Machu Picchu, Peru: A long but rewarding day...

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Yesterday, October 27th, Ozell and I made our way to the famed site of the Inca cloud city, Machu Picchu.  As you may have already read from Ozell's post, the day did have its travails.  However, like I mentioned in one of the first blog posts, it is going to be interesting to see how each of us differently perceives the same shared experiences.  And like Ozell's blog post after mine discussing how I was pick pocketed, I want to let you all that there was plenty of good to go with the bad- at least for me.  I considered the trip to Machu Picchu very rewarding and a success even though it could have gone more smoothly.

 

If Ozell wants to write about the negative things that happened (and there were truly some negative things that happened; I am not trying to suggest there were not any drawbacks), then I will let him do that.  I'll just mentioned here that we had an early and long day.  We started at 5:15 AM and didn't return to Cusco and our hostel until nearly 10 PM at night.  We had logistical difficulties with the Peru Rail (the train company) both on the way up and back.  We had minor difficulties with park entrance tickets and the bus ride from the last train station to Machu Picchu.  It was an very expensive day which cost about $180 each to go see Machu Picchu which is itself over three days budget.   And probably the thing that I suspect is bothering Ozell the most is the realization that it appears every Peruvian is out to extract every dollar they can get out of you and often implementing dubious and disingenuous means to do it.  It makes it hard to see any of the locals as anything but potential scam artists or downright thieves which is a very disappointing perspective to have forced upon you while visiting a country, but one that is difficult to discount after multiple daily events appear to lend credence to this viewpoint.

 

It didn't help that we had a very early day, and Ozell is not a morning person.  As he mentioned in his post, his mood was dim very the beginning which can only help shape how you will perceive the rest of the days experiences.  We had 4-5 hour train rides both ways on less than comfortable trains.  Peru Rail seems to be operating at the minimum competence level required to actually function as a train company.

 

I was really proud of Ozell for traversing parts of Machu Picchu and the switch back bus ride up the narrowest and windiest of mountain roads because he does have a moderate fear of heights.  At one point in the park, you climb up to a high and small stone platform which was their astronomical observatory.  Since it is one of the highlights of the park it is a very crowded area with multiple tour groups vying for the same area and views simultaneously.  Off the sides of this platform are vertical drops with no railings and very rough and narrow stone steps.  The more mild side was a sheer drop to the main plaza of about 80' or so.  The other side was one of the steepest mountain sides I have personally seen which was probably a couple thousand feet down to the river below.  My first attempt at supporting Ozell through this area was to suggest he rush past these tour groups so he wouldn't have to deal with them and their slow pace (many in the tour groups were middle-aged or seniors so they moved at their predicted pace.  yes, older people were taking all of the same paths so the paths themselves were not very strenuous.  It is the views from the paths and their narrowness that makes them much more harrowing than your staircase at home.)  I thought it would be best to get through this area as quickly as possible.  As is often the case with my judgment, this was not the correct advice.  Ozell wanted to stay put and wait for the groups to go past.  I was thinking to myself, "There is not going to be a time when this area is not crowded so you should just come now."  But Ozell found a time comfortable for him and made the traverse down the narrow stairs.  I wanted to take some pics of him and did.  You can find them in the Machu Picchu photo album.  This was also the first time I recall actually viewing Ozell in a height situation like this.  I had only known about his dislike of heights through conversation, and I guess I did not fully appreciate it.  I've known people of varying degrees of vertigo or fear of heights so their is a wide range.  I, myself, am not immune, but I appear to have a much higher threshold than many people I know.  I can usually get within a foot or two of a shear ledge and look over (for a short while; the longer the viewing time, the greater my discomfort).  I also like climbing out on precipices and cliffs for the views and pictures.  And as long as a trail is at least 3' wide, than it does not overly spook me if on either side of that trail is a sheer drop-off.  I had one of those in Switzerland before.

 

Oh, and lastly.  I want to make sure that you realize that Ozell traversed this area as normally as anyone else and probably much better than some people.  I do not mean to imply that he crawled along or froze up or anything like that.  No one who didn't know him would have known that he may have been uncomfortable during this stretch.  He handled it exactly as he should have handled it by waiting until it was a little less crowded and he was comfortable.  He also did it all on his own since I went ahead a little bit.  (I think he was a little cross with me when I suggested he rush pass the tour groups so I went ahead and got out of his way.)  It was his singular achievement.  I was just proud of him.

 

I'll let the pictures in the photo album speak for the park's beauty.  The one thing that impressed me the most was the shear size of this town/city.  Most of the iconic pictures that many of you have seen only show half of site at any particular time because of the angles of the cliffs and buildings.  Please take a look through the picture album and take a look from some of the perspectives you may not have seen before.  The one thing that disappointed me the most was that only of portion of the site (and a relatively small portion) exhibited the high quality stone work that I had heard was a trademark of the Incas.  I had heard they built their cities with stones fitted so precisely that you could not even get a piece of paper to fit between the joints, and this was true for some of their structures- the more important ones.  They also did not use any mortar.  And the fact that their ruins are still in pretty good shape (and actually serve as the foundations for many of the present buildings in Cusco) after centuries in a highly active earthquake zone is a testament to their masonry skills.  But many of their walls are not as precisely constructed as I was led to believe.  Many were made with natural and unshaped rocks fitted together.  Impressive enough, but not unlike stone walls I have seen in Ireland and other places which include spacious joints between the rocks/stones themselves.

 

Lastly,  I wanted to mention that Ozell and I had a very pleasant dinner a couple of nights ago at a restaurant called "Fallen Angel" in Cusco.  We originally went there our first night in town because it was listed as gay friendly, and we thought we could pump the staff for information on the local gay scene.  Unfortunately, it was closed when we got there.  We went back for dinner the other night, and it was a very stylish, funky place with excellent food.  You pay for it, and it is not something we could afford every night, but the desserts were unlike anything we have had.  Ozell had a seasoned pears with a sauce and lemongrass ice-cream.  A flavor combination neither of us has ever had.  I had a tropical crepe with caramelized pineapple and strawberries with a mango cream sauce.  The presentation of the food and the atmosphere of the restaurant along with their hot staff (lol) was great.  We also saw more than a few of our fellow hostel mates there as this place was recommended in all of the typical guidebooks.  And even though it was expensive for our budget, it really wasn't that expensive compared to back home.  We got two dinners, glasses of wine, and desserts for both of us for about $50.

 

I hope you are all well.  We will be heading to Puno, Peru and Lake Titicaca before making our way to La Paz, Bolivia.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean