Inca Trail: The Royal Road, Breathlessly

My view from Machu Picchu is astonishing.  I am standing in the midst of intricate stone ruins on a mountaintop in a saddle between two peaks.  Around me is the army of mountains that form the Andes.  They surround me in ranks, some green all the way to the top, the higher ones snow-capped, some obscured by fog that is really the bottoms of clouds punctured by these high peaks.  I cannot discern the horizon.  Instead I see rank after rank of mountain peaks fading into the distance.  It is late afternoon and most of the tourists have left Machu Picchu.  It is a good moment to be quiet among the stillness of the ruins.  Soon we will have to take one of the day’s last buses down the mountain.

I think about the enigma of the ruins surrounding me.  Unlike so many other old Inca sites, Machu Picchu was not destroyed by the Spanish.  They were completely unaware of it.  The Incas built it in the mid-1400’s, lived there for about 100 years, and then just left.  The complex of buildings, walkways, and walls has stood silently on this mountaintop ever since, a warren of stone and mystery.  Where did the Incas go?  Why did they leave? 

1532 is the year that is often referred to as the beginning of the end of the Incas.  That was the year that Francisco Pizarro and a handful of Spanish soldiers captured and executed the Inca Emperor Atahualpa which ultimately led to the complete conquest of the Inca Empire.  But long before the Pizarro’s soldiers made an appearance the Inca Empire was in decline.  The Spanish were preceded by their diseases.  A large segment of the Inca population had succumbed to smallpox, measles and other European diseases that had been working their way through the Americas since the first European contact.  The Empire was also in political turmoil.  Atahualpa’s father had succumbed to a strange disease (perhaps smallpox) in his prime and had died without naming a successor.  Consequently, the Empire had been weakened by a prolonged civil war between Atahualpa and his brother Huáscar.  It is perhaps because of these unusual disruptions that Machu Picchu became depopulated and then forgotten.

Why did the Incas build this large settlement on a remote mountaintop?  What was its purpose?  Who were the people who lived here?  Was Machu Picchu, as many scientists now believe, a “country estate” for the Inca royal family and other nobles?  Was it a religious site as its uncanny geographic alignment with other Inca sites might indicate?  Was it a trade hub?  Any person who could answer these questions is long dead.  And the stones are silent.

When the Yale professor Hiram Bingham happened upon it in 1911, he thought he had discovered the lost city of the Incas – a secret place where the Incas maintained their culture after the Spanish conquest.  Professor Bingham and his “discovery” became an overnight sensation and helped make the relatively new magazine that published his accounts the iconic National Geographic that it is today. 

Later came the inevitable revisionism.  First, it was proven that Vilcabamba was the location of the “neo-Inca State” and thus was truly the “lost city of the Incas.”  Also, it eventually became obvious that others had visited Machu Picchu before Bingham happened along – including the locals who grazed their sheep among the ruins.  But Bingham did provide the model for Harry Steele, the character played by Charlton Heston in the 1954 movie “Secret of the Incas,” [full movie here]  whom some have credited as being the template for Indiana Jones.  And Bingham retains the honor of being the namesake of “The Hiram Bingham Highway;” the five mile long road that zig-zags up the mountain from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu.  And it is aptly named.  It was, after all, Bingham who started Machu Picchu on the road to the worldwide acclaim it has today.

Our quest for Machu Picchu begins in the early hours of this day when we crawl out of bed at 4:30 AM.  Thus far, our Peru experience has involved incredibly early mornings and very short nights – completely our fault for attempting to experience as much of Peru as we possibly can in two weeks.  We grab some fruit and a cup of Nescafe at the hotel then hurry down to the San Blas plaza where we meet the driver that we’ve arranged through Pachamama Explorers. He hands us bag lunches for later in the day then drives us back to the Sacred Valley where we had spent the previous day – to the train station in in Ollantaytambo.  One can start this trip by train from Cusco, but almost everybody going to Machu Picchu picks up the train in Ollantaytambo since it is much quicker to travel between Cusco and Ollantaytambo by road than by rail.  From Ollantaytambo onward there are no roads, so the only options are by rail or by foot on the trails.  

