Peruvian Inca Adventure: A Magnetic City

 October 11, 2024

Approaching Machu Picchu!

The haze in the sky somewhat hampered our view of Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate.  It was visible, but a bit hazy and too far away to see well.  From there we made our way down towards Machu Picchu along a trail with a few other smaller ruins.  But for the most part we were keeping our eyes towards Machu Picchu which was getting closer.  This looking towards Machu Picchu thing was really not a good idea because you needed to watch your feet too.

Along the way I took many photos and for the most part this post will probably be mostly pictures and less story.  

This short story is something that amused me, but seemed to be less amusing to others. I had set my backpack down briefly to get something put something in it. A little while later I noticed that the magnet that attached my water hose to my pack had soil magnetically attached to it. There must be iron or something metallic in the soil around Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu Soil

Machu Picchu has multiple circuits that tourists can take.  Your ticket determines which circuit you take.  Since we hiked the Inca Trail to get there, we got to visit the Sun Gate which few others get to.  And then we got to take the Panorama Circuit, which is the circuit where you get all the great panoramic views of Machu Picchu.  

After getting all our photos, we headed down to the main gate to enter Circuit 3.  With this tour, provided by Ronaldino, we got to visit the Royalty sector of Machu Picchu.  

Walking along the terrace wall.  What you can see here are are stairs sticking out from one terrace to another.

Huayna Picchu is the mountain in the background.

After walking into Machu Picchu’s Circuit 3 gate, we walked across the terraces that made up the agricultural center of Machu Picchu.  Up on one of the terraces we got to sit down for a bit while Ronaldino gave us another history lesson, this time about the discovery of Machu Picchu by American Hiram Bingham in 1911.  Of course Bingham didn’t really discover the “Lost City”, as it was still known by those who lived in the area.  He did however, bring wider recognition to the site by “rediscovering”. At the time it was "found" much of the village had been swallowed back up by the forest. There were trees and plants covering it (go look up photos of what Machu Picchu looked like when discovered).

Ronaldino telling us about the Machu Picchu.  He was 23 and very passionate about hiking and teaching people.  He tried being a porter when he was younger and realized it wasn't for him, but guiding was something he loved.

The terraces of Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu is likely not the actual name of the site, but is widely recognized as the modern name for it.  It means “Old Peak” in Quechua, which was the language spoken by the people known as the Incas, and is still spoken by many (including our guides) today.  Technically speaking, “Inca” was only used to refer to the ruler of the Quechua people.  So basically it was like “King”, but now all the people the Inca ruled over are considered Incas, so it would be like all the people a king ruled over being called Kings.  Today, they believe the site was actually known as Huayna Picchu (also the name of the large mountain that stands behind it that you see in photos), but it is too late to change names now.  Machu Picchu is believed to be a royal retreat for the Inca.  It is unknown exactly when it was abandoned, but they are sure the Spanish never made it Machu Picchu because of how much of the city still stood.  It is likely that citizens of the city either died by diseases introduced by the Spanish and brought there, or they abandoned the place when the Spanish started their conquests in the area.

We went through the building where the Inca would have stayed.  He was the only person at Machu Picchu to have a private bathroom and toilet.

Doorway to the Royal Toilet

We also visited the Temple of the Sun.  Ronaldino said you could tell how important a place was by how well it was built and what type of stones were used.  Well-crafted stones with straight edges that lined up perfectly were used for the most important buildings, namely the temples.  Buildings of medium importance had well-built, but not perfectly aligned stones, likely flat, but not all the same size.  Things like terraces didn’t need perfection so they were built of irregular stones.  Anyways, the Temple of the Sun was built perfectly with well-hewn stones that lined up.  In fact, it if you remember correctly, on the winter solstice, the sun will rise directly through the Sun Gate and straight into the window of the Sun Temple.  Ronaldino said he’s been there to see it.

The Sun Temple - Notice the nice stonework?

Terraces and their irregular stonework.

Housing with their rows of stone, but not perfectly fit together.

The perfect stonework of the Sun Temple.  Not even a piece of paper would fit between these stones.

