Ollantaytambo to Macchu Pichu

We slept well, and the next morning we woke up in Casa Inka to the squawks of parakeets red-fronted parakeets screeching away in a nearby tree.

The parakeets that woke us

The early bird catches the.. flower?

The P900 didn’t do outstanding in early morning low light, but it got this photo.

red-masked parakeet

the view out our door – imagine lots of birds chirping away in the brush

In the morning we were awake from the parakeets and roosters, went down those grueling stairs and had a nice breakfast – mostly eggs, fruit, cheese, and bread. We saw more rufous-collared sparrows, drank some more local tea, packed our O2 canister, and headed to the train station to visit Machu Picchu.

Ollantaytambo train station is lovely

PeruRail runs this line. We booked tickets online, and boarding was easy. They run observation cars on the trains, the path is through the Sacred Valley, mostly alongside a river, and with tunnels and things – a nice ride and a beautiful space.

The observation cars have extra windows, but the standard train cars are still quite nice.

The mountains all along the Sacred Valley have patches that are terraced, sometimes miles long. This massive terraforming goes back to the Incas and it really was amazing to see how much the Incas had shaped this vast space.

The train ride mostly followed the Urubamba river. At a number of points we spotted ancient ruins dotting the hillsides – so cool. The train ride was really nice, and served a drink/snack. We passed through a few tunnels, and went by a few towns that were interesting to see.

The train took us to Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu. Aguas Calientes has buses that run up to the archaeological site, or if you can climb the many horrible stairs in a long hike up to the site if you are young, acclimated to the height, and insane.

Out train car from the station.

dog in train station

Aguas Calientes – beautiful place

We strolled around Aguas Calientes which was an incredibly pretty place but we were O2 starved so we strolled very slowly. We checked out trains, looked around at birds and local sights, took breathing breaks, and bought our bus tickets to get up to Machu Picchu. There’s no way to order these online, bring your passport to the bus ticket office.

At this altitude we were on the edges of a cloud forest.

Max zoomed into the hillside with the D500 + 600mm lens. The flora here were really unusual. There also were fern trees (always cool), the occasional epiphytes, and unique plants.

Zoomed into the mountainside with the P900’s mega-reach.

Max zoomed into the hillside with the P900. We used the P900’s reach as a spotting scope for the mountain.

tropical kingbirds spotted in town

Also we watched a PeruRail engine connect to a train of cars, and while this wasn’t really part of the plan, it was really cool to get to watch.

Trains – cool

Pachacuti, friend to birds

The dogs were very helpful in their way.

they also had Craft Ace Cream

Eventually we got on the bus and wound our way up the switchbacks to the site. We were dreading this part, since the air is thin at 8000 feet up, and Machu Picchu is a monument of stairs – so many hand carved, carefully laid stone stairs. Apparently the Incas loved cardio workouts.

An epic journey of climbing up and down things in a world with no oxygen

Altitude sickness was a little worse than the previous day, but the O2 helped with Machu Picchu. We were tentative at first, but after a while we learned to use it before we felt the great burning thirst for air rather than in response to it. Machu Picchu is a fascinating place, a beautiful spot, and there were a lot of rufous-collared sparrows and swallows flitting around and occasional small brown mystery birds, and we spotted some nice sized lizards and some brightly colored flash mystery birds. Some red, some yellow, a bit of blue on the body somewhere, then gone. We heard parrot/parakeet squawks in the distance at times.

An incomplete section – also needs more stairs

a large lizard

Temple of the Sun

We wandered around until we’d taken it in, and as we headed back peals of thunder hit, a light rain started, seeming like it was only going to get heavier. We had already been heading back so we made it onto the first bus back down before the crush from the rain and explored Aguas Calientes for a bit, changed the return time for our train ticket back to Ollantaytambo, and headed back. The train station had a decent sized garden that had a few birds flitting around with a few hummingbirds visiting.

By the time we got back to Ollantaytambo it was dark. We took a mini-taxi from the station back to the main square. These photos are surprisingly effective at capturing the feel of a ride in the local tiny death traps:

The main square is a really cool place. The town has been continuously inhabited since the 13th century, and while there are touristy things, this is a living old town with a lot of history and charm. It also was a last holdout of the Incan Empire against the Spanish. We ate pizza and fries and got ‘limonade’ that was really good lime-ade and took another mini-taxi back to the B&B where we got to bed.

The next morning we were awakened by the parakeets again (along with some roosters), spent a bit looking at the local hillside with ruins, birds, and interesting things. The folks at the B&B Inka Hotel were great through our stay, helped us arrange a taxi back to Cusco, and also packed a lunch for us for the drive.

We took a flight from Cusco to Pisco on LatAm, which went smoothly, then at Pisco we had a driver pick us up to take us to Paracas.

next: Paracas National Reserve