There are several trains available from Ollantaytambo.  We’ve booked tickets for the Vistadome, a train operated by Peru Rail, and we climb aboard around seven o’clock.  The Vistadome is appropriately named.  In addition to large windows, it has large glass panels on the ceiling so we can enjoy the mountain peaks that surround us.  We sit on comfortable upholstered seats and are served a nice breakfast with real plates and silverware and coffee in real cups.  Score one for ambiance, Peru Rail! 

The train tracks snake their way through the mountains along the Urubamba River and eventually come to an end at the little tourist village of Aguas Calientes at the base of Machu Picchu Mountain.  From Aguas Calientes there are buses that take a half-hour trip up a narrow switch-back filled Hiram Bingham Highway.  This is how the majority of tourists get to Machu Picchu.  It is not what we do.

About the time we finish our breakfast the train stops.  There is no station – we are definitely in the middle of nowhere.  We grab our backpacks and get off.  We are the only people who get off.  All the other passengers are giving us strange looks. I’m not sure if they don't understand what we’re doing, or if they know exactly what we’re doing and are judging us to be complete idiots.  The train departs and we are left holding our packs all by ourselves with just river rushing by below us, the mountains looming above us, and next to us a lonely sign proclaiming “KM 104.”  There is a dirt path that leads toward the river from the railroad embankment.  We follow the path to a narrow bridge and cross the river.  On the other side we meet Emilio, who will guide us through mountains and Inca ruins on a day-long hike that will end at Machu Picchu.  

On the Bridge

Most tourists who visit Machu Picchu take the train to Aguas Calientes.  Then there are those who are appropriately hardy or insane who hike there on a six-day excursion over the Inca Trail.  Being over sixty, and perhaps somewhat sane, I have chosen the middle ground:  A day-long hike from KM 104 on the railroad to Machu Picchu. 

Emilio leads us up a path to a check point where a guard examines our permits that allow us to access the protected area around Machu Picchu.  He stamps our passports and we walk on.  We walk for less than an hour to reach the ruins of Chachabamba.  We have the ruins to ourselves.  While Machu Picchu often reaches its 2500 tourists per day quota, there are countless other Inca ruins that are perhaps less spectacular, and definitely less accessible and less known that are rarely visited.

Madeline and Kathy at Chachabamba

We spend some time exploring the ruins.  Emilio tells us that that the style of stonework suggests that Chachabamba was built in the same time frame as Machu Picchu.  It is felt that Chachabamba had some sort of religious significance for the Incas.  It also, no doubt, served as a gatehouse for the trail leading to Machu Picchu.  A cool misty rain begins as we peruse these ruins.  Finally we walk on and the trail takes a noticeably upward slant.  The trail is paved with irregular stones – the very stones that were laid down by the Incas hundreds of years ago.  This is part of the thousands of miles of trails that connected the Inca Empire from what is now Colombia and Ecuador in the north; through Peru; Chile and parts of Argentina, and into Brazil and Bolivia.  This vast network of trails were engineered for the llama and are very different from mountain trails in Europe and Asia that were built for horses. The trails, especially in the mountains, are steep, and contain high steps - exactly the sort of terrain that llamas can easily traverse.  This portion of the trail was the route along the south side of the Urubamba River to Machu Picchu and is part of what is now called “The Royal Road” or “The Sacred Highway” since it is felt that it was not a trade or commercial route, but was used strictly as a pilgrimage or religious route.

Walking the Royal Road

The trail is rugged with numerous ups and downs and countless stone steps.  We had crossed the river at 7000 feet and have been going upward ever since.  I’m quickly out of breath and Kathy seems to be lagging as well.  Our altitude meds and a mere one day in the Sacred Valley are not enough to acclimate us to this degree of exertion at this altitude.  Eventually Emilio allows us to pass him.  “I will stay behind to push,” he tells me.  He does not push.  I’m sure that his main reason for bringing up the rear is to collect my lifeless body after I die from altitude sickness. 

