Machu Picchu

On Saturday, April 16th, we got up early again to be at breakfast for 6 am. Anita was feeling nauseous and experiencing the Incas' revenge but she managed to eat a little bit. We left one day pack at the hotel because we had packed water and extra clothes in the other one for the day. Our hotel was about 75 metres from the bus stop so we were there by 7 am.
The day before, we had purchased round trip bus tickets for $24 US each for the 8 km ride up the mountain to Machu Picchu. It had seemed expensive at the time but by the time we had driven up all the switchbacks to get to the site entrance, I would have paid another $12 to get off. The ride didn't make Anita feel any better either. After we ran the gauntlet of all the guides selling their services we stopped for a bathroom visit before entering the main gate. In the bathroom were a number of people who had done "the Inca Trail" trek to get there. Actually, there is no "the" Inca trail. There are thousands of Inca trails in Peru, Ecuador and beyond. However, there is only one where they charge  a maximum of 500 tourists per day to walk through the bush and camp in fields in tents all crammed together. The ones we met in the bathroom just looked relieved to be using a bathroom with running water, even though it was ice cold, for the first time in a few days.
The tourists who do the trek, get up from their last campsite very early so they can walk down into Machu Picchu through the Sun Gate high on the mountain, and see the whole site in the morning light. It may be a mystical experience for some but the ones we met just looked annoyed since they didn't see anything. When we entered the site, the mist was so thick that you could barely see your own feet.
Since we had to wait for the fog to lift, we walked up the trail toward the Sun Gate. Anita sat on a rock while I walked on for about another 1/2 hour. I'm pretty sure I was getting close to the Sun Gate but it was raining lightly and very foggy so I finally decided to quit. I wasn't going to see anything anyway.
By the time I got back to Anita, the fog was lifting enough that we could see Machu Picchu and a bit of the surrounding mountains. Although it rained on and off through the morning, we gradually saw more and more.
It really is a majestic site. The ruins are in good condition since they were never found and destroyed by the Spaniards. The setting is fantastic, high in the mountains with a view to the river below. There are many buildings of different sizes, the usual fantastic Inca stonework and of course the whole area is terraced for agriculture. It is one of the most awesome sights in the world and must be that much better on a sunny day.
After about 4 hours there, we were ready to leave. The bus ride back down the mountain didn't make Anita feel any better. Back in the village, I had a late lunch of the menu of the day again at the same restaurant as the day before, while Anita had a cup of tea.
Our train didn't leave for Ollantaytambo until 6:10 pm so we spent a couple of hours sitting in the town square under a roof overhang to avoid the intermittent showers. Then we spent another hour in our hotel lobby watching some movie in Spanish. Finally, we went up to the train station and got on our train to Ollantaytambo.
We enjoyed the trip back, chatting with a young couple from Chile. When we got to Ollantaytambo, we hired a mototaxi for 6 soles to take us to the Intitambo Hotel. It was a short but rough ride up the narrow cobblestone streets.
An email from our son Dylan asking if we were okay was our first news of the earthquake on the coast of Ecuador. We would find out later how bad it really was.