Day 72 - At Machu Picchu

Having been here before and suffering driving rain at 8:00am, I was far from enthusiastic to return to the site. However, I am glad I did, although Sheryle chose to stay at the hotel and work. I thought this was a good decision at the start, as the rain was un-relenting, with the result that there was a landslide on the road to Machu Picchu, and all the buses had to wait. We stood in the rain waiting too. 

Eventually the road was opened, although we were going to miss out "timed slot" at 9am. This is an effort by the Peruvian Government, along with the stipulation of walking one of four specific tracks around the site, to reduce the impact of visitors both in site and queues. It works quite well for the moment, while there are about 1500 people per day visiting. The prices are quite "international" with an access to one track being about US$60 plus the train fare of about US$140 and a hotel. 

We piled into a Mercedes van, one of about 30 and headed out of town and up the switch-backs to the entrance gate. The road is gravel with cobbled corners and well maintained but requires some back-and-fill for buses occasionally. At the gate you must show ID that matches your ticket (Passport or similar) and join the queue for the correct walk you are heading off upon, in our case number 1 and 2. It starts with a steep climb up some well made stone steps that have replaced the old dirt track, part of an effort to make the site very professional, which it is. At certain points there are lookouts which were moderately croweded with people trying to take the perfect photo. Our guide,  Reuben was very good and explained the history of the site well, and why the Spanish left it alone (there was no gold here). They presumed that about 600 people lived here, but it certainly looks like many more. There is a separate house for the Inca King and his entourage when they visited and it is known the King #9 was a frequent resident. It is believed that he was buried here, but a likely tomb cannot be opened on instructions of the Government. At least one stone could be removed and a flexible camera inserted but even this is not allowed. If it was found he is buried here, it would change the history and importance of the site considerably. 

We also visited the Sun Palace with windows that face the sun on the two solistices, plus the temple of the condor and other important locations. Overall I was surprised and impressed and very glad I had made a second visit, especially as the rain had stopped at 09:30am and the clouds were very atmospheric.

We returned by bus, had lunch and returned on the train to Ollyantaytambo to stay the night.  Our train was the "entertainment train" and there was music and clothing shows, which we tolerated!