MacKenzies marvel at Machu Picchu, mesquite festival in Fredericksburg

AMERICAN-STATESMAN
WISH YOU WERE HERE
Heights OF Machu Picchu are hard-won
From Bruce MacKenzie of Austin.
We had seen the classic picture of Machu Picchu, but we didn't understand how you actually got there. Even after planning, the trip held a few surprises for us. It turned out that getting there was half the fun — mostly.
Our starting point was the high Andean city of Cuzco (11,000 feet). If you fly from sea level directly to Cuzco, allocating a full day to acclimate is mandatory. I am reasonably fit, yet I developed flu-like symptoms within a couple of hours of landing. My wife spent that first night throwing up. The symptoms were gone the next day, but we were still out of breath after each flight of stairs.
At the base of Machu Picchu is Aquas Calientes, which exists solely to support visiting tourists. The town can only be reached by train or on foot. The choice was a no-brainer. Although the train leaves from Cuzco, our group took a bus from Cuzco to Ollantaytambo, a leisurely ride that swapped the more routine parts of the train ride for an extraordinary ride through rolling farmlands with the snow-capped Andes in the background. Life is hard there, as well as puzzling to the outsider. We passed a lone boy, with a parrot perched atop his head, guiding his llama to who knows where.
We took the train in Ollantaytambo and began a magnificent 90-minute ride that wound along the Urubamba River, passed Inca sites and mercifully got lower in elevation.
Once in Aquas Calientes, to reach the archeological site we boarded a bus for a comfortable but bouncy 30-minute ride up a dirt road with a dozen or more switchbacks. As we got higher, our anticipation increased with the thought of that first glimpse of Machu Picchu, but also with the thought of the bus slipping off the unprotected road. We arrived at 2 p.m., and the crowds were thinning. We practically had the place to ourselves, save for a few llamas.
The next day, we had a second visit to the site. This is highly recommended despite the $40-per-person-per-day fee. We had extra time to make one of the more extended hikes and contemplate the aura of it all. I chose to hike up to Intipanku, the Sun Gate. From below it didn't look far, even though the path is all uphill. I was out of breath as we reached a set of ruins and was disappointed to learn from our guide that we were not yet halfway to our destination. Onward and upward we hiked. It was still early morning, and the whole area was fogged in. Occasionally we got a tantalizing glimpse of the famous ruins as the fog cleared for a few seconds but then quickly closed in again. After an hour and a half, as we reached the top, it cleared. We had a beautiful view, not only of the main site, but also over the ridge behind Intipanku to the untouched rows of mountains behind.
What the pictures don't capture is the surrounding mountains and utter remoteness. It is truly a place to be experienced.
Bruce MacKenzie recently retired, and Judy volunteers throughout Austin. They just returned from a trip to southern Africa and enjoy planning their trips almost as much as taking them, he says.