  I'd explained in our previous post that the concept of the terrace wasn't that it was dug into the mountain but that it was built out and up from the mountain.  Well here it came into its own.  What must have been a ridiculously steep slope and almost no landmass to speak of, was now a large plateau upon which the Incans could build something monumentally ballsy.  I mean I struggle to find a word that can convey the grand, almost show-off kind of gesture that would lead one to even dare to think...."You see that mountain up there, we're gonna build a bloody great big village, complete with our own farming gardens, and then all the other tribes will know WE, the INCANS, are the greatest people round here!"

Everything was planned.  Why here?  It's surrounded on almost every side by a wall of mountains that have about 4 valleys between them to lead to the base of this mountain.....so it's secure.  That wall of mountains?  Well the peaks form a zig-zag across the horizon, which is pretty enough, but also strangely utilitarian.  Because if you want to know what month it is....you only have to look to see which of 6 specific peaks the sun rises behind.  As the year progresses past the 6 month, the sun goes back along the 6 peaks.  If that isn't the biggest bloody calendar ever built I don't know what is!  How do you even begin to think "I wonder if I could use those mountains as a calendar?"

Then there is the stone carving and the strength of their design.  This area is prone to the odd earthquake.  The odd BIG earthquake.  You're on a mountain.  It's high, it's steep and it's likely to fall down a little.  So we'll use the natural fault lines of the rocks to carve into the mountain and then use techniques that people 600 years later STILL don't understand to keep those rocks in place.  The Incans didn't just carve indiscriminately into the mountain and build stuff.  No.  Why bother?  If you had a nice shaped rock or promontory of the mountain....then use it, don't change it.  Build around it.  Find a use for it.  Amazing.

Gives you a sense of how far away from Machu Picchu we were on that climb

Imagine how brave you have to be to build that wall!

The walk up to the top of Huayna Picchu is gruelling.  It's supposed to take just over 2 hours, we did it in a shorter time, but I was soaked by the time we got to the top.  Just because you're at 3000m doesn't mean it isn't humid!  Some of the stairs were pretty scary, but nothing on the way up prepared you for the unbelievable sense that you were somehow defying gravity with every step  you took around the little complex on the summit.  It was hard work climbing to the top......can you imagine building this complex?!  Some of the terrace work up there was just nuts.  The bravery of the builders must have been second to none.  At every turn it was a prime example of mankind conquering nature, but in the most sympathetic way I have ever seen.  Nothing looked out of place, it all just blended with the natural slope and shape of the mountain.  Obviously the materials were the rocks around, so the colours and the textures made it seem that the mountain had come out of the ground looking like this!

Still early doors....t-shirt mostly 

Our guide later explained that the workers who carry out daily maintenance on some sections of the walls/terraces can climb the mountain in 18 minutes.  The record is 13.

I repeat.  13 minutes.

We huffed and puffed our way up, stopping and starting, doubled over in wheezy agony in just under 2 hours.  Incredible.

At the top we were reminded rather pointedly that not all humanity is quite as sensitive and emotionally in tune with its surroundings as some of our Incan friends.  Two "ladies" on the very top of the mountain caused a small backlog of photographers as they sat and posed, and discussed and re-posed and discussed some more, before pulling some horrifically cheesy yoga poses before......we gave up.  Watching a pair of 30 something Sloany Londoners pretend to be hippies on the top of Huanya Picchu whilst all those around them waiting to take a souvenir shot had to endure their prattle....well it was too much.

We woz 'ere

We wandered around a little, had a couple of coca sweets and then made our way down the mountain.  Oh my God.  The way up and walk around the top was hard enough....the way down.....horrible.  Some of the views and steps going down, well, you had to do them backwards.  Aside from my feet being too big for most of the steps, it felt like you were about to pitch forward and drop hundreds of feet to your very painful death.

