Machu Picchu exceeds expectations

When you see fantastic pictures of Machu Picchu taken by professional photographers, you’re a bit skeptical before your own visit. You try to dampen the high expectations because it can’t POSSIBLY be as good as in the pictures. But Machu Picchu actually exceeded my expectations!

Travel in the time of Corona

I can’t say I was actually disappointed after seeing the Taj Mahal in India, but the expectations are somewhat ruined by pictures of deserted areas taken in perfect light by professional photographers. A visit there with thousands of others in line doesn’t give quite the same feeling.

With that in mind, our timing was perfect. Lars had to go to Peru for work while there were still significant coronavirus restrictions and fewer tourists. We could therefore enjoy fewer people than usual. In a normal year, there can be up to 5,000 people in a day. Due to the pandemic, they were talking about around 1,000 people a day. That’s still a lot of people, but it didn’t feel crowded at all.

We could take our time, stop, and enjoy the view, and with the help of good angles, take pictures almost without people. An unforgettable experience.

Use a Travel Agency

Initially, we were only going to Lima, but it didn’t take long before the trip was extended by a few more days and we started planning a bit

I was very clear that I wanted help to get everything in place.

i contacted a travel agency and ask them to plan our trip up to Machu Picchu. I sent an email with a wish list and received an offer in return. The trip would include both Machu Picchu and a guided tour in Cusco.

We also got a proposal to use an extra day to see more of Sacred Valley to experience even more of the culture and landscape. Since this was a “once in a lifetime” experience, we thought an extra day was worth it once we had come so far. And we didn’t regret it.

You an still plan

I must emphasize the benefit of using a travel agency for planning and booking such trips. It became very clear that the extra cost and time we saved was worth it when we had to postpone the trip by a week because we got covid. One email and the entire trip was moved a week without us having to spend time contacting two hotels, two guides, canceling and rebooking train tickets, taxis, entrance tickets, etc. Priceless! It might not be this easy outside of covid, but having one point of contact is really a time saver and a good insurance should anything happen.

That doesn’t mean we didn’t have a say in what we wanted to experience. I had clear expectations that we had to take the train with the panoramic windows from Olliantaytambo to Macchu Pichu Pueblo (or Aguas Calientes as the town is actually called) and I had found a nice hotel in Cusco where I wanted to stay.

But it’s smart to trust people with local knowledge. A tavel agency takes advantage of this when they, for example, use Condor Travel to plan our trip. They know when we have to leave the hotel to catch a train to catch the bus to make our entrance time.

Several Stages

We were driven directly to the hotel Casa Andina Premium Valle Sagrado Hotel & Villas deep in Sacred Valley straight from the airport in Cusco and went on a full-day tour the next day. Day two was the highlight. The day started with some gray weather and we packed rain gear and warmer clothes just in case. We managed an early breakfast before being picked up by the driver who would take us to the train. There we were followed down to the train and escorted to our seats by the train staff. All tickets already received.

We enjoyed the train ride and looked up at high, snow-capped mountains deep in Sacred Valley with Inca ruins in several places along the Urubamba River, which the train line follows all the way. The train goes down into the rainforest and after a while, we notice that the vegetation outside is changing.

Upon arrival in Aguas Calientes, there were surprisingly many people. We were followed down to the bus queue and were told that our guide was waiting for us when we got up. The bus drives hairpin bends like Trollstigen in Norway, but without the guard railings. Not for the faint hearted. It’s quite a long way down!

Inca trail

I always thought you had to walk for days to get to Machu Picchu, and that’s why it never really was at the top of my list. Fortunately for me (and other lazy people), there’s a bus. However, it is possible to hike up from Aguas Calientes, which takes a couple of hours. You can also choose to walk the entire hike from Ollantaytambo for between two and four days by following the Incas’ old, mostly stone-paved trails and roads.

Upon exciting the bus at the top, we found our guide and went in through the gates at exactly 11 am, which was our slot. We were dressed in t-shirts but had warmer clothes and rain gear with us, as it was the end of the rainy season and bad weather was forecast, but we were super lucky and had lovely warm summer weather the whole time.

Unreal

It is impressive from the first glance. Ancient stone built by the Incas over 500 years ago. We walked on the “last part” of the over 30,000 km of Inca trails that lead to Machu Picchu from many parts of Peru. The road itself is impressive, but when you also see the topography they worked through with high mountains and deep valleys, you can’t help but be impressed.

Machu Picchu is obviously on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. It is located about 2,400 meters above sea level. Cusco, the city we flew to, is well over 3,000 meters above sea level, so in that sense, the forgotten Inca city is not that high. By the way, we are a bit inaccurate when we refer to the people as Incas. Inca is the term for the king of the Cetchuas people.

It is believed that the city was founded by Sapa Inca Pachacutec around 1440, perhaps as early as around 1420, and that it was inhabited until the Spanish conquest of Peru in 1532.

The history

The complex consists of around 200 buildings with various functions. The area is divided into a city section and an agricultural section with artificially constructed terraces that cling to extremely steep mountainsides. It is almost unbelievable to think about how this was built. Lives must have been lost when someone lost their footing and fell down towards the river many hundreds of meters further down in the valley.

The city includes a large palace and temples dedicated to several Inca gods around a courtyard, with other buildings for servants. It is estimated that only about 750 people lived in the city at its peak, but apparently, only a small fraction of them lived there during the rainy season. The city is larger than it first appears, as it is built into all the mountainsides.

The place was probably chosen because of its unique location. The city lies on a mountain ridge with the river far down there.

The highest peak, Huchuy Picchu, can also be visited and requires a couple of hours of extra hiking. The name Machu Picchu referrs to a mountain that towers over the ruins.

Overwhelming

We had our own guide who told us and pointed out and gave us a lot of information. She showed us irrigation systems, stone formations that were supposed to represent the condor with beak and wings, and various temples dedicated to the sun.

We were lucky to be there during the pandemic because we then had much better time to stop and take pictures. There were signs in several places saying that you were not allowed to stop and to keep moving. We had the place to ourselves (more or less) and could stop and take all the pictures we wanted. It would have been quite different and walked there in line with thousands of others.

It is almost too much to take in. The complex is so much larger than it appears in pictures. And it is full of different temples and places that have had great significance in the Incas’ lives. It is hard to convey in a blog post.

I am incredibly happy to have experienced Machu Picchu, and perhaps especially without 5,000 others. It is truly a “bucket list experience,” something you do once in a lifetime.

There is more to see once you move around in this corner of the world. We spent a day in Sacred Valley before taking the trip to Machu Picchu and saw a lot of fascinating things there as well. A nice “warm-up” to the main event.