Machu Picchu Picture Special

So we slogged our way over the high plains to Cusco, an ancient Inca city. It´s also considered to be the gateway to Machu Picchu another anicent Inca city which has become Peru´s most famous tourist attraction. Lots of people do the Inca Trail, a four-day trek over the mountains, but we decided to get the train (we did walk up the mountain - see pic below of zigzag road). I never knew you could catch a train. I imagined Machu Picchu to be completely isolated and that´s why everyone walked there. Although it´s perched on a ridge between two steep mountains, in a steep valley full of big mountains, a train snakes along by the river and buses run between a small town and the site. There´s even a luxury hotel up there. It may not be as isolated as I expected but it´s still very special. The site is stunning as you can see from the pictures and lived up to the hype.

It didn´t even feel like there were too many people there and we roamed around looking at the houses and temples and climbed Wayna Picchu, that impossibly steep peak that looms behind us in the pictures. Even this mountain is covered in terracing, they terraced everything. It took us two hours return, up very steep narrow steps(see pic below) and we had to crawl through a small tunnel at the top. From Wayna Picchu you can look down on the city and see that it was built in the shape of a condor. The current thinking is that it was a summer retreat for one of the Inca kings. Although it feels very high up, it´s 1,000m lower than Cusco and has a better climate. It also had religious significance and there are many temples here as well as a very rare stone sun dial. It´s not really a sun dial, it´s more of an astronomical tool, but that´s what the guides call it. The Incas used the stars for their agricultural planning and they used this tool, which is in the shape of the southern cross, to read the stars. It´s rare because the Spanish found many like this and, appreciating their significance, smashed them up.


Fortunately the Spanish never found out about Machu Picchu. But while they didn't get the chance to take it for what they could, a British company is making the most of its opportunity today.
Orient Express Hotels, based in London, listed on the New York Stock Exchange and registered to a tax haven in Bermuda, runs the rail monopoly between Cusco and Machu Picchu. It´s a four-hour journey and a return fare for the most luxurious seat costs about $140. We caught it from the closest station an hour-and-a-half from the site and paid $62 each. This was the "backpacker/economico" ticket. And this is in a valley where you can get a three course lunch for about 50p. Although the pricing is cynical I can understand the Peruvians making the most of this asset. I just don´t understand why the government has signed away the 30-year rights to a foreign company. I think it´s a joint venture so some money will end up in Peru´s coffers (or its politicans´ pockets). But it seems crazy in a poor country for any of this revenue to benefit the shareholders of a foreign company and its tax-avoiding directors.

Back in Cusco we roamed around the ancient streets and looked at the fine churches and buildings the Spanish built on top of fine Inca temples and buildings. It was Holy Week so we saw a large procession of people following a gory but well-dressed statue of Christ. We also looked at the hotel where John Peel had his fatal heart attack (is that weird? It´s the white building, bottom right).