Machu Picchu - Getting There and Being Amazed!

A UNESCO report I read that awarded the historic sanctuary of Machu Picchu describes this place as 'among the greatest artistic, architectural and land use achievements anywhere'. And delving into the history of the mysterious Incas you can understand why.

The area is the most significant tangible legacy of the Inca civilization though it is unclear why the people built this beautiful place on top of an eroded granite mountain. Theories are abound and include a temple or retreat for the King of the Incas, to a site that interacts with the sun, stars and the landscape.  The latter in fact is the most recent theory, and it is based on an event in the summer solstice where a beam of light from the sun shines through a window on to a specificly laid and carved granite rock.

Standing at 2,430m above sea level, the construction is believed to have been undertaken between two Inca periods; Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui (1438-71) and Tupac Inca Yupanqui (1472-93). What is clear from the construction is that  it is split into four quarters, they are:

- a farmers quarter
- an industrial quarter
- a royal quarter
- and, a religious quarter

The incas even ensured proper irrigation throughout the area; enabled ease of access for works and living by constructing ramps and staircases; and they ensured that the entire construction can withstand the forces of nature (or as UNESCO describes, '[they] sculpted the mountain whose cyclopean constructions appear to be a prolongation of nature'.

Getting to Machu Picchu

Now getting there is actually a little easier than I thought. I had read some fantastic blogs and articles on how others got their tickets - the struggle and the strain - these were a great help to me, but what I'll do is try and keep it simple. So these are the steps:

1. Book a flight to Cusco
2. Book train tickets on Peru Rail website (Cusco to Aguas Calientes)
3. Book your accommodation (for Cusco)
4. Purchase your pass for Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes or in Cusco)
5. Book a taxi from hotel to the bus & train station (called Wanchaq Station)

That's it. 

For me, what I didn't do at the time was actually book my pass to get onto the site.  Reading those blogs told of the horrors of a limit on the number of tickets being released (only 2,500 per day) - but it turns out there has only been three occurrences when this has happened and they tend to be on the anniversary / major event days. 

So like me, if it's on the day then just go to Aguas Calientes to pick them up - there's an official office there. You can book ahead of time and give yourself some light relief, though at time of writing you can't book via iPad or iPhone - the curse of Apple not liking sites with Flash!

The office for your pass is next to this statue in Aguas Calientes:

Other blogs talk of how you can barter for a guide, but to be honest you don't need one. Do your research on the plane - read those guide books and free articles on the web (Wikipedia,Wikitravel, UNESCO, etc.) and you'll do fine. In fact as we went round we listened to the commentry from other guides - not attempting to be rude, but it's hard not too as there are so many around (you sometimes can't move for all the guide groups!). 

This leads to another issue, this place is very popular. Which is both a good and bad thing. From the positive perspective it allows much needed funding into a heavily underinvested world heritage site. But this investment comes at a cost of a dilapidated area, over resourcing on tourism (buses, guides, construction), which is why it also got another award from UNESCO.  It's on their critical watch list. That's not good. It really is a chicken and egg situation.

I think the area needs considered investment form the peruvian government that would allow sustainability measures and construction be implemented around the site. Whilst not trying to destroy the aesthetics of the area, I believe items such as raised walkways, glass protection screens for some parts (rather than a little rope), and sustainable transport to get you there (rather than the diesel fuelled busses and coaches).
I think with these improvements, those that have not visited before won't 'miss' anything (if you know what I mean). 

Some Final Advice

Being Ginger, (if you haven't guessed already), the sun can creep up on us without warning and cook us quite easily. This happened to me on my trip.  We were really lucky the weather was magnificent. But we also failed to lack sunscreen. So whilst I sit here now, with sunburnt arms, make sure you take sunblock with you.

You can try and sneak some food in too, like we did, though you just have to sneakily eat it (and be sure to take any rubbish with you - even dropped crumbs!). 

Machu Picchu really is an amazing wonder to visit, and it should be on everyone's bucket list!

The Amazon Rainforest - Nature Rocks

The amazing trip through the Amazon rainforest was one exciting adventure after another. Whilst the wildlife doesn't jump out at you or is presented to you like you get at a zoo, it's the adventure in searching from them through the bushes, trees, and in the water.


I want to just summarise some of the things I saw.





Monkeys


On two occasions we witnessed families of monkeys jumping about from tree to tree and having some fun.  The monkeys of course aren't the size of the gorillas, these are much smaller - about the size of a cat, and are apparently the loudest monkeys on the planet - howler monkeys.


Unlike some I certainly did not have the Attenborough skill; some can spot these animals from so far away. Where as I, usually the one with the camera, struggled to spot them and have the time to take a picture.


Birds



The bird below actually has a frog in its mouth. Yummy.















The rainforest is awash with the most magnificent birds. Observing them swooping in to catch prey, or simply chatting to each other is quite majestic. A highlight for us (and the time where we had to sit and wait for two hours) was observing the behaviour of the Parrat Clay lick.





A vast array of these beautiful parrots patrol the skies heading down towards the ground. Their target, a very tiny cave, to pick up food left by monkeys as it's too acidic.  But how do the parrots cope with the acidity. They lick the clay on the surrounding hillside first to coat their mouths. They do this everyday and normally around the same time each morning.





As they start to descend, from tree top to tree top, they gather more and more confidence to go down further. You see there are a lot of predators around that I'm sure knows their schedule too. On about two or three occasions the parrots were spooked by a prod of pray, or a jaguar on the ground. So they all flew off, and started the sequence of descent once again.


A little frustrating, but once their confidence came back and they eventually landed on the ground. The site was remarkable. And the sound; deafining.









Caymen


Is it a bird, is it a plane?  No! It's actually like a crocodile. When our guide Freddie said tonight we are getting on a boat to look for some monkeys and some caymans, I had the binoculars firmly up at the trees. As night fell we brought out our torches, and whilst slowly moving a long in this beautiful lagoon, we were told to point to the banks of the water.





Freddie lit up with excitement as the eyes of the Caymen were reflected back to us from the torch light. We thought, wow that must be a pretty big bird. Though it turned out to be even more cool.


This green crocodile type animal, was resting by the water waiting for it's next prey. They can be quite large animals, though the few that we saw were juveniles. Lucky really, as we got pretty close to them.





Spiders, flies and Mosquitos


I have a very childish fear of spiders. Strange, that whilst living in Australia I should be used to them (the country, in fact my back garden, has some of the most dangerous spiders in the world living there). But for me in the Amazon rainforest I began not to worry about them so much. Perhaps it's mainly because the amount of times I saw spiders running across my arm or running down my trousers I just stopped caring. I simply picked them up and threw them away.














It's interesting too that on the Anakonda! the crew have a good relationship with the spiders.  They'll allow them, only at night to build their webs outside, so long as the crew can brush them away in the morning before the guests get up. This deal works so well as, I kid you not, the moment the sun disappears from the horizon, a whole army of them just appear on the deck, hurryingly building their webs to capture those deadly Mosquitos and flies. Genius really.






For the flies and Mosquitos, during our trip looking for Caymen, our torches attracted every single fly within about 10km radius. There was actually a wall of flies. I think I ate about a kilogram of them. It was crazy, and I've never experienced anything like it. At the sometime however it's quite remarkable too. And again you quickly get used to it.




Pink Dolphins


We were really lucky to have been able to spot some pink dolphins whilst slowly canoeing down a river in the Peruvian part of the Amazon (our Amazon trip started in Ecuador). These solitary animals glide through the river searching for food. They don't appear to behave like you'd expect from a dolphin, in that they're not playful, jumping in and out of the water.


The term pink dolphins actually is misdescription. They aren't normally pink. The turn pink when they are stressed or frightened. I have the same effect in the sun (but perhaps that's more red than pink).


To capture these dolphins was pretty difficult as it was occasionally appearing and disappearing for air, thus making it tricky to capture its face. The picture I took is pretty poor, but surprisingly this is actually best of a number of shots i took (looking at it, it could be anything, but we did actually see it's face).






The Weird and Wonderful


There were a huge number of other animals, insects and plants that I want to share in some photos. Many of which I don't know the name of (I welcome suggestions).  What I hope the pictures show is that there is such a diverse amount of species in the Amazon that you should go and explore it yourself. For me a week is not long enough, I merely scratched the surface. I left the Amazon with a greater respect for our planet, about its fragility and how the Amazon is nature at its finest. Nature rocks!


















Hunting for more plants:




The plant below is called a Giant Ginger!

The Amazon Rainforest - Night Time Walk

I suited up in trousers, boots and a long sleeved shirt; drowned myself in deet and headed off with my torch into the rainforest at night time.


The rainforest is a different world at night. It's when most of the insects and small creatures come out to hunt. For us, we saw a few interesting sights, and much to my fears we saw a lot of spiders - some were very big.





Though the awe of these creatures outweighed my fears. Their intricate webs and lightning fast reflexes make them a fascinating watch. That night they were the ones at the top of the food chain.


Turning our torches off, we just stood there for a few minutes. Listening to the rainforest talk. The constant noises of crickets, some birds, and the breaking of branches by monkeys as the move from tree to tree, created excitement and fear. For me any moment a giant 30cm spider could be webbing its way down to my face.








It was magnificent though, and genuinely i felt vary safe. The creatures are more in fear of you than you are of it. They will respect you and keep away from you, as you should do of them (a secret handshake between you and nature). But, annoy not them, and they have every right to lump some deadly toxins into your bloodstream so you collapse and become ant food. Fair enough I say.