6th of May - Hike on Machu Picchu - Montana and "The lost city of the Inka"
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In the morning we got up at 4 o'clock and walked the 3 km on the gravel road to the park's first check point at the bridge down in the valley. It was pitch dark (we forget our headlamps at the motorbike; great!:-) and the buses did not start yet bringing up the masses to the park's entrance on approx. 2.500m.
As we approached the bridge we saw already people queuing up 50m! A guard controlled the entrance tickets and passports though this is not the park's entrance. Well organized. We were the last ones in the queue and when we crossed the bridge over the river and after stumbled to the right where the path supposed to be all the people were already gone.
Wow. We thought we could make use of their flashlights a bit. While we stumbled further up the Inka trail (yes, this is also one) soon the dawn came in and we speeded up. The trail crosses a couple of times the gravel road and now we could hear that the bus traffic was in full mode. After the 3 serpentine we saw the first people from the queue again, gasping for air. Aha, that is what I thought: How could it be that all the people were gone so quickly?? Here on approx. 2.000m in the jungle it is quite exhausting ascending the relatively high steps of what the Inkas built as a track or partially a a staircase.
Seeing us the people started to run up again. In the 4th serpentine we passed the first group, all young people, half of our age. One of the girls gasped at me if I would have an inhaler for her?! Were they nuts??
Later we saw from the next slope that they stopped one of the buses which took them to the top. I thought the buses would now even stop, lucky them.
On the 500m up to the park's entrance we overtook more than half of the queue all half of our age, noisy and ignorant (versus the nature) pack mainly from the US and UK.
In the dawn on the way up to the park's entrance
Behind the entrance gate to Machu Picchu it gets beautiful again...and the masses spread over the ruins. We walked straight up to the guards house to the Montana Machu Picchu and were with 8 other persons nearly alone.
Before at the entrance approx. 400 people were queueing up. With 3 gates it took approx. 20 min to pass...ok.
On the way up to the mountain
These Inka trails (mainly steps) are really exhausting because of the height of each step.
The Inka were shorter...they must have had BIG thighs. Wow, a tribute to them.
Down there in the saddle one can see the ruins
Big steps and steep as well
Unreal -)
A hundred years of construction and only 10 years of enyoyment for the upper Inka class. Still subject to research but it seems that this "lost city" was more or less a "Hacienda" for the upper class. Agriculture and astronomic research was also carried out here by the Inkas.
Kitsch! :-)
On the way to the "Inka bridge"... Basically they built their stone constructions into the nothing. Just amazing how they could get hold here, in the first instance for themselves (while carrying all these stones!) and secondly of their stone construction itself. The cliff here underneath just drops down approx. 800m.
Some kind of Via Ferrata (but without Ferrata) they constructed here over the wall. I guess they had no fear of heights :-)
Noch so ein Kitsch Foto! :-)
The sun temple used for astronomic reasearch. Have a look at the stones, with which precision they reworked the stones and fitted them into the natural shape of the rocks. No mortar was used in their buildings and constructions.
Reik: Das wäre doch mal was für unseren Steinmetz, den Lutz?! :-))
A millipede...I never heard this word before
Amazing stone works
A little bit Kitsch in the evening, back in Aguas Calientes.
« Back to journal
In the morning we got up at 4 o'clock and walked the 3 km on the gravel road to the park's first check point at the bridge down in the valley. It was pitch dark (we forget our headlamps at the motorbike; great!:-) and the buses did not start yet bringing up the masses to the park's entrance on approx. 2.500m.
As we approached the bridge we saw already people queuing up 50m! A guard controlled the entrance tickets and passports though this is not the park's entrance. Well organized. We were the last ones in the queue and when we crossed the bridge over the river and after stumbled to the right where the path supposed to be all the people were already gone.
Wow. We thought we could make use of their flashlights a bit. While we stumbled further up the Inka trail (yes, this is also one) soon the dawn came in and we speeded up. The trail crosses a couple of times the gravel road and now we could hear that the bus traffic was in full mode. After the 3 serpentine we saw the first people from the queue again, gasping for air. Aha, that is what I thought: How could it be that all the people were gone so quickly?? Here on approx. 2.000m in the jungle it is quite exhausting ascending the relatively high steps of what the Inkas built as a track or partially a a staircase.
Seeing us the people started to run up again. In the 4th serpentine we passed the first group, all young people, half of our age. One of the girls gasped at me if I would have an inhaler for her?! Were they nuts??
Later we saw from the next slope that they stopped one of the buses which took them to the top. I thought the buses would now even stop, lucky them.
On the 500m up to the park's entrance we overtook more than half of the queue all half of our age, noisy and ignorant (versus the nature) pack mainly from the US and UK.
In the dawn on the way up to the park's entrance
Behind the entrance gate to Machu Picchu it gets beautiful again...and the masses spread over the ruins. We walked straight up to the guards house to the Montana Machu Picchu and were with 8 other persons nearly alone.
Before at the entrance approx. 400 people were queueing up. With 3 gates it took approx. 20 min to pass...ok.
On the way up to the mountain
These Inka trails (mainly steps) are really exhausting because of the height of each step.
The Inka were shorter...they must have had BIG thighs. Wow, a tribute to them.
Down there in the saddle one can see the ruins
Big steps and steep as well
Unreal -)
A hundred years of construction and only 10 years of enyoyment for the upper Inka class. Still subject to research but it seems that this "lost city" was more or less a "Hacienda" for the upper class. Agriculture and astronomic research was also carried out here by the Inkas.
Kitsch! :-)
On the way to the "Inka bridge"... Basically they built their stone constructions into the nothing. Just amazing how they could get hold here, in the first instance for themselves (while carrying all these stones!) and secondly of their stone construction itself. The cliff here underneath just drops down approx. 800m.
Some kind of Via Ferrata (but without Ferrata) they constructed here over the wall. I guess they had no fear of heights :-)
Noch so ein Kitsch Foto! :-)
The sun temple used for astronomic reasearch. Have a look at the stones, with which precision they reworked the stones and fitted them into the natural shape of the rocks. No mortar was used in their buildings and constructions.
Reik: Das wäre doch mal was für unseren Steinmetz, den Lutz?! :-))
A millipede...I never heard this word before
Amazing stone works
A little bit Kitsch in the evening, back in Aguas Calientes.
