View from train to Machu Picchu
- en route, 7 am PeruRail train from Cusco to Machu Picchu Pueblo, 4 hour duration, observations towards the tale end of the journey…
Green mountains creased, crowded tight, smashed into each other, hovering, watching, keeping cross.armed guard over the river valley below. Brown, tan, gray patches and lines of rocks, with light green grass and tiny shrubs sometimes sparse, sometimes blanketing the mountains. Trees hug the banks, with occasional flowers flashing red through the green. The mountains stand up around us another 1,000m (I think) from where we are on the train, already at 2,500m (I think)–never have been good at gauging distance, but I know that Cusco is at 3,400m and we´re on our way down to Machu Picchu at 2,400m. Occasioal snow-capped peaks pierce the clouds, whose shadows turn the spring green to a dark piney green in U-shaped patterns like reflections of the ridges. Humped-backed mountains, leprachaun camels, are steep and looming and hold random naked bolders that I imagine are starting to teeter and fall. Any minute we´ll be crushed, our train car like an aluminum can. But, of course, they hold steady, the valley looking more plush, sturdy, and fertile as we slowly, unnoticingly, decend further towards Machu Picchu Pueblo, known as ”Aguas Calientes.”
Red and orange hues now in patches along bolder faces. This river below, the Urubamba River (also known as the Vicanota or the Wilcamayu River in different parts of this Sacred Vally), feeds into the Amazon River eventually. Foliage beginning to get thick like jungle now. Insects and butterfiles, not seen in Cusco, flutter by the windows. The pinched folds of mountain faces look ready to burst, and the ever-so-often out-of-place silver power towers of our modern times seem like acupuncture needles placed to relieve the stress. Yellow-green frond plants, with red-brown tips, on the high cliffsides hold up their solitary ten-fingered hand as if to say hi to us tourists in the train far below. The land is naturally divided by the river here, and we are creeping along on a thin rail line, sharing the space, with our intrusive gaudy metallic blue train cars and the well-timed warning whistles. The Incas walked the trails twisting above, and backpackers were just left off at trail marker 104 km in the middle of nowhere near a narrow pedestrian wood and rope bridge passing over the river. I will hike a bit, but not brave the altitudes that must be accended before finally going down to one of the wonders of the world, Machu Picchu. I will go by bus from Aguas Calientes tomorrow, and hike up to the higher Waynu Picchu for part of the day. Whistle blows, we have just pulled into the station.
Interesting note about the train ride, not always stated clearly in guidebooks, but well said here by Wikipedia:
- The Cuzco to Machu Picchu route boasts a series of 5 switchbacks called locally ‘El Zig-Zag’, which enable the train to climb up the steep incline out of Cuzco before it can begin its descent to the Sacred Valley and then continue on down to Machu Picchu. ‘El Zig-Zag’ allows stunning views over all of Cuzco right down into the Plaza de Armas and this view is particularly spectacular at night when the whole city is illuminated, as seen on the return journey from Machu Picchu.
Looking forward to the evening journey home on Tuesday.
