© Allan and Amanda 2008
We woke early and I had a hearty breakfast of fruit juice, fresh fruit, yogurt, scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes with maple syrup and several cups of coffee… I reckoned I would need the energy reserves later in the day…
Jessica, who was our guide for the trip, arrived and we made our way out of town to the suburb of Poroyo. The 20 minute drive apparently saves about 40 minutes on the journey time had we gone to Cusco central station. We arrived at a very clean, fresh and modern tourist station and boarded a very clean, fresh modern tourist train on which the locals are not allowed to travel!
Our train was the ‘Vistadome’, which meant it had glass observation panels all along the curve of the roof. The train was full and it was quite cramped. We were served breakfast (another one) and whiled away the time looking at the countryside passing by and chatting to an ‘Aussie’ lady sitting at our table. Everyone else on the train would be going the whole length of the line to Aguas Calientes, a small town in the valley below Machu Picchu. We, on the other hand, would be getting off early and spending the rest of the day trekking the final 12km until we reached our destination.
Soon our stop arrived, the train ground to a halt, and we jumped down on to the tracks and made our way to the check in point for the start of our walk. The number of people walking the Inca Trail is strictly controlled and we had to show our passports and permits before we were allowed to continue. We got our kit together at the base station and began our trek.
It was a very emotional moment and I don’t mind admitting that there tears in my eyes… it was quite overwhelming…
We stayed at the Sun Gate for a while trying to take it all in and trying to make sense of how we felt. It is very difficult to explain but it is a very spiritual place to be.
We wandered down the stone track getting ever closer to that great wonder of the world. The views were just breathtaking! I must have taken 20 or 30 pictures just on that final walk down the track; it was difficult to take your eyes off that incredible sight. We stood at the perimeter of the site totally in awe of what lay before us. It had been a very rich reward for all the efforts of the walk to get there.
We spent the night in the luxurious Sanctuary Lodge; the only hotel at Machu Picchu itself and allegedly costing around $800 per night! We didn’t know before hand but our hotel package was all-inclusive and I mean all inclusive. A la carte dinner, breakfast, lunch the next day and all drinks and extras (including the mini bar) was all paid for! The room, although small, was very well appointed. Bathrobes, slippers, scented candles, cable TV… the lot. But $800 worth? Probably not - but of course it was the location and views that were priceless.
Our evening meal in the restaurant was of international standard accompanied by some rather nice Chilean wine. There was a log fire burning and the wonderful atmosphere was further enhanced by a four piece Andean group playing great traditional music using guitars and pan pipes… quite a magical evening.
The next morning, and after a good breakfast, we met up with Jessica for our tour around Machu Picchu. The queues for the site had begun to form about 6am, mostly with people wanting to climb Wayna Picchu, the mountain that forms the famous back drop to all the familiar pictures of Machu Picchu that we had seen. Apparently only 400 permits to climb the mountain are issued each day and hence the queues.
We spent several fascinating hours walking around the site and were given all the details, history and significance of this wonderful Inca ruin by a very well informed Jessica.
We took literally hundreds of photographs; the place is spell binding and even with an ever increasing number of tourists descending on the site the atmosphere was at times peaceful, serene and quite spiritual.
We saw hummingbirds, chinchillas, lizards and the resident herd of llamas.
The only down side of the day was that a film was being shot on location by a professional film crew complete with blaring music and dancing girls. Very pretty girls but not really in keeping with the sanctity of this historic site… but I guess that’s show biz!
After lunch - in the peace, tranquillity and sophistication that is the Sanctuary Lodge - we took the bus down the windy, dusty road to Aguas Callientes to catch our train back to Cusco.
I then got talking to a guy from Newcastle, Australia and between us sorted out religion, politics and world affairs… He suggested we should visit Australia and gave us a provisional itinerary. When I told him we particularly liked wildlife he thought for a while and revised the plan… we should go to Sydney Zoo he said… “they have wildlife there”… (yeah right!)
At that point the peace was shattered by a railway staff member, dressed in national costume leaping up and down the carriage in a demented manner! Apparently he was advertising some show in town but it was never the less quite weird. That, however, was just the prelude to more fun and games as we were then treated to a ‘fashion’ show! Yes, a fashion show featuring male and female railway staff parading up and down the aisles in a range of clothes to a chorus of cheers and whistles from the passengers! How bizarre? Seemed totally incongruous, but it kept us amused and killed some more time.
Soon we arrived at our stop at Poroy where we were met by our personal driver who took us directly back to the Novotel Hotel in down town Cusco to check in for the night. Having eaten so much over the past few days we decided to skip dinner and besides, being back in Cusco meant re-acclimatising to the altitude and we were both feeling a little light-headed.
