Mystery still surrounds ancient city high in the Andes
We had been climbing steadily for almost six hours when we finally reached the Intipunku – the "Sun Gate" where the climb ends and Machu Picchu – Lost City of the Incas – is suddenly spread out below us. The awe-inspiring view transcends reality – a dream world suspended in time and space. The ancient city, draped across the top of a mountain, seems incongruous, almost bizarre, and yet Machu Picchu fits into its mountain surroundings with the same precision and grace as the thousands of carefully crafted stones from which it is built.
We began our journey to Machu Picchu in Cusco, where we boarded the early morning local train along with a motley crowd of Quechua-speaking natives, back-packers of various European origin, and a gaggle of shiny-booted American tourists.
The railway grade out of Cusco, too steep for conventional turns, is a minor engineering marvel. With exhausts belching three foot flames, the two diesel locomotives shunted the train forward and back, climbing the steep slope in a series of switchbacks. Once over the divide we dropped into the incredibly narrow Sacred Valley of Rio Urubamba and lurched along a rough roadbed carved into its banks. At kilometre 88 the backpackers piled off to begin their four-day camping trek along the old Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. At kilometre 104 the train stopped to let our small group off. Everyone else stayed on board – destined to reach Machu Picchu without ever taking a step.
The route from kilometre 104 is a compromise – a chance to hike a portion of the old Inca Trail without the burden of camping gear. Billed as a two-day hike in most guidebooks, the trip can easily be done in a day by anyone who is reasonably fit. We crossed the Rio Urubamba on a footbridge near the tracks and began our climb at about 11 o'clock. Three hours and 2,000 vertical feet later we arrived at the spectacular Inca ruins of Huinay Huayna and settled down on one of the old terraces for a late lunch – still another three hour hike to Machu Picchu.
The view from our perch is spectacular. Surrounded by steep, forest-covered slopes we watch a train returning from Aguas Calientes – a tiny centipede creeping along the Urubamba valley far below.
Huinay Huayna was one of the last major Inca sites to be discovered. Its well preserved ruins include dozens of steep terraces that cling to the mountainside and taper out into precipitous ledges overhanging the valley. A small stream, once used for irrigation, cascades over the remains of a dam above the ruins and trickles through the remains of 10 ritual bath-houses. Huinay Huayna must have been an important centre of agricultural production, but why it was built in such an unlikely place is known only to the spirits of its long departed builders.
A short distance beyond Huinay Huayna we joined the original Inca Trail, paid a small entry fee to a guard at the check-point, and set out on the final leg of our hike. Contouring through cliff-hanging cloudforest, the grade is not so steep as before, but parts of the trail are extremely narrow. Steps, notched into the rock by an Inca road builder hundreds of years ago, still provide secure footing across some of the more exposed sections.
From Huinay Huayna it’s an easy two-hour hike to the Sun Gate. From there it took us another hour to descend the long pathway and stone steps leading to the Guardian's Hut and the ancient doorway to Machu Picchu. We entered the ruins and promptly got lost in the catacombs surrounding the Temple of the Sun. For anyone other than a dedicated student of archeology the ruins of Machu Picchu are almost too large and complex to comprehend. A maze of residential dwellings, temples, palaces and ceremonial baths surround the terraced Central Plaza, now occupied by a small group of resting llamas. It was dusk by the time we found the main entrance and caught the last bus down to Aguas Calientes.
Only 8 km from the ruins, Aguas Calientes is the closest town to Machu Picchu. It is also the end of the line for rail travellers and a hive of tourist activity. Even the rail right-of-way is lined with vendors whose brightly coloured offerings barely leave room for the train to pass. The tiny town is packed with hotels and a plethora of bars and restaurants with patios that spill out onto the narrow streets. We checked into Gringo Bill’s, a funky old hotel with multiple balconies, intricate stonework, and stylized Andean murals. A long-time favourite of back-packers and budget travellers like ourselves, it is surrounded by greenery and far enough from the action to be reasonably quiet. The warm, mineral springs from which Aguas Calientes derives its name are only a short walk from Gringo Bill’s but the two small pools were so crowded we passed on the "banos termales" and settled for a shower back at the hotel.
Getting up at five is about the only way to beat the Aguas Calientes crowd to Machu Picchu. By six we were on the first bus up to the ruins, this time with local guide Luce-Marie, an articulate and knowledgeable archeology graduate who tried valiantly to make sense of our bizarre surroundings. She explained that Machu Picchu was organized into 42 family groupings totalling more than 1,200 people. We traipsed through the maze-like ruins of the Industrial and Residential Sectors, descended into the labyrinth cells and passageways of the Prison Group, and climbed the stairs leading through the 16 Ceremonial Baths. In a small natural cave Luce-Marie pointed out the stone alter where the mummies that inspired its name, The Royal Tomb, were discovered. And high on a ledge overlooking the city we visited the carved Funerary Rock, where the noble remains are said to have been prepared for the afterlife.
The tour was interesting but the interpretations highly speculative. The Incas had no written language and there is no mention of Machu Picchu in the extensive chronicles of the Spanish Conquistadors. Until the American Historian Hiram Bingham stumbled on it in 1911 its jungle-covered ruins were known to only a few local Quechua farmers and, despite intensive study, Machu Picchu is still among the least understood of the Inca ruins.
The fine stonework of its temples and alters, the intricate network of stairways and broad courtyards suggest that Machu Picchu was an important religious and ceremonial centre. Its 200 dwellings and extensive agricultural terraces could easily have housed and fed more than a thousand people, but why they were here and why they vanished remains a mystery.
Of more than a hundred skeletal remains recovered by archaeologists about 80 per cent are female, leading to speculation that Machu Picchu was a refuge for the Virgins of the Sun – a sort of Andean Las Vegas catering to Inca royalty. But why was it never discovered by the Spanish? When the conquistadors arrived in Peru they were greeted as liberators by the losers of the Inca civil war. The fact that they heard nothing of the Lost City suggests that it was abandoned and forgotten years earlier. Was it a victim of plague? Were its inhabitants annihilated in a confrontation with the Cusco authority? Or was it abandoned because of some long forgotten religious taboo? No one really knows – nor does it matter. The mystery of Machu Picchu is one of its greatest appeals. It’s a place you can explore and let your own imagination fill in the missing details.
On the dusty road leading back to the valley, 400 metres below, our bus passed a small boy wearing a distinctive Inca tunic. He waved and called out "goood byyy", and as we wound our way down endless switchbacks the boy, running flat out straight down the mountain, bade us "goood byyy" at every turn right to the valley. The driver explained that the honour of "running the mountain" was granted to one local child each day and the money they collected was used to help "poor families". Before crossing the bridge over the Urubamba the bus paused to let the boy leap on, collect his pesos, and bid us a final goodbye. A native kid only 10- or 12-years-old, he had just run down more than a mile of rough mountain trail and he wasn't even puffing – a living example of the strength and stamina of his Inca ancestors who built Machu Picchu.