We climbed up a bunch of stairs (Please! No more stairs!) and looked across the square to the Temple of Three Windows.  Then we headed a little further down to the Sacred Rock and the entrance to Huayna Picchu Mountain where half of our group was heading to hike up more stairs and get a view of Machu Picchu from a different angle.  Mom and I did not get tickets to do this because I felt we’d be done with stairs by then and would be more interested in the tour of Machu Picchu (I was right).  The Sacred Rock was a flat rock in between a could of buildings, carved to match up with the mountains behind it.  It was pretty neat to see how close it was.  

More steep stairs 😭

The grass was starting to turn green.  Remember we were there in September, which is their March.

The Sacred Rock near the entrance to Huayna Picchu.

Temple of the Condor is named due to the shape of the rocks.

We passed by the Temple of the Condor, which is in the shape of a condor (a sacred animal to the Inca).  After that we started to make our way out of Machu Picchu.  After we left, we had about 15 minutes to chill before taking a bus down into Aguas Calientes.  The road traversed by the buses is an insane series of switchbacks.  Only 4 days later, a bus went off the road and fell about 30 ft to the road below, injuring a load of people. 

A section of Machu Picchu getting worked on.

Work being done on the Temple of the Three Windows

The part of the group that did not climb Huayna Picchu.

A local resident.  The llamas at Machu Picchu ended up there thanks to a beer commercial shot there in I believe the 90s.  They were left there because they make great lawn mowers.

Down in Aguas Calientes we had about an hour to wander the city before meeting back up at a restaurant with the rest of our group.  Those who had climbed Huayna Picchu were obviously not with us as they had some climbing to do instead.  They did arrive at the restaurant for one last “family” lunch.  Then we headed to the train station to catch our ride back to Ollantaytambo, where we got on a Alpaca Expeditions van to take us back to Cusco.  

Upon arrival in Cusco we experienced the first of a few travel snafus.  I had booked a hotel near the airport, since we had already experienced Cusco and had a flight out in the morning.  A driver from Alpaca Expeditions drove us to the hotel.  When we arrived there was no one there to answer.  We waited a bit and then the driver called the hotel.  The owner said he was on his way.  We waited and waited and eventually about 30 minutes later he showed up.  Our driver was amazing and stayed with us the whole time.  Putting us back in the car when it was apparent he wasn’t going to be there anytime soon, which was good because it was not on a well lit street or anything.  He actually ended up calling 2 more times to make sure the owner was still coming.  Eventually he showed up and got us checked in.  Mom and I then enjoyed nice long showers and started the process of repacking our suitcases.  Our hiking clothes were extremely stinky after 4 days of hiking and sweating.  We packed them in some plastic bags and they didn’t see the light of day again until we got home.

Peruvian Inca Adventure: Because We Only Hike the Real Thing

September 19, 2024

Inca Flat - adj. Def. A portion of trail that rises and falls 10 to 100 feet during a short stretch. Native Peruvians may misconstrue the trail as “flat” while non-Peruvians see it as distinctly uphill or downhill. Example: “That trail was not flat! It was Inca Flat!” “That’s what I said, the trail would be Inca Flat.”

The whole gang at the beginning of the Inca Trail

Our Inca Trail Hike began on September 9th.  We got up about 5:30, took our last showers for a few days and then headed out to the Plaza in Ollantay to be picked up by our team.  They told us they’d be there between 6:15 and 6:30, and we started to get a bit worried when we hadn’t seen them at 6:33, but they showed up just a few minutes later after we resorted to turning on our phone for data service so we could Whatsapp our guide to see when they’d arrive.  We got into the van with the other people from our group and headed to a place called Porter House for breakfast.  

