I’m writing this post rather late, as usual. Over a month ago we decided that since we were so close to Peru (we were in Colombia at the time) it would be stupid not to visit Machu Picchu. After all, who knows when we will next be in South America, and why not make the most of it?
So, after a wonderful 6 weeks in Colombia we spent a 14 hour travel day bouncing from one airport to the next (Santa Marta to Bogota to Lima to Cusco) until we arrived in Cusco, Peru. The flights were uneventful, but it was quite a long day as you might imagine. We arrived in Cusco late in the evening, and somewhat out of breath (Cusco is 11,000 ft above sea level) and began our acclimation to our new altitude.
Cusco is a beautiful small city. The historic district is fairly touristy, and it’s easy to see why. The architecture is a mix of old Inca foundations, Spanish colonial, and the occasional more modern building. I found the blend to be quite charming, and loved simply walking around the city center and ducking down narrow roads. Everywhere we went seemed picture worthy.
Regarding the elevation. 11,000 ft is very high. If you are coming from sea level expect to be winded, and walk slowly. We found it helpful to drink coca tea, which the locals recommend for helping with altitude sickness. Also, like in most mountainous areas, the temperature difference between night and day is dramatic. Definitely more so than our home in Denver, which is known for dramatic swings in temperature between day and night, especially in the shoulder seasons. In Cusco, we commonly woke up to temperatures in the high 30s or low 40s, and during the peak of the day it got as warm as the low 70s. This appeared to be normal, and the locals were rarely out without coats on, or at least, close to hand.
The food in Cusco was simply the best I’ve had anywhere on our travels, although Mexican street food deserves an honorable mention. If I have any readers from France I apologize in advance, but I would choose Peruvian cuisine over French cuisine any day of the week. Some of my favorites were Alpaca steaks, potatoes in every form (Perú has 3000 types of potatoes, and they know how to cook them), Ceviche, Causa, and Pisco Sours. We took a cooking class while we were in Cusco, and everything we made/ate was fan-fucking-tastic! I really can’t overstate how good the food in Perú was. I’m missing it as I write this post.
When we made our plans to come to Perú the plan was, first and foremost, to visit Machu Picchu, and also we thought we’d like to visit Rainbow Mountain. After several days of acclimating we abandoned our plan to visit Rainbow Mountain for two reasons: first, Rainbow Mountain is at 16,000 or maybe 17,000 ft, and we were still adjusting to life at 11,000 ft, and second, we kept hearing from people who had been there how touristy it is. The view point where you see the wonderful pictures apparently gets 4000 visitors per day, and the photos mostly require cropping other visitors out of them. While I don’t mind sharing amazing places with other people that volume seemed excessive to me. There is another area you can visit that has views of similarly striated colorful mountains in the same region, and which receives less than 100 visitors per day, the catch is that you don’t get the head on view of the mountains that are seen in all the best influencer photos. We didn’t make it there either due to reason #1, and the fact that Farrah was still recovering from whatever bug we picked up in Santa Marta.
We did make it to Machu Picchu, of course, or else this post would be poorly titled, or a shitty joke. There are several ways to experience Machu Picchu, which include a 4 day trek along the Inca trail arriving at Machu Picchu for sunrise, if all works out. Another option is a shorter trek of only two days on the same Inca trail, but just not as far from your destination. You can also elect to hike from Aguas Calientes, the tourist town at the base of the mountain, which reportedly takes a couple hours, and lastly you can take a bus from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu. We opted for the latter option, and found a tour company that took us through a number of sights in the sacred valley, before we caught a Vistadome train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes and the following day we took the bus up to Machu Picchu for our tour of the ruins. Farrah and I both really like riding on trains, and the views from the Vistadome train, so named for its expansive glass windows that extend up onto the ceiling allowing you to take in the beautiful Andean mountains as you wind through them, were breathtaking!
We spent a brief evening and night in Aguas Calientes. It is the definition of a tourist town, which makes complete sense since it exists exclusively to service tourists coming to visit Machu Picchu. When you exit the train you find yourself in a maze of market stalls filled with all the same stuff. Every stall seems to vary its content solely in color selection. We spent close to an hour there looking for a hat for Farrah. She wanted to be sure she found one with the right fit and color. I wanted to walk around, but quickly got bored with the process, because there really wasn’t anything new to see after a while. The rest of the town is lined with hotels and restaurants of nearly every kind. Although, Peruvian cuisine was well represented, so were pizza, Italian, Chinese and hamburgers. For dinner we joined our guide, Luis, and another member of our tour group for a good, but not great, meal at a Peruvian restaurant that Luis recommended.
