Machu Picchu

30 May 2013

The rude start to the day with alarms at 4.45am, breakfast at 5.30am, and bus to the ruins at 6am was worth it for the sunrise over the centuries-old ruins atop a mountain in the middle of a Peruvian jungle.

Understandably, we were extremely, bone-achingly, mind-numbingly, stomach-churningly knackered after the hike. (I had to try very hard not to vomit on the bus ride up the mountain. Although that may have had more to do with the fact it was a very windy, one-way road, without railings, upon which two big luxury buses had to pass each other as one went up and the other down.) Our exhaustion made fully enjoying the experience – taking in the stunning views and all of the guide’s information – a little difficult. But we did our best!

We started with the traditional photos of us on the rock jutting out over the side of the mountain, with the ruins in the background. Then we watched the sun rise over the mountains, with shards of light shining down onto the remains of temples, homes and businesses below.

The members of our tour group who had trekked the real Incan trail, which ended right then at that point on the mountainside, joined us. They didn’t look too bad considering their efforts, although apparently two of the English girls had been very sick along the way. Their route was longer than ours, although it didn’t climb as high (and our guides assured us ours was harder!).

A local guide took us around to the various points of Machu Picchu interest for two hours, regaling us with tales about the area’s history, right back to the Ice Age, plus how the Incas came to live here, and how they lived here.

The Incas originally moved inland to escape natural disasters and the threat (and reality) of invasion. However, they didn’t have the adventurous, explorer instinct that the Europeans did. They had all they needed to survive here in the highlands, and were happy to live here quietly. They had no currency, but used minerals (gold, silver, quartz, copper) for exchanges as needed. Their justice was swift and deadly – people who did bad things were killed, and the whole community had to bear witness so people learned to be upstanding citizens.

Apparently they lived in quite an egalitarian society, where everything was merit based. Regardless of your age, gender, social status or family, if you were smart enough and could do the job you aspired to, you could be and do anything you wanted to. And each role was seen as equally important – from farmer and labourer to astronomer, leader and priest. Although the rich or powerful people, the ‘thinkers’, lived at the top of the mountain, and the ‘workers’ lived at the bottom. But that may have been more for practicality's sake, as they lived near where they worked. 

The Incan people were very intelligent and resourceful. They knew the Earth was round, and created a calendar based on the sun that will be accurate for the next 1500 years. They knew about equinoxes and solstices, and understood about the angle of the Earth’s axis. They also followed the stars and constellations, replicating them in their temples and other structures. 

Machu Picchu itself was built from granite on top of a very, very big mountain. The Incas levelled the mountain top first, gathering stone from that mountain and surrounding areas for buildings, and then terraced its sides. There were no gardens as such, other than for fruit and vegetables, because the people were surrounded by nature, by the jungle. Unlike us now, where we have to build gardens and parks to feel close to nature.

The Incas designed and built buildings that have survived countless earthquakes, and their irrigation and drainage systems still work today. Like buildings we’ve seen in other parts of Peru, Machu Picchu architecture features special gaps and windows in walls, certain sized rocks used in certain places, special materials (different sand and gravel) compacted to provide stable ground for buildings, and foundations that go particular depths into the ground – all to provide stability and absorb tremors to successfully stop buildings collapsing during earthquakes. Buildings were also created with natural ventilation to preserve food and create a hospitable environment for those living inside, and on certain angles to protect them against bad weather. Eight to 10 people lived in each house, and there were about 100 houses at Machu Picchu. Priests and astronomers lived alone.

They were truly ahead of their (and our) time with their knowledge. Researchers have come from around the world to study their designs and structures, and to try to replicate them.

The Incas were relatively peaceful people, so the Spanish had no problem invading and imposing their beliefs on them. One of the Spanish beliefs was that women were second-class citizens. The Spanish tortured and burned alive any educated Incan woman – leaders, astronomers, architects, engineers, healers and priests, all gone. And along with them, all of their knowledge – and Incan society’s equality. Thankfully, the Incas were able to protect Machu Picchu, hiding it from the Spanish by leading them on random hikes on trails through the mountains and often ‘losing’ them along the way. But other townships were not so lucky.

The direct, full-blooded descendants of the original Incas live very remotely, one month’s hike further up in the mountains in relative isolation. Anthropologists find it really difficult to find them, so have relied mostly upon Spanish chronicles (which aren’t all that reliable and are pretty biased) to trace and retell the Inca’s history. That and they guess it from what they’ve found among the ruins.

Archaeologists are also still discovering new parts of Machu Picchu and new information about the Incas. In 2012 they found another Inca trail leading to a sun gate they found 20 years ago.

Chris and I spent a couple of hours battling among the hordes of other tourists walking around the ruins, up and down and around the mountainside. The views, like elsewhere, were stunning, with beautiful sheer, rugged mountains circling and forming the valleys, huge lumps of rocks and land covered with jungle, and deep crevices in the mountains through which rivers flowed. Clouds smothered the mountain tops, drifting down into the valley, with tufts of jungle poking out. A cloud forest. A city in the clouds. Without all of the tourists, it would have been quite a spiritual and peaceful place. You did feel like you were closer to God, or to nature at least.

At midday, we hopped back on the bus to town and met our group in a restaurant for lunch, where we all ate and drank and rested well for a couple of hours. We got the train back to Ollayantambo (I slept the whole way), and the bus from there to Cusco (the train lines were blocked). Thankfully, we managed to somehow get a better (less smelly!) hotel room than last time. And after a shower and rest, our first port of call was… Jack’s for dinner, of course! Simple food, but delicious.

Even though we were so exhausted at Machu Picchu, it was truly special to visit and see how beautiful it is, and how the Incas lived in relative peace. We forget how important it is to live with nature, to be close to it. We search for so much in material goods and each other, when all we need to do is spend some time with our heads in the clouds and our feet in the sand/sea/soil/grass, to find what we need to be happy.