Porter House is a place where the Inca Trail porters for Alpaca Expeditions can stay for the night before they start a hike because some of them travel in from places up to 4 hours away to work.  Porter House exists so they don’t have to get up at ungodly hours in the morning to get to the starting point to then carry 20 kg and hike 14 km.  It was at Porter House that Mom and I really got to meet the other people we’d be hiking with.  There was a group that consisted of a mom, dad, and 15 year old son.  And then there was a group of 6 from New York who all went to the same church who introduced themselves as, “All the Asians are with us!”  They were Jenny, Grace, Yun, Jason, Christian, and Lung.  By day 3 of the trip after seeing some other groups and the people in them, we all had a moment where we said to each other, “I’m glad we don’t have any annoying people in our group because there are some other groups that would have been terrible to be a part of.”  We also had our main guide Ronaldino and our assistant guide Yedira, along with 18 porters and a chef.

Urubamba River - It eventually helps create the Amazon River

After a delicious breakfast, we got back in the van and traveled down to Kilometer 82, where the trail starts.  We had to check in at the main gate with our guide and passports.  We then set off down the trail.  The first part of the trail was actually mainly dirt and Inca Flat.  As we hiked along, we frequently saw terraces and other Inca ruins off to one side or the other.  At some point we wandered into some ruins where we got some Peruvian history.  The history lessons we learned along the way were one of the things I really loved.  It wasn’t just a hike.  We learned about who lived there, what the purpose of the ruins were, who the big names were in Inca history (Pachacutec), and other things.  All of it helps explain why the Inca trail exists, because it isn’t just a trail someone decided would be fun for hiking tourists 40 years ago.  The Inca Trail we were hiking was actually created by the Incas back in the 15th century.  They laid the actual stones we were hiking on as a “road” from Inca village to Inca village, for messages to be delivered across the empire.

Patallacta Ruins as seen from Llactapata Ruins

After what seemed like a long time of hiking, we ended up having our first lunch together.  It turns out the delicious breakfast was not a fluke.  Much like on Kilimanjaro, we started out meals with a soup, and then a variety of things that included rice or pasta, meat, potatoes, and some type of fruit or vegetable dish.  At supper time we also got a dessert.  And we had snack time after getting to our nighttime campsite that was usually popcorn and some other snack foods.  Basically there is no shortage of food…which, mind you, had to all be carried up the trail by the porters.

Inca Trail Stairs and a porter.

As I had predicted prior to the start of the trip, Mom would set out and blaze a trail.  I’m more of a slow-to-middle speed hiker, so I let her go.  The family of three were also often in the front of the pack, being from Colorado and a bit more used to elevation than the rest of us.  That first night it was starting to get dark as we got to camp.  In Peru the sunset occurred around 5:45 pm, an early night for sure.  

Camp was all set up for us when we got there.  Mom and I shared a tent that was rather spacious; even larger than the ones we had on Kilimanjaro.  We stuck to the same sides of the tent the whole trip, since we got into a routine of putting our things in the same places.  Sleep was a mixed bag.  My hands, which were showing signs of a sun-reaction were somewhat painful, and kept me up for a while, before I eventually drifted off to sleep.

Day 2 on the Inca Trail was the one they warned us about.  It is a super challenging day with 2 high mountain passes.  We started our day at Ayapata Camp at 10,829 ft.  We then hiked up, up, up.  First we went up to a place that could serve as a campsite, but for us was just a resting place.  We rested there for about 20 minutes, waiting for everyone to get to the site and have a chance to rest before the push up to Dead Woman’s Pass.  As far as people know, there was no actual “dead woman”, but they say that the shape of the mountain pass as seen from afar looking like a woman laying down.  Dead Woman’s Pass is at 13,780 ft, so an exhausting climb of just under 3,000 feet up to the top.  While the day before Mom had been in the lead, on Day 2 the altitude definitely hit her and she struggled.  I found it less of an issue, whether that is because of my hiking style of slow and steady, or because I had experience with higher altitude climbing and knew the best way to push through it, I’m not sure.  I stayed with mom and tried to keep her going to the next rock or place to sit and rest.  We’d hike up maybe 50 feet at a time and then take a break for 30-60 seconds, and then every 15 minutes or so take a 2-3 minute break.  As we neared the top of Dead Woman’s Pass, she told me to go ahead, that she’d be fine.  I pushed forward, taking the occasional break to make sure she was still coming.  That day was certainly a tough one.  The New York crew had some real troubles with it, having had less acclimation time than we did.  They also had smaller water bladders and ran out of water before reaching the pass.  I had 4 liters going into the day’s hike and still had roughly 700 mL in my Nalgene and 1.5 L in my backpack, so I gave about 750 mL to one of the New Yorkers so they had more water.  We’d be able to get more water once we got to lunch at the bottom of the Pass.