The following morning we got up early for the main event: our visit to Machu Picchu. Words can’t adequately describe the experience of seeing this remarkable historic site. Surrounded by towering Andean peaks, and literally built into the mountain plateau Machu Picchu is the most picturesque ruins I’ve had the pleasure of seeing on our trip. That said this site, for me, didn’t have the same kind of energy, nor did it provoke the overwhelming sense of awe that I experienced in Tikal or Calakmul. I suspect this has something to do with the relative importance of those sites to the people who lived there. Machu Picchu at its peak housed somewhere around 700 inhabitants and was not one of the most important Incan settlements. Whereas Tikal and Calakmul were capital cities of the Mayan world, and the raw power of the hundreds of thousands of souls who live and worshiped in those places were almost visceral to me. Machu Picchu, on the other hand, gave me the sense that it was likely a fairly sleepy outpost of the empire despite the beauty of the scenery. I could imagine Incan rulers taking a quiet weekend in Machu Picchu to get away from the busy capital of Cusco. This is pure speculation on my part, but that’s how it felt.
A couple of things stood out to me as particularly interesting about touring Machu Picchu. Firstly, because the site is not that big and there are close to 5000 visitors per day each tour group is “allotted” roughly 2.5 hours of time at the site. While this rule is not strictly enforced, there are rangers around who will politely ask people to move along if they are dawdling. Secondly, you are in the high Andes (albeit not as high as Cusco), so the mornings can be quite foggy, as was the case when we arrived. For a little while it looked like we wouldn’t get a chance to have our pictures taken from the most photographed area of the site, which overlooks the city, because there was so much fog you couldn’t see a damn thing. Luckily for us the fog cleared and we got our photos taken with Machu Picchu as a back drop. Lastly, was the relative size of the sight. As I mentioned before, Machu Picchu was not a big city. It really only held about 750 people at the largest estimate, and other scholars say more like 600. And it shows when you look over the city. It’s remarkable for many reasons, but sheer size is not one of them.
The entire visit was very cool, but my favorite bits were the fountains (still working today, apparently the Inca built to last), and the architecture, in general. There are numerous buildings that were partly built on the mountain, and partially extended out on to boulders protruding from the mountain, where the Inca then built retaining walls under the jutting boulders to ensure they didn’t roll out from under someone’s home. Pretty smart considering modern humans often fail to build with the same intelligence. I’m thinking of the homes built on cliffs that collapse due to erosion. I’m not saying it’s common, but it happens more than it should in our supposedly more technologically sophisticated ages.
After our tour of Machu Picchu we returned by bus to Aguas Calientes for lunch before we took the train back to Ollantaytambo. I was pretty tired after a short night sleep and two long days, and the train ride quickly lulled me to sleep. Farrah stayed awake and was treated to dancers, and some sort of Inca related fashion show as I slept. While I’m bummed to have missed the entertainment, I was delighted for the nap. So I guess we both won?
The drive from Ollantaytambo to Cusco was the definition of uneventful. Really. The fact that I’m devoting even a brief paragraph to it is laughable. We rode back to our hostel. That’s it.
We passed a couple more pleasant days in Cusco by wandering the town, and eating delicious meals daily. The only other thing I can recall of note was that I dragged Farrah to a cat cafe. Yup. It’s exactly what it sounds like. We drank cappuccinos, and hung out with 6 kittens/young cats who were all available for adoption. I wanted to take several of them home, but resisted the urge since I have no idea how to travel with the cat I have at home, much less with a collection of newly adopted cats.
I would love to return to Peru to spend some time in Lima, as the travellers we met who had been there suggested that the food was even more amazing. While I find that hard to believe I hope to find out someday. I’d also love to see the Amazonian and coastal regions in Perú. Long story short, if you’ve been thinking of visiting Machu Picchu, do it! And if you want to see other parts of Perú, also do it, but please invite me. I would love to go back there!