The Road To Machu Picchu

(Whoops, I had meant to place to Machu Picchu photos BEFORE this post, but did not.  Those many photos are AFTER this article.  Sorry).

After Ollantaytempo, we went back to our vans and hit the road for the train station.  No, we weren’t going to do the Inca trail or any of the other hikes to Machu Picchu.  This wasn’t that kind of trip.  We were taking the train to the town of Machu Picchu, which is at the base of the real Machu Picchu (which might not be the real name according to historians or archaeologists or something).  

The town is hard by the Urubamba River, has been renamed Machu Picchu in recent years, to either cut down on confusion or to significantly increase confusion, I confused as to which.  It’s longtime name was Aguas Calientes.  

But I get ahead of myself.  National Geographic, which, unlike the other Nat Geo trips we’ve done (China, Antarctica, and the Arctic) has not covered itself in glory, but on this train trip, they did.  We had first class tickets, and sat with a very nice couple, Sanjiv and Meena Bansal, a couple of doctors who are a couple from Old Westbury, New York.  Their kids went to the same school as Carol did (the three kids matriculated much more recently than Carol did!), and Sanjiv went to a nearby high school.

(Note: Carol’s public school is named the Wheatley School, which she notes might be the most pretentious name for a public school in the country.)

Anyhow, we enjoyed looking at the scenery, watching the Urubamba River rush by.  Rafting and kayaking is not allowed in this section of the river, as the huge boulders and incredible speed of the water means is not fit for man nor beast.  The mountains towered above us, and every so often we would see a rickety pedestrian bridge over the river.  

The guides pointed out various jump off points for the Inca trail.  As they were pointed out, Carol and I felt secure in our decision to take the train rather than attempt (and fail) to hike it.  Between my right ankle and my left knee, my days of tough hiking is a few years in the past.

But most of all, we enjoyed talking with Sanjiv and Meena about travel, kids, work, photography, and more.  Sanjiv has been enjoying the blog (as you should too!) and just texted before take-off to the Galapagos that the blog has inspired him to do the same (I shared some other trips with him, such as Antarctica and the Arctic).  Today in line at the Guayaquil we started comparing notes on our love of wine, so I think there will be travel and wine texts in our future.

We had lunch on the train, and I was impressed by Sanjiv and Meena’s willingness to have a Pisco Sour, followed by a glass of wine BEFORE Machu Picchu.  Carol and I showed more discretion than usual by passing on the drinks.  We’re not big day drinkers, and we are definitely NOT day drinkers before hiking up to Machu Picchu!  The alcohol didn’t impact Sanjiv and Meena one iota, which impressed me no end!

We walked through town to our buses, as the train station had recently been destroyed by a landslide.  By “recently” I mean a month earlier.  There was an earthquake in 2007 that caused 2,000-4,000 tourists (I can’t remember the exact number) to be stranded before being rescued.  So, like the song, they get knocked down, but they get back up again.

It started raining just before we got off the train, but that proved to be the only major rain of the day.  There was a briefer than brief sprinkle whilst up top at Machu Picchu, but we didn’t even have time to decide whether to pull our our rain jackets before it stopped.

The town is bisected by both the river and the train tracks, and definitely has an adventure vibe, between the bars, the tourism offices, the hotels, and the shops.

We boarded the buses and took the windy road up, up, up to Machu Picchu.  Looks like we made it.