Heading up to Dead Woman's Pass

The crew up at the top of Dead Woman's Pass flashing the alapaca hands.

After resting for a bit up at the top we started the part I actually dreaded, the downhill part.  My knees HATE downhill.  And it wasn’t an easy downhill, but had steps of varying sizes and heights.  Some steps were maybe 8 inches in height, while others were 30 inches, so you had to be careful and pay attention.  Probably about 300 vertical feet down (out of 2000 ft), my right knee started screaming at me, so I pulled out my knee brace.  I took it easy because I knew it would be an issue.  Downhills are when I fully appreciate my hiking poles which help take some of the force of going downhill off.  One unexpectedly painful part of this downhill involved my hands.  Since I was a preteen I’ve occasionally had issues where I essentially get an allergic reaction to the sun.  When it happens, I’m usually in sunny environments that are not home and closer to the sun.  I started experiencing this before we left for the hike, but being on the trail at a higher elevation seemed to have kicked it in high gear.  My hands literally felt like they were burning any time they were exposed to sunlight; like I had stuck my hands in a pot of boiling water.  It hurt so bad, and I had trouble sleeping too because of the pain.  It was at its worst on the way down from Dead Woman’s Pass.  

The way down from Dead Woman's Pass

Thanks to a steady downhill pace, Mom and I were just the second and third people to arrive at lunch.  Our 15 year old, who still has knees that work, practically ran down from the Pass.  We had lunch, refilled our water, and then set out for the second Pass of the day, Runkurakay Pass at 13,123 feet.  The second pass wasn’t nearly as bad, but we were more tired so that made it not exactly pleasant.  We stopped at the Runkurakay ruins on the way up to the Pass and got some more history lessons.  From there we could also see Dead Woman’s Pass across the valley, which offered a neat view.  After reaching Runkurakay Pass, Mom and I started down the other side.  The sun was definitely trending downwards and we wanted to reach camp before it got dark.  One thing we weren’t expecting when we hit the other side of the Pass was smoke.  I’ve experienced enough wildfire smoke to know what it looks and smells like and we definitely hit smoke and short visibility on the far side of Runkurakay Pass.  We were later told that there are places in the area where they do controlled burns before the rainy season starts (October) to clear some of the growth of the forest and that’s what the smoke was.

Sayamarca with a smokey sunset.

When we got to camp that evening there were llamas waiting for us…like they were just hanging out in the overall camp area, but not in our campsite.  We had more good food and everyone was exhausted and tired.  Funny story about the night of Day 2…I had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and when I was coming back, blind because I didn’t have my glasses on and only having light from my headlamp, I miscounted tents and opened the wrong tent.  I felt like I was in the wrong place before I even fully opened the tent, because the zipper wasn’t in the place I thought I had left it.  But once I opened in and went to crawl in, there was a leg where I meant to go!  Oops!  

Snack Time!

Our last full day of hiking was a fairly fun one overall.  Moods were a bit lighter since the worst of it was over, and we were just a day away from Machu Picchu.  We started out with some uphill Inca Flat, before starting downhill.  We had about 3400 feet of downhill to cover before getting to our nighttime campsite, so the knees weren’t going to have a happy day.  We made it all of about 15 minutes uphill before we all had to shed our multiple layers of clothes we had on.  A little bit further along we were able to see Salkantay, the 2nd highest mountain in Peru.  The Salkantay Trail is an alternate way to get to Machu Picchu, and involves passing by Salkantay en route.  While we were stopped, Ronaldino also showed us how the Incas would create rope bridges using grass.  There is one bridge in the region that is rebuilt every year this way.  People on both sides create ropes from grass involving small ropes being woven into larger ropes, being woven into larger ropes, and then they start to work the span across before meeting in the middle.

