09.13.21
I wish I could say that Machu Picchu was the highlight of our 12 days on the Peruvian roads and rails, but it was not. Hang on, I’ll get to that…
We got to Cusco (11K elevation), and immediately hightailed it to Ollantaytambo, just 72 km (45 mi) away and a lower 8800 feet elevation, in about 90 minutes. This is one SMALL town and you can walk from one end to the other in about 10 minutes. With a population of about 10,000 people, (and that includes the outlying areas) the town thrives on two things: an amazing shrine, called The Sun Temple, in the middle of town, and the Peru Rail train stop which leads to Machu Picchu just 90 minutes away. The solitude was what we needed after an almost 12 hour bus ride the night before, and Kathleen having motion sickness problems much of the way.
Not fun.
After a few hours rest we explored and readied ourselves for the next day, when we would take the 0745 train to Machu Picchu, which BTW, is NOT the easiest place to visit. This is also not a cheap ticket and we opted for the “Vista Dome” which has glass wrapped around the top and afforded a very nice view and worth the money. It also allowed us to experience live entertainment with Peruvian music and dancing on the train. This was truly magical and getting to our destination came too soon. Even so, the ride was extraordinary, watching the high cliffs of Mount Veronica on one side, and the Urubamba River on the other.
After checking into our room in Aguas Calientes, we explored this charming, but very touristy town, for a few hours, got our pricey $24 bus ride tickets (it’s only a 25 minute ride) and got in line for our 2:00 pm tour. We had a very difficult time finding ACCURATE and TRUSTWORTHY information on how and where to get tickets, but fortunately we had a good “inside man,” Garret Geitner, a Facebook friend, who lives in Cusco. A 10 minute video call helped us a lot and we bought our entry tickets online ($38 each) and were ready to go. I will be providing an easy “Five Steps to Machu Picchu Guide” for you shortly, and it will walk you through exactly what WE did, and you can choose to follow if you want.
We hear about and read about Machu Picchu all our lives, and to see it there, in front of us, was a somber moment. Considering I never really traveled internationally until 5 years ago, and over the past 3 years have put on over 100,000 miles, I cannot say that this was the culmination, but it certainly put a mark in my mind.
The shrine IS breathtaking. To think of what it took to build such a structure at 8000 ft altitude is inspiring. Machu Picchu was not even discovered until 1911 and I have a picture below of what it looked like when it was shrouded in vegetation. Even though we are in the midst of Covid, it was still very crowded which took away some of the spiritual connection that I hoped to achieve there. Kathleen felt the same way. We were able to tour the entire facility in the two-hour time window that they provided for us, and even though there are other shrines in the area, most of them are still closed.
Kat and I talked quite a bit about our lack of connection to the monument, but a few days later after we returned to Ollantaytambo, we did in fact create a spiritual connection– to a mountain.
We stayed in a hotel, on the side of a mountain. It is called the Vertical Lodge, and I have been reading about hotels like this for several years, but never in my wildest dream ever thought that I would stay there. Through the generous contribution of friends, we were able to make this once in a lifetime dream come true.
The lodge is built on a mountain, and there are 3 geodesic domes and 4 capsules that are literally hung on the side of a cliff. They just opened the beginning of August, and were still working out some bugs, so we got to be one of their beta testers. We had the choice of staying in either one, but because of the awkwardness of getting into a capsule and the fact that there is no room outside to really lounge, we went with the dome, and were very glad we did.
Imagine being inside of a dome with no real walls on the exterior, but just glass, and you can imagine what that night sky looked like at 11,000 ft! We got there about 2:30 in the afternoon and got a tour of the property. One of the amazing things about this location is the high quality restaurant on site, like a five-star resort looking at panoramic vistas all around.
We spent two days there, and they offered other treats, like zip lining, walking bridges, and repelling, but the mountain, as glorious as it was, is quite windy, and we did not feel comfortable doing any of those. That wind also made it mighty chilly at night! But as soon as that sun came up, the thermal rays warmed it up in no time.
Something else happened up there that we were not expecting.
When we got there and sat down in the restaurant for the first time, we felt an overwhelming sense of calm and emotions, and I was almost brought to tears. For several minutes I sat there, my mind was blank, and I just felt the grace and the gratitude of my life. Later on we found out that the owners of the mountain built this facility to share these exact same emotions. The lodge is family owned, and they believe that there is a spiritual energy there, and I definitely agree.
Across from Mount Veronica, which was to our right, there were three cathedral-like peaks on the other side that captured Kathleen’s attention and she was drawn to them. When we mentioned that to Alan, the manager, he told us that the Incas believed that those three peaks were a door to another world and it reflected back on Mount Veronica. Some things defy explanation, and this is one of them.
We finally came back down to the city of Ollantaytambo, which, BTW, is part of the Sacred Valley, into our new room, and relaxed until our departure the next day to the city of Pisac. I knew nothing about the city, and the 90-minute taxi ride was absolutely gorgeous since we were going right through this valley. And the city had an interesting effect on both of us as well.
And that was a very cool energy which felt like a Northern California town from 1975. All the people were very mellow, and friendly, and the quality of craftmanship in that town from the different vendors was phenomenal. The town is a big draw for those looking for spiritual journeys, and ayahuasca, which I took last year, is a big attraction here. We never know until we visit a town whether we should spend more or less time there, and this was one that we both agreed we should have stayed for longer. But I guess that’s a story for another day.
When we began our journey 3 years ago, our goal was to stay in different locations for 6 weeks and identify those that we wished to return to. Even though we did not spend 6 weeks in Peru, I think both of us agreed that we liked Latin America more than we thought we would and a return trip is definitely a consideration.
Our flight back to Lima was effortless, and the Cusco airport had probably the most easy security I have ever seen. Not only did we not have to remove our shoes or computers, we also did not have to remove the bottled water from our bag or Kathleen’s canister of oxygen! That was a first. (Later we found the same ease at the Lima airport, so maybe allowing water is now a thing. God, I hope so). The return stay to Lima was only 24 hours long as we took the red eye at midnight back to Miami (on 9/11). I will be in the US for 2.5 days, and then on to another trip I never thought I would take: Dubai. I will be there for a business event and will share that in a future entry.
