Aquas Calientes and Machu Picchu March, 2005

While the three hikers of our group did the four-day trek to Machu Picchu Allie, her Mom, and we set out to meet them via Aguas Calientes also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo nestled in the deep valley of Machu Picchu. We took a 4-hour train ride thru the countryside and arrived at the hot springs in the afternoon. After a long hike along the R.R. tacks to a waterfall, which we never found, we hitched a ride with a locomotive back to town. Then that is when we enjoyed the hot springs. They were natural baths from the springs underneath. Didn’t look very inviting green to brown in color however once you got in them and very hot, you realized these colors came from the sandy bottom. We enjoyed them for a while even during a rainstorm, which was great. After our feet felt back to normal we got out and walked again to town for a local dinner.

The next morning we arose to catch a bus that ran on switchbacks all the way up the mountain to higher altitudes as well.

Machu Picchu is the best and least known about Inca Ruins. For all its glory Incas only lasted about a century. The actual purpose of Machu Picchu is still unknown The citadel was never mentioned in chronicles kept by colonizing Spaniards, which served as the written history of the Incas. The purpose and function is a matter of speculations even today. Besides a few Quechuanas, nobody knew of Machu Picchu’s existence until an American historian Hiram Bingham stumbled upon these thickly overgrown ruins in 1911.

According to the Lonely Planet guide to South America Machu Picchu, knowledge remains sketchy. Some believe the citadel was found in the last years of the Incas to preserve the culture while others believe it may have had already become “the lost and or forgotten city “at the time of the conquest. A recent study shows it was a palace at the time when the Spaniards invasion took grip. Whatever the case the quality of the stonework and the ornamentation shows that it must have been vitally important as a ceremonial place.

In order to enter you proceed from a ticket gate along a narrow road that you zigzagging up a staircase to a view that is such an awesome view you will never forget. We had a tour guide who took us thru the many sites To name a few which we hope to show pictures. The hut of the caretaker at Funerary Rock, Temple of the Sun, Royal Tomb, Ceremonial baths, and Sacred Plaza, Central Plaza, Residential and industrial areas, Prison group, in the centerpiece of this group is a complex carving of a condor. As you can see this was and with minimal ruins shows a city in itself.

Rich was proud to climb and complete one of the steep mountain within, Huayna Picchu (young Peak) hugging to the left you climb the steep hill to Temple of the Moon. Once you huff and puff, you have time to enjoy views that are even more fantastic. It was like a “runners high” of conquering this and being rewarded with the fantastic views. It was more rewarding because of age, time, and history, to Rich than the completion of New York marathon that he did in??? It was very steep and harder to come down than to go up, 13,800 ft.To realize that the Incas used this highest point to communicate with Gods, and keep a lookout for conquistadors, added more emotion to the climb.

In the meantime, we met up with our friends from the trail, enjoyed a lunch of celebrating everyone’s quests for the week and then took the train back to Cuzco to rest, do laundry and prepare for the trip to Lake Titicaca for which the travel agent had arranged for the next day.

Just finished 4 day trek