Ronaldino making rope from grass.

As we made our way down, down, down both my knees and Jenny’s knees were not happy and the two of us were a back of the pack slow group.  It was nice to get the chance to talk with some of the others, as the New York girls were at the back with us.  We made our way to the ruins at Intipata,which were an agriculture center for Machu Picchu and the area back in the Inca days.  It was a large site with lots and lots of terraces.  A little bit further along, we made our way into camp.  It was a short day of hiking because the last day was going to be an early one.  After lunch at camp, we headed into WiñayWayna, a set of ruins that was a religious, agriculture, and housing village.  I was immensely impressed with WiñayWayna.  There we got more history lessons and our Alpaca Expedition t-shirts for the next day at Machu Picchu.  

WinayWayna

After dinner, we got our tips together for all our crew and presented them to them because that would be the last time we saw most of them because the next morning we get up really early and leave camp, having a sack breakfast instead of one in the mess tent.  We got all packed up, and then went to bed, knowing that we had a 3am wake-up call coming.

Us and our amazing porters and chef!

The last morning we got up and put together as fast as possible.  The reason for the early wakeup call was so we could be as close as possible to the front of the line the next morning where we would have to wait at the gate to be let onto the trail that leads to Machu Picchu.  The gate doesn’t open until 5:30am and the further back you are, the more people you’ll have in front of you.  We did good.  We were up at the front of the line and from there were able to doze for the next 2 hours and eat our sack breakfast.  Just as the sun was starting to rise, the gate opened and we set out for Machu Picchu.

Waiting for the gate to open

The last day of hiking the trail was Inca Flat and actual flat, and then came the Gringo Killer, a set of maybe 50 short, steep stairs just before reaching the Sun Gate.  The Gringo Killer is best climbed in a standard hands and feet scramble.  It was actually easier to climb than some of the other sets of stairs we had climbed up and down during the rest of the trip.  I have no pictures of the Gringo Killer because I had 180 people hiking behind me and didn’t want to slow down to take a picture of them.  

Mom and I with Machu Picchu in the background, taken at the Sun Gate.

After making it past the Gringo Killer, a short ways away was the Sun Gate, the first place from which you can see Machu Picchu.  The sun shines through the Sun Gate just after sunrise on the winter solstice and hits the main religious temple at Machu Picchu, marking the start of a new year.  Up at the Sun Gate we took a bunch of photos and then started our trek down to Machu Picchu. 

Peruvian Inca Adventure: Good Food and Good Views

September 8th, 2024

Pervian countryside as taken from the Collectivo

On September 6th, we were ready to leave Cusco for Ollantaytambo (Oyan-tay-tambo or Ollantay for short).  After trading out money we picked up our things and trekked a kilometer through town to the location where you can ride a collectivo to Ollantaytambo.  We got one for 10 soles a piece (roughly $2.60) to take us the 65 km to Ollantay.  It took us around 90 minutes to get there.  We seemed to have a traveling salesman onboard for the first 30 minutes or so.  He did a little preaching and then started selling a magnesium supplement, and then when finished with that, started in on some hand cream.  He managed to sell some, so apparently the gig works.  I know enough Spanish that I could sort of understand what he was saying, which was what made it more interesting.  Mom and I were talking, and said he could tell we were foreigners and probably didn’t speak Spanish because he never really looked our way.  At one point on the road we hit a police stop, where they checked everyone’s ids on the collectivo except mom and I, because apparently we were obviously not Peruvians, and probably couldn’t pass for any other South Americans either.

From the inside of the collectivo

When we arrived in Ollantay, we made our way to our hotel, the Eureka Lodge, which turned out to be all of about 50 meters from the Inca ruins of Ollantaytambo.  We were given the room with the best view in town, I am assuming purely because we were staying 3 nights, while most visitors stay for just a single night.  I’m not sure I’ve ever stayed anywhere where I had such an amazing view from the bed in my hotel room. The one issue with the hotel that we had was lack of hot water. Cold showers aren't exactly fun.

