Marching on to Machu Picchu

Marching on to Machu Picchu

That first night in Cusco was pretty bad. Extracting oxygen from the thin air at that altitude, was quite an exercise. Despite staying at the Monasterio Hotel, a very comfortable 5-star property operated by Orient Express, trying to sleep at 2+ miles above sea level was hard work. In fact, I woke up in the middle of the night and opened the window to the noisy street below because I thought my dear wife and I had used up all the oxygen in the room.

Following that iffy sleep at 11,000 feet above sea level, we were up bright and early on Tuesday, May the 7^th, 2013, to start a three-stage journey up to Machu Picchu. This journey would involve a 1.5-hour mini-bus trip from Cusco to the train station in Urubamba, a 3-hour train ride to the base of Machu Picchu itself, and finally, a harrowing 25-minute bus ride up the sheer wall of the mountain to the gates of the ancient site.  That’s right, we had to endure a 5-hour journey just to get to the ruins and of course that journey was repeated in reverse later on, so that we could return to our hotel rooms in Cusco. Would we have enough time to see all the sights? Was this all going to be worth it?  The answer to both these questions turned out to be a definite and resounding yes! Machu Picchu was so worth the effort.  And even though we had only a single afternoon up on the mountain, our guide said we saw 85% of the important sites.

Now the journey wasn’t as bad as it sounds. After a good breakfast at the Monasterio, we met up with Eyner and boarded our mini-bus for the first leg of the journey. It was a mostly clear morning and the visibility was good. Our driver then took us up and out of Cusco and through a very lush farming area on the highway to Urubamba. Every so often we passed farmers stooped over in their fields wearing the same garb you would expect them to be wearing. The wide-brimmed Andean hats and colorful wool tops offer maximum protection from the equatorial sun.

Driving from Cusco to Urubamba we had nice views
of the farmland on the high plateau between the two towns

At two points on the highway we were higher than
 12,500 feet above sea level

small plots of land with numerous different crops

The train ride wasn’t hard to take either as we were going to go in style aboard the Hiram Bingham Train.  There are other trains that travel the narrow-gauge rail line down the Sacred Valley of the Inca but the Hiram Bingham is the only five-star way of getting from Urubamba to Machu Picchu. You cannot drive to Machu Picchu. You must take the train or you can hike the Inca Trail. That hike is a four-day hike that you do with porters who carry everything you need on their backs. They run ahead and set up camp for you each day before you get there. Mrs. Gym and I want to hike the Inca Trail the next time we go to Machu Picchu. Of course, this time around we didn’t have the four days it took to walk there, so we took the train. And if your going to take the train, why not the Hiram Bingham?

Hiram Bingham was the English gentleman that stumbled across an entirely neglected and overgrown Machu Picchu in 1911, when he was out for a hike. There is a plaque that honors him at the gates into Machu Picchu and of course, the 5-star train we traveled on which is operated by Orient Express, was named after him. We were pampered by very well trained attendants and served a 4-course lunch in our dining car seats on the way up to the mountain.

As we boarded a little music was provided 

We were seated in the dining car

the band played in the observation car at the back

narrow gauge rail

we just crossed the river

the sacred valley

the Urubamba river which eventually flows into the Amazon

The third leg of the journey was not as refined or relaxing as the second leg had been. We left the train at the terminus and crossed a bridge over the sacred Urubamba River to jump into buses. The buses then lurched into motion and began to crawl up a near vertical slope along a series of tight switchbacks that led to the gates of Machu Picchu. At any point along the road, you could look straight down through the window to the river that became a thin blue ribbon as we climbed up the mountain. That was easier than watching the buses pass each other with inches to spare after they roared around the blind, hairpin corners. Amazingly, there were no scratches on any of those buses.

Aguas Calientes, Peru, where the train stops below Machu Picchu

switchback roads for buses from Aguas Caliente

a bus entering a typical tight and blind curve

Having arrived safely after the five-hour trip from Cusco, we then stood at the gates to the famous Unesco World Heritage site of Machu Picchu. But at the gates you can’t see the runs. You have to walk about 50 yards around the corner of the mountain and all of a sudden this indescribable panorama opens up to you. You have seen it before in documentaries or in coffee table books but those images are no match to the real thing. It leaves you speechless.

Plaque to Hiram Bingham at the gates to Machu Picchu

Gym and Mrs. Gym with the ruins in the background

they farmed the terraces

looking up from near the royal chambers

looking down from the ruins

the sun cooperated here

water still flows from the springs the Incas tapped

more farmland

entrance to the royal chamber

looking down from the sundial

cutting the grass

the sundial at the top

temple of the condor

the condor's wings are bedrock

As I said before after we got down to business we climbed pretty well every major staircase in the ruins and as Eyner said we saw 85% of the most important sites and Eyner was an excellent guide. Eyner’s passion for the ruins shone through as he described each site along the way. Near the end of the tour someone asked him how many times he had been to Machu Picchu and he didn’t know but he pulled a photograph of him on his first visit. In the photo, a very happy little 8-year old boy is holding his father’s hand in the ruins not far from where we had just been standing.

Eyner our guide

We left the mountain at about 4:30 pm and by the time we were settled in the train, it was dark. After we got rolling, the train attendants served us a 5-course dinner. We finally got back to the Monasterio Hotel at about 11 pm and we went right to bed. It was a long day and we were exhausted. We also must have climbed up and down 1000 stairs. We slept better the second night. We were just beginning to feel like we were acclimatizing to the altitude and our 2-day trip up into the Andes would be over the next morning.