Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu

Finally, the day day to visit Machu Picchu arrived.

There may be several ways to go to Machu Picchu but the standard way is to take a bus from Cusco to Ollantaytambo (some 44 miles away), then the train to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo), and finally a bus up to Machu Picchu. We took a tour that brought us to Pisaq and Valle Sagrado before arriving to Ollantaytambo.

A view of the Sacred Valley

Ollantaytambo was another Inca’s ceremonial center. The design of the city, the wonderful terracing of the mountain slopes, and the construction details, make it as spectacular as Machu Picchu. 

The suffix “tambo” indicates a place to rest and resupply. In this case, Ollantaytambo was also used as a granary for travelers passing by. The old constructions are still there, on the most aerated sides of the mountains to ascertain that whatever they stored will remain fresh.

Unfortunately, due to astuteness that characterizes me, I forgot to bring the camera up the slopes so I couldn’t record what I saw in this fantastic place. Luckily, for those that might be interested, the internet has plenty of information and pictures describing the place.

MACHU PICCHU

Machu Picchu was build as a resort for the emperors trying to wet away from Cusco’s cold and rain. It is located at a much lower altitude, almost 8000 feet compared with Cusco’s 11200 feet. The city is surrounded by high mountains, inaccessible on three sides due to steep cliffs, and with ample space to sustain a population between 600 and 800 people with the production out of the terraced slopes.

The first thing that impacted us was the magnificent scenery. Huge and wild green mountains surround the entire place, and a multitude of swallows bringing a smile to everyone:

Apart from the incredible mountain setting and design of the city, I was attracted by the construction details. The basic material used for construction of the walls were rocks found at the same location, while all the houses had thatched roofs using local reeds. However, there were at least three construction categories, depending on the status or the purpose of each construction. 

The buildings designed for the emperor or ceremonial purposes show a complete mastery and control of the techniques needed to adapt the rocks to their needs. They knew how to cut the rocks in whatever angle or curve was needed to make perfect assemblages of those huge blocks:

They differed from the construction used for general purpose buildings. For those constructions the rocks were selected for the best fit and glued together with a sort of concrete made of sand, clay and straw:

The walls included some spigots used to tie the beams supporting the roofs:

There is so much already written about Machu Picchu that it will be redundant trying to explain all my impressions of the place. Now we are ready to continue our visit to Perú, even when the next step will be a tiresome trip from Cusco to Nazca with an overnight stop at Abancay. The road is long and difficult but we have rested enough to make the best of it.

By the way, driving on mountain roads is not easy for the brakes. I found a problem with the disk brakes, probably due to excessive braking, which forced us to rework the surface of the disks and change the brake pads. From now on I will be much careful and use the engine brake when needed.