Day 1,043
Machu Picchu
So after nearly 3 years on the road we had a first, we visited one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. We could have gone to the Mayan ruins of Chichèn Itzà in Mexico, but we'd ridden on by. Too many crowds. But we decided, crowds or no, we would go to Machu Picchu. For those that don't know, back in 1911 Machu Picchu was, much to the surprise of 3 families of farmers who had lived and worked there for generations, rediscovered. It sits more than 7,000 feet above sea level, surrounded by a stunning and dramatic landscape. That it was an Inca settlement is beyond dispute, their workmanship in the construction of walls and buildings is clearly evident. Was this site lived in before the Incas arrived? Probably. Why did they move in? When? How many? No one really knows. The general belief is it was a royal estate for the Inca ruler Pachacuti. It is about 70% intact as the Spanish didn't pop along and remove stones for other projects, but despite the massive complex, which must have taken thousands of man hours and men to construct, the Incas only used it for around 80 years. Why did they leave? Well they ‘left’ around the time that 95% of the Incas died due to a combination of diseases the Spanish brought to South America and the same Spanish conquering the continent by killing their leaders, destroying their cities, and their way of life.
It took some getting there. First a day's ride with a massive hill and complimentary head wind from Cucso to the Inca settlement of Ollantaytambo, (more of that coming soon). Then a very expensive train ride to Aguas Calientes, the nearest town to Machu Picchu itself. We arrived in style, most cyclists bus it to Hydroelectrica, then walk the line for the final 7 miles to Aguas Calientes. When we heard the cost of the train tickets we were very close to choosing that option! We had booked an Airbnb in Ollantaytambo so we could leave all our kit and bikes in a safe place.
Tickets sell out months in advance, but after a protest from the community at Aquas Calientes the Peruvian government holds back 1,000 tickets a day for the town to sell. It would be fair to say they go about it in a rather convoluted manner. First you need to get a ticket for a place in the queue. The office was open and naturally quite a few eager visitors were in line. Whilst we waited we could read a large poster with information about the 4 route choices. For us it went pretty smoothly, two people in the queue seemed unable to grasp that this was the queue for the queue, but once they'd been dealt with we soon had a piece of paper with our number on it and instructions to return at 4pm. Just to make things interesting we had a printed and written number, but either way we felt pretty confident. At 4pm we were back, along with several hundred others, all clutching our numbered tickets. Inside the building we could see the lucky ones ahead of us already booking their tickets. Then a man appeared with a loud hailer, unfortunately its batteries were just about out of juice so it was just a hailer without the loud. Anyway he shouted out in fast fluent Spanish various numbers. Naturally he shouted in Spanish but we soon got the hang of it. We formed a queue, Tom and I were near the front, our numbers checked, and we entered the building. We wandered about a bit, upstairs, into a room, told to sit, then up we went, into a corridor, sit again, up, around a corner, sit again. Someone started humming a tune, and called out its musical chairs. Eventually we went back downstairs, only 2 chairs per 20 people here so we stopped playing. Then we made it to the ticket office, and despite our worries we got our 8am slot for Route 2! Our friend, Matt P, had a more frustrating experience, seriously they made it hard in 2023, they've clearly learnt a bit since then!
We now had yet another choice, to bus or not to bus. Research had told us we could possibly be queuing for several hours longer than it takes to walk up so we opted for the walk. Just an easy 1 mile stroll from the village, then a not so easy 1 mile up stone steps straight up the side of a mountain. Suffice to say I was glowing somewhat when we reached the top, but I got piped up the last few steps and a round of applause with several hundred people looking on and wondering why we didn't get the bus, yep there were no queues this morning!
Finally we reached our last queue. 8am the gates opened and in we went. Despite the horror stories of it just being a long slow shuffle round we soon had space to ourselves. We learnt who amongst our fellow visitors were more interested in having several million selfies taken at key points, and though I was tempted to push one loving couple over the edge, we speeded up and soon lost sight of them.
So, was it worth it? All that time, expense, crowds etc. Oh yes…