View of the Ollantaytambo Ruins from our hotel

After unpacking, we wandered town a bit.  We found where the train station is, though we’re not heading to Machu Picchu by train.  We will return from there on the train though.  We also made our way back to the main square in town, and then found the local market.  Even more importantly, we found a bakery!  We were walking down the street and smelled something sweet and had to turn around.  We ended up getting some cinammon and sugar covered pastry, that was warm.  It was so good.  After another break in the hotel room we wandered back to the square for supper, where we had a delicious meal.

Probably the best version of Lomo Saltado that I had on the trip.

We got up on our second morning in Ollantay, and headed to the ruins right after breakfast.  They were pretty empty then, which is the complete opposite of how they are in the afternoon.  We’ve found that in the afternoon there ends up being a couple hundred people up there.  We have a view of the ruins from our hotel room, but we found out this morning that we can really only see about ⅓ of it.  There was a lot more to the right that we weren’t able to see, and more up on the hill we look towards, but just can’t see due to our position.  What we can see are a lot of terraces, but there are a ton more too.  Each terrace is about 12 feet tall.  Up high are building ruins.  

Ollantaytambo Ruins - Up at the Top of the Terraces

We took a trail up to a high temple area called Inka Watana.  It was a lot of work to get up there, reminding us once again that we are not at 1300 feet.  But really the muscle fatigue has lessened, and it is more just breathing that hasn’t fully caught up yet.  We took a lot of picture breaks on the way (aka, catch your breath breaks).  From the trail up to Inka Watana, we could see so much more than what we had seen so far.  The valley below on the side of the mountain we were now on (the side away from Ollantay) was mostly small farms.  Every once in a while you’d hear a train whistle and see the train heading away from Ollantay to Agua Calientes and Machu Picchu below.  Up at Inka Watana there seemed to be an altar or something with 4 cutout spaces in the wall.  After taking in the views up there for a bit, we wandered back to the floor of the ruins space, and over to the other area which we couldn’t see from our hotel.

Looking down into the valley on the non-Ollantaytambo side.  Also note the terraces across the valley.  You see terraces, used or not, a ton of places.

Along the floor of the Ollantaytambo ruins are a series of canals and fountains.  It is neat to see the way the canals still work, transporting water today (and sometimes using a little modern ingenuity to hook up hoses to the canals).  There were also the required llama and alpaca at the bottom area as well.  We followed the canals back as far as we could before reaching the end and coming back to the base of the terraces.

Canals through the Ollantaytambo ruins leading to one of the places where they turn into a fountain.

There was a second set of terraces, and high up on them was a building that looked like a church, though I’m not sure if that is really what it was.  We haven’t paid for any guides at any of these ruins we’ve visited so far, and I’m sure we could get a lot more history if we had them, but it is also nice to have the opportunity to wander and not feel like we’re wasting anyone’s time.  We will have 2 hour guided tour at Machu Picchu as part of our trek, so there we’ll have someone knowledgeable telling us what things are.

The High Barns are Pinkuylluna.

After finishing up at the Ollantaytambo Ruins, we crossed the valley over to the Pinkuylluna ruins which are a lot less well taken care of, and don’t really seem to match the ruins across the valley.  There wasn’t really any nice stairs up.  There was a lot more going up rocks, and feeling like you needed to use your hands to steady you.  We first went up to the area that was labeled as the Graneros Parte Alto, or High Barn according to Google translate.  I’m not sure what would have been up in this barn, but it was probably at least 300 feet up the side of the mountain.  The High Barn had 3 tall, still-standing structures that we had been able to see from down below and it was so interesting to see them up close.  From the High Barn, we went across the face to some other structures that appeared to be buildings, and a Low Barn (note, this was still probably a solid 150 feet from the valley floor).  

Structures at Pinkuylluna above Ollantaytambo.  You can see the main plaza in Ollantaytambo in the background.

With the hiking up to the ruins around Ollantay completed, so too has our hiking until the Inca Trail Hike.  

Our last day in Ollantaytambo we spent just walking around town, walking outside of town (on flat land), and repacking for our hiking trip.  We didn’t want to do  anything too taxing since we’d be spending the next 4 days hiking.