Hilton Adventures: Peru--The Sacred Valley and Machu Pichu

Being a very popular tourist "trap" we had made reservations
long in advance. The Villa was by far the nicest in Ollantaytambo
The Sacred Valley

This picture taken out of our hotel window.
The natives would bring in their goods
early in the morning and stay until after dark

Also from our window we would see
cows, horses, goats and donkeys just strolling around

There are two trains, The Vistadome and the Backpackers,

that take you up the mountain side to Machu Pichu

We chose the Vistadome

The train ride took 1 1/2 hours.
This was our first glimpe of Machu Pichu

Machu Pichu is a huge tourist attraction, so it was
crowded and the day was humid

It's remarkable that Machu Picchu
was "undiscovered" by the world until 1911.

Spanish invaders of the 15th certury, never discovered the city,
nobody ever led them there, suggesting that the site
had long since been abondoned and forgotten.

Hiram Bingham an American Explorer
decided to follow the old Spanish trade route from
Buenos Aires to Lima, and to Cusco.
Here Hiram enjoyed the hospitality of the local peasants.

They told Hiram they had found an
extensive system of terraces on whose fertile soil
they had been growning crops on for the past four years.

Bingham hired several guides but eventually was guided
to the terraces by a 11-year old boy, Pablito Alvarez.
They terraces numbered more than a hundred.
Here young Pablito began to reveal to Bingham
a series of white granite walls which were exposing
themselves under thick forest foliage

One year later Bingham returned with an expedition
to clear away hundreds of years of vegetation.

The job took less than 3 years
Bingham exported a good amount of Inca artifacts back to the United States

Those who have taken the time to research Machu Picchu history, still end up in the dark as to what the exact purpose of the city was. Scholars claim that when it comes to facts Machu Picchu must have been built some time around the year 1450 AD. Upon the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors in the 1500"s, civil war was already threatening to put an end to a cohesive Inca Empire, and since many of the Spanish had made allies out of a good number of Inca citizens, it seems that at some point the Spanish would have learned about Machu Picchu’s existence. Since it appears that the Spanish knew nothing about ancient Machu Picchu, it is thought by some that the Inca people of the time knew nothing about it either. Thus, it is surmised that Machu Picchu fell on its own, without the aid of Spanish invaders.

There are a number of theories about ancient Machu Picchu:
1.   The city was an important administrative center for the region
2.   It was a ceremonial center of sorts, capitalizing on its spiritually-invigorating location.
3.   It was the center of control for conquered regions, serving also as a sort of base for Incan                     aristocracy should they find themselves under attack.
4. The city may have been a sort of royal estate for Pachacutec and populated primarily by Pachacutec’s “family clan”.
5. Some believe that Machu Picchu history includes the city’s participation either as a look-out post or a protected source of coca. The coca plant was used for religious purposes by the Inca, and it remains widely used by natives to this day

Regardless of exactly how and why it was, Machu Picchu in Peru is the country’s top destination for a reason,
so set back and enjoy the following pictures:

Bickmore's will be our tour guide

These are said to be baths. The higher royalty bathed
in the upper pools and lower ranks in the bottom pools

This huge solid stone was placed here by the Incas to
match it's natural background

It has been an exhausting day and we're ready to leave the ruins and return to our Hotel in the Sacred Valley,
but when we arrive where our train is to depart, we find armed police pushing people, not allowing them
to get on the train. We find out their is a rail strike, which affected only the Vistadome. Dave says: "Let Me Handle This". Now remember he speaks perfect Spanish, bad for us that the guards spoke Quechua. Don't know how Dave managed to force us thru' the crowds towards the last backpackers train to depart that day, but he did, he and Mayrene forced their way on one car, yelling to us to jump on, we missed that car, but made the next one with Dave yelling "When they ask for your ticket, give them a blank, dumb look. It must have worked as they did approach us, but we didn't get kicked off.