mountains surrounding Macchu Picchu
Rough wall
stairs
terraces
trapedoizal features make the Incan buildings less vulnerable to earthquakes
Macchu Picchu
I didn’t sleep much last night as I was excited about my trip to Macchu Picchu and worried I wouldn’t get up in time even though I arranged for a wakeup call and set my Suns alarm clock. The travel agency person was supposed to meet me at 5:20. By 5:30 I was getting nervous, but had no local contact numbers. Although the hotel receptionist called the tour agency in Lima, of course no one answered that early in the morning. Finally a new person arrived and took me to the train station. I met Aldo, the leader of the tour, who said he would meet me at the bus station in Aguas Calientes, the last stop. I don’t have tickets for the bus or an entrance ticket to Macchu Picchu, but Guillermo, the fellow who arranged everything for me, had always come through, and so I figured it would be fine.
The train was a Vistadome, which meant the top was glass so we could see the trees and snow covered mountains as we travelled. I sat at a table with a couple from Uruguay and Sylvia, a well traveled young woman from Colombia. She was with her sister and husband, but they were at another table. The table was set with a white tablecloth and blue runners. Formally dressed waiters and waitresses served us rolls, cheese, slices of meta, and coca tea. The ride was long, four hours.
At the last stop I followed the crowd to the bus station, where Aldo gave me my tickets for the bus and Macchu Picchu. It took 35 minutes on switchback roads to reach Macchu Picchu, which is about three thousand feet lower than Cusco so I no longer had a headache. I had been warned about sun block and mosquito repellent and took appropriate precautions.
Aldo handed me off the Wagner, the guide for English speakers. He was quite knowledgeable and easy to understand. He disputed several things that Sylvia, the tour guide from the city tour, said.
Macchu Picchu, built in the mountains in the 1400’s, is a very elaborate series of terraces and buildings. It was “discovered” in 1911 by American Hiram Bingham. The reason it’s in such great shape is that the Spanish never found it. The place was abandoned about 1530 but there is no explanation for this. This reminds me of the Anasazi in the four corners area of the American southwest. They built stone and adobe buildings along cliffs about 1000 A. D. and also abandoned them for no known reason about 1200 A.D.
Wagner thoroughly discussed Incan seismic architecture. The trapezoidal windows and the walls built at an angle were components of anti earthquake building ideas. The walls also extended underneath the building. They were connected by beams and the area was filled with pebbles. When earthquakes have stricken Peru, the Spanish colonial buildings crumpled but the Incan walls held. Seismologists from Japan have studied Incan architecture and used their ideas to avoid building collapse during earthquakes.
The Incans practiced a meritocracy, meaning that the nobles were chosen for their talents, not born into their positions. About 800 to 1,000 people lived in the Macchu Picchu community.
There was an intricate underground water system that delivered water from the top of the mountain. Some of the “pipes” have become clogged over the years so it doesn’t work in all areas of Macchu Picchu.
The Incans built rough walls for ordinary buildings that used mud in between stones, and more perfect walls, where the stones fit together perfectly for special buildings. They put gold clay over them so the buildings shone when hit by sunlight.
We saw the Temple of the Condor which had a stone sculpture of a condor, with its wings being the stone outcroppings.
The massive terraces were for farming and storage. There was no need to irrigate as this is a wet place, adjacent to the Amazon rain forest. Macchu Picchu was a trading center between the highland farmers and the denizens of the jungle.
The Incan astronomers figured out their calendar based on the June and December solstices. Their calendar only has to be adjusted every 1300 years, unlike ours which must be adjusted by a day every four years. The Temple of the Sun has a rounded edge and was constructed to allow the beams of the sunrise of the solstices to hit one spot.
After the tour, I went up some of the stairs (without rails) and sat down on a terrace and contemplated what life in this Eden-like setting was like six hundred years ago. When I finished my reverie, I noticed that an alpaca was grazing about three feet from me.
I walked around looking at the various buildings and terraces.
I took the bus back down to Aguas Calientes and had lunch, then shopped at the bazaar and did some shopping. I went to the train station and had a nice chat with a couple from Missouri.
For the train trip back, my seat was changed. I sat at a table for two with Sylvia, the young woman from Colombia. We ordered Pisco sours, a potent drink only made palatable by the sour mix. First the waiter shook it in rhythm. He passed the shaker to the waitress who shook it to another rhythm, and then spilled it all over Sylvia and me. What a sticky mess! We cleaned up and had a good laugh about it as well as free drinks. When we were toasting “salud” Sylvia spilled some of her drink on her sister. We laughed even more.
The entertainment on the train was a fashion show put on by the wait staff and a traditional Incan clown.
Sylvia and I shared our pictures of Macchu Picchu and talked in depth about our lives.
The trip back to Cusco took four and a half hours. My local guide was there to pick me up and drop me at my hotel. I wasn’t feeling well. I don’t know whether it was the tomato and lettuce on the cheese sandwich for lunch or the chicken salad sandwich on the train. I was nauseous all night.
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