Machu Picchu

Things started to go wrong the night before my journey to Machu Picchu. There was no hot water at my 'hotel'. I crossed my fingers and hoped that things would improve by the morning as I had an early start for the vistadome train to Machu Picchu.

By the morning things were no better, with no hot water and little water pressure. Then the representative from Best Peru Tours arrived and told me I would be taking a car to Ollantaytambo and joining the train there. I was really mad, as I had specifically requested and paid for the Vistadome train from Cusco to Machu Picchu. Best Peru Tours claimed that Peru Rail had changed the ticket but I find it difficult to believe them considering they had not told me of the change until they had come to collect me.

I had booked a tour in order to make life easier, but I was finding that Best Peru Tours were more trouble than arranging my own transport and accommodation. I made it very clear to Best Peru Tours that I was very unhappy with the way they were managing the tour and refused to leave until they had agreed to make arrangements for the return trip to take me all the way to Cusco, and not to Ollantaytambo.

Instead of a relaxing train ride there was a rushed drive from Cusco to Ollantaytambo of around an hour and a half, longer than the journey by train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes, the closest point to Machu Picchu. Aguas Calientes has no roads and can only be accessed by train or hiking the Inca Trail.

Aguas Calientes is a rather unattractive town. The Lonely Planet guide pulls no punches when it says...

"this town lies in the deep valley below the ancient Inca ruins and enclosed by towering walls of stone and cloud forest. Sounds beautiful, doesn’t it? Trust us, it’s not: unplanned tourist development and perpetual construction makes this one of the ugliest, most exploitative towns you’ll run across anywhere in Peru."

Lonely Planet weren't kidding. I found my way to the hotel in the rain and checked in. The room was large and spacious but when I pulled back one curtain I found the window had been bricked up! The main window had a view of the construction of another building just 30 feet away.

A bus takes you from Aguas Calientes up the winding roads to Machu Picchu, offering great views of the cloud forest and the Putucusi mountain. At the entrance to Machu Picchu is the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge. This hotel is phenomenally expensive; rooms were priced at over $1000 a night.

The Incas started building Machu Picchu around 1430AD but was abandoned a hundred years later at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Although known locally, it was largely unknown to the outside world before being 'rediscovered' in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, an American historian.

As Machu Picchu was unknown to the Spanish the area was not destroyed and was covered by the thick forest until Bingham returned in 1912 and 1915 to clear the site.

No one knows what purpose Machu Picchu had. Over 50 burial sites and 100 skeletal remains have been discovered over the course of excavations. Initially the remains were thought to be 80% female, leading to an early theory that it was a city of ‘chosen women,’ but this lost support when it emerged that the male/female ratio was actually 50/50. Some believe the citadel was founded in the waning years of the last Incas as an attempt to preserve Inca culture or rekindle their predominance. A more recent theory suggests that the site was a royal retreat or country palace abandoned at the time of the Spanish invasion.

The primary archaeological treasures: of Machu Picchu are the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun and the Room of the Three Windows.

One of Machu Picchu's functions appears to have been an astronomical observatory. The Intihuatana stone is thought to be an astronomic clock, as the sun stands almost above the pillar casting no shadow at all on the date of the equinoxes.

The Intihuatana stone was damaged in September 2000 when a 1,000lb crane fell onto it, breaking off a piece of stone. The crane was being used by a crew hired by J. Walter Thompson advertising agency to film a beer commerical.

The train ride back to Cusco was a delight. I hadn't realised that the best part of the journey is from Ollantaytambo to Cusco! Once the train departed Ollantaytambo we were treated to a fashion show by the train crew. The staff modelled a range of Alpaca wool clothing, using the carriage as a runway to model the designs, to the sounds of a 70's and 80's theme including Abba and the Pet Shop Boys. All the items modelled were available to purchase but there was no pressure to buy.

We were also entertained by a rather strange performance of a traditional dance in which a porter prances up and down the aisles in a fancy hat and a colourful mask. This is the advantage of travelling in the vistadome section of the train!

As night fell the train went through a number of switchbacks as it went down the sleep slope towards Cusco, offering great views of the city.

On arrival in Cusco I was taken to a proper hotel and treated to a local show. I was in a good mood, but things took a turn for the worst once again. Best Peru Travel's agent, Jeanette, explained to me that my visit to Puno and Lake Titicaca was cancelled.

I was told there was a strike and it was impossible to get to Puno, tour buses and trains were not getting through. I understand that these things are out of Best Peru Travel's control. However, Jeanette told me that I had to pay for the return flight from Cusco to Lima, or I could use the price of the tour to Puno and Lake Titicaca to offset that flight. She also said I would have to pay for my extra nights in Lima at around $60 a night.

I wish I'd never booked a tour of Peru! Certainly I made a big mistake choosing a tour from Best Peru Travel. Unfortunately they had left me with a rather negative impression of Peru.