Hiram Bingham

MACHU PICCHU – the journey and the arrival

We left the hotel in Cusco at a fairly civilized 7.15am and set off overland to Machu Picchu. But this wasn’t to be any old journey, this was care of Orient Express – the Hiram Bingham train, and it is absolutely beautiful!

I need to pop in a brief bit of history here – the sequence goes: pre-Columbian, pre-Inka, Inka 1300-1500s, Spanish Conquistadors mid 1500s, Spanish colonizaton and finally Simon Bolivar winning independence in 1821 from the Spanish for Gran Columbia (which included Columbia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia and other bits) and then creating the state of Peru itself in 1824.

The Spanish during their hunt for gold and silver managed to conquer the Sacred Valley from Cusco and went right past Machu Picchu, without realizing they were missing one of the most significant of Inka citadels. They managed to find, plunder and wreck most of the others. One or two explorers did get to MP in the late 1800s, but it was Hiram Bingham III, a Yale professor of History, who not only re-discovered the site in 1912 but managed to get grants from Yale and the National Geographic Society to come back 3 years later with a full team and really uncover and research the area – the jungle was taking over.

Hence the name of the first-class train!

Due to rainy season landslides, we had to start off by bus for an hour or so, as the rail line was being re-laid. From the bus we had our first sight of the Sacred Valley (and handed our granola bars to a couple of small kids, who looked bewildered!).

Once we boarded, we were met by a smart waiter with a tray of Buck’s Fizz or Pisco-laced champagne - both were delicious, albeit still only about 9.30am! Once we had made our lunch service selections, we hied to the back of the train where the Observatory Car has a fine bar and a small open back balcony. We enjoyed the scenery of the Sacred Valley whilst knocking back a couple more drinks and listening to a great Peruvian trio who got everyone partying!

This last shot of “scenes from a moving train” is purportedly hotel cabins for precipice lovers!!

We stopped for a while to pick up some extra passengers; a local train stopped on the other side and passengers had to cross our line to reach the platform!

The valley has been carved by a mighty river that has 3 names in different sections, this bit being the Urubamba. At this time of year it is very fast flowing with snow-melt and heavy rains, and the sediment turns it into a Willy Wonka milk chocolate river. There are extraordinary areas of rapids where it seems quite alive – the photos don’t show the full fury.

And the mountains got steeper and steeper…….

And so to lunch – divine! - before the train pulled into the station at Agua Caliente a bit after mid-day. This is the “service town” for Machu Picchu, which is 9k up a zig-zag single track road on the side of the steepest mountain yet – scary stuff!

Most people stay in hotels there, however, 27 lucky couples a night get to stay at the Orient Express Sanctuary Lodge right by the Machu Picchu entrance gate. We had hoped that would mean we would have access after the hoards had left for the day, as at Iguazu Falls, but no such luck - the site is locked up and patrolled by rangers after 5pm!

The only traffic allowed up the road are specific MP buses (green and eco-friendly!), so we piled on. Three weeks ago a huge storm had caused a huge landslide that cut off one of the corners of the road, so one shift of buses did the lower half and another the upper, with a makeshift set of wooden stairs for the passengers to climb from one to the other!

Just near the top we had the first sighting of the citadel - albeit thru a rainy bus window, it was very exciting!

On arriving at the hotel/ entrance gate, we retrieved our luggage then checked in, before setting out to finally see Machu Picchu itself. Our train ticket included a guide - who was excellent - and promised groups of no more than 14 people – we were teamed with just one other couple, two very nice French people we had been sitting across from on the train. The rest of the train were Spanish speakers, so went with other guides. Lucky us.

We arrived with the idea that the actual site would be steeper, larger and more crowded than it turned out – what we hadn’t expected was the mystic aura and massive sense of history that it exudes. We set off in pouring rain, but it didn’t last long and we finished in evening sun – just lovely.

I must just mention again the extraordinary terracing the Inkas cut from low valley to highest mountain wherever they went. The were supreme agriculturalists, a legacy which exists in Peru still, as evidenced in the Cusco market. Getting to and from the highest terraces – far higher than any I’ve seen in Asia – must have been terrifying!

I’ll let the photos tell you the rest, with a special mention for the baby llama – just too cute for words, and the silver fox, though we didn’t get a good picture, he was too far off.

This is a sacrificial slab – the Inkas sacrificed llamas quite often, but if times were dire – epidemics and the like, a vestal virgin, reared specially for the role, was given up to the Gods.

The Inkas were also astrologists and had defined the points of the compass, and relics here show this. They lined up stones and windows for perfect light to be beamed through on the eqinoxes.