The misty rain fades away and the sun comes out.  We continue climbing and as we do the mountain scenery becomes spectacular.  The mountain drops off steeply on one side and the other side is at times practically a vertical wall.  We can look across the abyss that starts at the trail’s edge to other mountain peaks.  And we are surrounded by the vegetation of the cloud forest – exotic ferns, moss, bromeliads, and orchids.  Emilio seems to have no trouble answering our questions about the plants, although sometimes his answer is “That is an orchid,” or “That is another orchid.”  

The Scenery Becomes Spectacular

A Small Waterfall

A Bridge by the Waterfall

I slow my pace to get my gasping breath under control and eventually settle into a steady panting rhythm.  Madeline seems less affected by the thin air than Kathy and I.  She is young.

I stop occasionally to catch my breath and to enjoy the scenery.  I can see the Urubamba River winding waaaay below me between the mountains.  And when I look closely I can see the railroad tracks following the river.  I know that somewhere on those tracks is the train that we had been on.  No doubt all the passengers are enjoying the view, having cocktails, and are not panting.  I continue on.

By early afternoon we reach the large spectacular ruins of Winay Wayna clinging to the side of the mountain at 9000 feet.  Winay Wayna means “forever young” in Quechua and is named after a pink orchid that can be found around the site.  This is a large, impressive complex with a huge array of agricultural terraces that seem improbable given the altitude and steepness of the mountainside.  There is also a set of habitations that afforded the Incas who lived there an incredible view of the narrow Urubamba River valley directly below.  There are a large number of baths – perhaps used for ritual cleansing at what was no doubt the final resting place for Inca travelers before they reached Machu Picchu. Also, between the agricultural terraces is an impressive set of steep steps running all the way from the bottom to the top.  I am even more impressed when I realize that we must climb the entire set.  We have arrived at Winay Wayna on the bottom side and we must continue on from the top.  I’m thinking how exhausted I am, but I have yet to learn what “exhausted” means.  I dig deep for some positive attitude and finally move forward in a “little Incan that could” frame of mind.  A journey of a thousand stone steps starts with the first one.

Above & Below: The Agricultural Terraces Cling Improbably to the Mountainside

The Infinite Steps of Winay Wayna

Almost to the Top

I do eventually reach the top.  “Will there be any more climbing?” I ask Emilio.  “What do you think?” he asks me.  I think there will be.  I am right.

We pant onward, up several more inevitable sets of steps and past more spectacular cloud forest scenery along the contour of the mountain and eventually come upon a flight of fifty extraordinarily steep steps.  Each step is so narrow and high that Kathy who is about a foot shorter than me has to use her hands to clamber from one to the next.  Still, she reaches Emilio and Madeline waiting at the top while I am barely half way up, standing still and gasping for breath.  When I finally make it to the top, the others wordlessly gesture to the right.  There in the distance is Machu Picchu, familiar from pictures but amazing beyond description in real life. We have made it to Intipuncu - The Gate of the Sun - an entrance to Machu Picchu!

The 50 Steps at Intipuncu

We Rest & Enjoy the View at the Sun Gate

Iconic!

From this point on, the trail is actually a constant, gradual downward slope. We get to the ruins near the end of the day. Most of that day's tourists have either left or are leaving, so we have it mostly to ourselves. We explore and tap into Emilio’s encyclopedic knowledge of the place. Then we catch one of the last buses down the mountain to Aguas Calientes, where we find well deserved food, drink and rest!  The plan for the next day is to go back to Machu Picchu with Emilio for a full day at the site.  To avoid the crowds Emilio suggest we try to catch one of the first buses.  There will be a line and we should try to be near the front of it.  “Meet me at the bus stop at 4:30 AM,” Emilio tells us.  Another short night and early morning are in front of us.