Day 13 Winaywayna to Machu Picchu.

Roof from the underside

Talk about a straight wall?

Perfect convex wall.

Upper middle aged Canadians near the Sun Gate

    This was not a particularly good night; the tent started making noises a few after we climbed into our sleeping bags.  Rain would not be good for viewing the ruins in the morning.  When we were roused by Jaco this morning at 4 it was still raining lightly.  Everyone hustled to pack up and had a small breakfast around 4:30.  After getting all our clean up done, we went down to the building with bar to marshal up for our walk to the control gate.  It opens at 5:30 so there was some waiting on our part.  This is the day that the porters have to get all the equipment down to Aguas Caliente for shipment back to the trek’s origin- they probably store the gear at Ollantaytambo.  Also they dropped our duffle bags at a restaurant in Aguas Caliente for us to pick up before boarding the train out later.  When we arrived at the Sun Gate, the rain had stopped and the mist opened up enough for us to have decent views of Macchu Pichu.  Nevertheless the views aren’t the same as you see on the post cards or Peruvian government advertisements.  After stopping to take pictures we walked through Machu Picchu City, with excellent information from Marcelino.  We then made our way down to the control gate so that our entrance tickets could be handed in, and that’s when the skies opened up.  It rained hard for at least an hour before we could head out on our tour of this magnificent archeological site.  It was an excellent tour.  I never cease to be amazed by the quality and quantity of work that the Incas accomplished in only three centuries.  The stone work is simply outstanding.  After the formal tour, we had planned to hike up Machu Picchu Mountain but the cloud cover scuppered that idea because it blocked the views.  So we and Cecilia walked up to Inca Bridge.  This is a site at which they built most of the trail across the face of sheer rock bluff and had to span a gap of about m with logs.  It’s scary to think that people walked across this at one time.  It’s even scarier to contemplate how many lives must have been lost in building the trails and cities.

     We met Paula at the control gate at about 1pm and took the bus to Aguas Caliente.  Since we had just eaten the snack provided to us, we didn’t stay for lunch at the pizza restaurant and decided to do a some window shopping, actually it was souvenir shopping for the grandchildren.  Aguas Caliente comprises about two streets with hotels, restaurants and tourist shops.  Later we gathered our duffle bags and caught the Peru Rail train to Ollantaytambo.  It’s about 45 km and one and a half hours.  Fortunately, the passenger cars have windows overhead because the valley wall are very steep and high.  It’s a narrow gauge railroad which is bit uneven; this made the ride one that rocked back and forth all the way.  At Ollantaytambo, we changed to a bus that took us all the way to Cusco.  We got back to our hotel, Cusco Plaza II around 7 and guess what?  Everyone headed for the showers before dinner.  We went to a restaurant where they serve Cuy, aka Guinea Pig.  There were only four available, so the eight adventurous souls among us split them.  Susie and I each had a small bite.  It tasted okay but was a bit chewy, probably because it was cooked until it had nice glazed finish.  There was a vegetable in the mouth of each Cuy, a la a Hawaiian pig.  Paulo showed us how to find a lucky charm in side the mastoid (?) bone; if you find it (it’s less than 2 mm), you are supposed to drop it in your drink and down it.  We had never heard of this custom before.