September 28, 2025

September 28, 2025

Today was going to prove to be a long day.  After a quick breakfast we headed out to an archeological park called Ollantaytambo.  After exploring there our final destination was going to be Machu Picchu, the Incan ruins.  Maybe I’m giving it away, but this photo was taken at Machu Picchu.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We were transported by bus to Ollantaytambo.  We walked through a small village to the archeological park.  The bottom of the park was at an elevation of just over 9,000 feet, so the air was starting to thin a little.  We looked up at the several hundreds of steps to the top and decided that we didn’t come all this way to simply look up, so up we went.  The first third of the way was pretty tough.  Luckily our tour guide stopped to give us some information on what we were seeing.  There were many terraces.  Some used for farming, some used for ceremony, and some used for other things.  Since nobody that lived there was still around when this structure was built some thoughts of the purpose remain unknown.

We continued our way toward the top.  Another third of the way and we stopped again for more information.  It was pointed out that across the valley was a storehouse where they kept food.  Mostly dried, the food kept for sometimes up to years.  The method used was similar to today’s freeze drying of food.

At the top was to have been a temple.  It was apparently never completed.  The quarry for the granite stones was around five miles away, across a steep valley.  The stones were shaped once they arrived on site.  It is believed that the largest of the stones had smaller stones between them and beneath them to provide some shock absorption as this region is prone to earthquakes.  Should an earthquake happen the larger stones would not be damaged as the smaller stones would allow them to move slightly.

We made our way back down what seemed to be thousands of steps, loaded back onto our buses, and headed toward our next destination.  After a fairly short bus ride we arrived at a train station where we took a train to Machu Picchu village, which is at the base of the mountain where Machu Picchu is located.  The train trip took about 90 minutes.  We had a choice.  We could either hike to Machu Picchu, which would be a very steep, very uneven over five mile trail, or we could ride the bus to the top.  We chose the bus.  The bus took 20 minutes and had a lot of switchbacks due to the steepness of the mountain.

Machu Picchu was started in 1450 AD.  It was inhabited until 1540 AD, so roughly 90 years.  It was then abandoned until 1911, where it was found ‘hidden’ in the jungle.  It has since been cleaned up and restored as necessary to show how it has looked these nearly 500 years.

There was one small building at the top.  It was a temple of sorts.  The most important people of the time spent their time there.  This would have been the emperor or the priests.  The more important you were to the community the higher on the mountain you got to live.

We did meet some interesting guests along the way.  There were quite a few llamas that have made Machu Picchu their home.  I suppose they are the ones that keep the grass clipped short.

Before we left it looked like it was going to rain.  Across the valley it rained.  The sun was out just enough to show us a partial rainbow.

The steps all around Machu Picchu were steep, uneven, and rough.  We were pretty worn out by the time our tour was over.  We made our way back down to the buses, rode a bus down the mountain, took the train back to our starting point, and then took another bus back to the hotel.  Our next stop will be a shower and a bed.

Tomorrow will be another adventure.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Machu Picchu - Galapagos - September 26

Image
Gigi and Bearpaw have headed out on yet another new adventure.  This trip will take us to South America where we will visit Machu Picchu and Galapagos. Tuesday, September 25th - We left home on this day.  Wilma and Leonard were kind enough to give us a ride to the airport (thanks W & L).  Once we checked in and gave up our luggage we passed through Checkpoint Charlie with no issues.  It took just over an hour and a half to get to Atlanta.  After a couple of hours worth of layover in Atlanta we learned that the flight was going to leave “aproximately 27 minutes late”.  The 27 minutes turned into about 45 minutes.  Once airborne our pilot informed us that we were going to take a different route in order to miss some storms and therefore miss some unwanted turbulance.  Instead of arriving in Lima, Peru at 10:30 we arrived at about 11:30.  We arrived at our hotel after a quick 40 minute ride in the back of a mini van.  After a quick show...
Read more

Macho Picchu - Galapagos - September 27, 2025

Image
September 26, 2025 Gigi and Bearpaw left Lima this morning heading to Cusco.  The lines at the airport were insane and slow.  Luckily one of the National Geographic staff members had friends at the airport that could take care of us.  Once we got to the correct location it only took about ten minutes for the both of us to get our bag checked and boarding passes.  Unfortunately we were in boarding group four.  But alas, since we were over the age of 60 we got to board with group one.  Probably because it takes us old people longer to get on board and settled.  The down side was that probably over a third of the people on the flight were older, so it still took a few minutes. to get boarded, and even longer for everyone else to board as well.  And, of course our carry-on bags had to be gate checked as well.  We eventually caught up with our luggage at the Cusco airport, so no calamity. Once out of the airport terminal we loaded onto three small...
Read more

Switzerland to Paris - September 27

Image
We spent today in Zermatt, Switzerland, which is located in the Swiss Alps, at the base of the Matterhorn.  Unfortunately, since the Matterhorn is typically shrouded in clouds we only got to see the bottom half to two thirds of the mountain. Even still, the view was spectacular.  We also got to see a number of glaciers that were in the valleys between the mountain peaks. Once back in town we found the local McDonald’s and had a few desert items known as ‘McPops’.  They were similar to a donut hole, except just a little larger and with apple, raspberry, or Nutella filling.  We opted for two apple and one raspberry. Since we still hadn't had our fill of snacks for lunch we found a bakery and had a couple of pretzels, one salty and one with cheese.  Both were very good. We took a walk around the older part of town and found some original structures from the 1300’s.  They were made of wood but had an interesting building technique.  The foundation was sepa...
Read more