The highlight of our trip

On the way to MP
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Ok, we were so eagerly looking forward to visiting Machupicchu - the untouched Inka city.  The Spaniards never found this city, and it was (re)discovered by a US historian, Hiram Bingham in 1911 with the help of a local farmer.  This city is just as the Inkas left it, and is surrounded by the Andes on all sides.  You cannot see the city from the valley or Agues Calientes, the closest town! 

Anyways, we were supposed to take the train from Cusco to Agues Calientes, but I guess the trains were all booked up.  So, we took the bus to Ollantaytambo (sacred valley) and then the train from there to Agues Calientes.  On the bus, we met the 3 English teachers from US.  Oh it was fun chatting with them all the way.  The guys had a competition - what is the oldest structure you have seen?   They were all trying to name some structures from the BC period... Kamesh then gave them a lesson on Indian history, I guess they plan to visit India soon!   They were a fun group and we hope to be in touch with them.  They all have interesting backgrounds.  And the amazing thing about meeting the different people on this trip was that everyone was big into international traveling. The most common question was - "What's your next trip?".  We got to learn so much from meeting such a wide cross-section of humanity from across the planet. 

Sun Temple at MP
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Anyways, by the time we landed in Ollantaytambo, it had started to rain. The train was a cute backpacker train, and about an hour and a half ride.  The landscape was beautiful and was more like a rain forest.  We landed in Aguas Calientes, and then had a take a 20 minute bus ride to Machupicchu, to the top of the mountain.   At the entrance of Machupicchu, we were met  by a private guide.  That was good!  It was still drizzling a little, so our guide said we would do the tour in the reverse way - so that when the weather clears up in an hour, we would have the best views still to come! And he was right. 

Landscape
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I have no words to describe Machupicchu.  It is picture-perfect, like you see in the postcards and all that you have heard about it.  It is nestled in the Andes, surrounded by clouds and mountains in all directions. The Inkas were one with nature, no doubt about it.  They chose the perfect places to build their cities.   So, this city was divided into 2 main parts - the royal side where the Inkas, the preists and the temples were, and the other part for the Quechua people.  The Inkas were the rulers, and there were 13 of them.  The last of them was killed by the Spaniards.  The top part of the city was where the elite lived, and the lower section of the city was where the junta lived, and had their factories and terrace farming.  Though we did not hike upto Machupicchu, climbing up and down the steps in the city in those slippery conditions was challenging enough.  Anways, we first went down to the Quechua side of things, saw their apartments and living styles, the terrace farms, etc. 

Machu Picchu
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This was a complete city with factories, farming, residential quarters, temples, main square for festivities, prison, etc etc.   We had to climb up to see the Inka quarters, the temple of the Sun and the preist quarters.  They had a sun dial which works perfectly well (apparently) when the sun is out.   Every 2 steps we walked, we had a picture perfect landscape that was different from the previous one!!  I wish I could say it in words, but there are no words to describe the beauty.  Kamesh and I were just awe-struck and amazed at how beautiful this was! Inkas scored big time on landscape art and built MachuPicchu in total harmony with nature.

The train
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We had about a 3-4 hour tour, and the guide was very patient and explained everything.  The Inkas are not that old, only about 400 years old.  They have ruled from about late 13th century until 1532 when the Spaniards arrived.  The Inkas ruled from Equador till Chile and parts of Argentina, without the knowledge of wheels and horses.  They had chuskis, or relay messengers, who would run for 30 miles with messages and pass it on to the next chuski.  The messages took only 5 days to reach from Equador to Chile with this mechanism! The reason why they left MachuPicchu before the Spaniards came is still being debated by the archealogists. But, anyways good that the Spaniards didnt find this beautiful place.

Anyways, though we did not want to leave Machupicchu, our train back was at 420 pm, and we had to be at the station by 4pm, after having had lunch.  So, we left around 330pm, and took the bus back.   We were pretty tired, but very thrilled at having seen Machupicchu and that it more than lived upto our expectations.  We reached our hotel by 730pm, and we just crashed after dinner!