"Nightmares of a Health & Safety Officer"

Then we met our guide.  In our last post I mentioned how different guides gave a very different perspective on the Incan civilisation, well Darcy, our guide in Machu Picchu, brought the civilisation to life like no other.  I repeat the word civilisation, because it truly was civilised.  So much is made of the short-lived nature of the Incans and people wonder at how it was all possible.  Darcy simply explained their arrival (from tribes around Lake Titicaca) and how all over the west of South America there were examples of tribal architecture that was the pre-cursor to the Incan skills.  Everything seemed to click into place as he explained the logic behind the Incans open air greenhouses.  Basically circular terraces that were used with plants that grew best at low altitudes to gradually acclimatise them to high altitudes.  In essence using natural selection to genetically engineer potatoes and corn that would grow to useful sizes at high altitude!

He explained the thinking behind the strategic nature of the site, how it was not only a very good place to show off to other tribes, but it was also a very good place in terms of its situation along the Inca Trail.  It acted as a natural filtering point and guardhouse for the Sacred Valley.  There are only a few ways into the valley and though Machu Picchu wasn't on the precise trail, it was close enough to act as a barracks for the soldiers needed to guard the trail and far enough to be defensible in times of war.

Unfinished bits of Machu Picchu

So much of the way they carved the stones became clear - how they would use the natural fault lines in the rocks to carve the stone, making small holes along natural cracks then pushing green wood into the holes.  This would then be made wet and the green wood wood expand and widen the crack.  More wood is inserted then more water etc etc until the rock splits.....hence the weird shaped rocks that looked like a mad architects jigsaw puzzle, but in actual fact were perfectly logical ways to carve rock.  His question was: Why bother trying to cut rock into squares that might contain fault lines that would later prove catastrophic?  By using the natural fault lines in the rock, the architects ensured that each block was strong and drastically reduced the time to create each building block.

Nowadays you'd just find yourself a flat bit of land

By the end of the morning with our guide, we had come to appreciate the beauty of a civilisation that could achieve all this.  Of course, there was an ugly side to the Incans.  They weren't all sweetness and light and when a tribe didn't give into their demands they would annihilate them....but there was a benevolent despotism at play that European civilisations had never achieved.  

Terraces upon terraces

Nice view

We left Machu Picchu absolutely knackered.  By the final hour or so, the place had become packed with tourists.....some quite odious in their lack of respect for such fragile remnants.  I hesitate to use the word ruins, because quite frankly, they aren't ruins.  Walking around in a long snake-like queue became counter-productive; you were seeing such amazing sights, yet the crowds diminished the impact to a huge degree.  Kind of like our experience in Angkor Wat.

Whatever the final minutes were like though, our time in Machu Picchu was utterly incredible.  I certainly left with a weird feeling of the capability of the human spirit.  Somehow, in proving to the world that they could achieve something like Machu Picchu, the Incans had also proven to the world that humanity was always capable of surpassing the mundane....that reaching for the stars is not a pipe-dream, but something to actually achieve.

Funnily enough, having become all philosophical about humanity Julia had the chance to show what a little angel she is.  As we waited for the train and enjoyed some wine, we watched an old man pull a massive cart of goods up a very steep hill.  He was obviously not enjoying himself and the day was very hot, what with the sun pounding down upon him.  Up jumped Julia and ran after him, carrying with her a bottle of water.  The look of surprise on his face as this beautiful little German angel presented him with her gift was priceless!

Notice the foundation of the house on the right....it's the mountain side....then notice the sheer drops

On the train home we met a lovely pair of art dealers from Hawaii and "enjoyed" a fashion show put on by the train staff in a bid to sell more of their wares.  It was impossible not to feel sorry for them......especially the poor bloke who had to model the men's jumpers.  They were the sort of knitwear that your 70s mother would have bought for you for Christmas.  Yuk!

Jose was waiting for us back at the station and ferried us back into our favourite hotel in the world.  We had a final night here before we were to fly to Lima, then another night there, before we flew to Costa Rica.  Peru had been a mind-blowing experience and it was a great feeling to be back in the swing of things on our travels.  Somehow Santiago had really knocked the wind out of our travels.  Of course Buenos Aires was amazing, but Peru had re-fuelled our wander lust.  On the other hand it had depleted our energy levels and we were counting down the minutes before we could step off the bus in Santa Teresa and enjoy the wonderful "home-coming" to that surfer's paradise at the end of the Malpais peninsular.