Wiñay Wayna

Monday 11th April 1988

We had a good night’s sleep. I woke up at 07:00 hrs. and did the five-minute walk to Wiñay Wayna. It was shrouded in mist and I got soaked whilst exploring the terraced ruins in the waist-high grass. A lot of the ruined walls had a gabled end, coming up to a point where they once supported thatched roofs.

Back at the Wiñay Wayna Tourist Lodge Eddie and I had a leisurely breakfast with Diana, a Canadian, and Mark, a young Englishman who had been on Operation Raleigh in Chile. We set off late for the final stretch to Intipunku from where we would first see legendary Machu Picchu.

The trail was well paved and the jungle terrain dropped precipitously away on our right. We munched boiled sweets and walked between colourful butterflies across “dangerous” bridges and poisonous snake areas.

We stopped at a stone gateway for a rest before ascending an almost vertical, short-stepped stairway and came over the ridge to Intipunku for our first glimpse of the ancient ruins. Inti Punku or Intipunku (Quechua inti sun, punku door, "sun gate") is the final section of the Incan Trail between the Sun Gate complex and the city of Machu Picchu. It was believed that the steps were a control gate for those who enter and exited the Sanctuary.

It is one of the most important archaeological constructions around the Machu Picchu site. Inti Punku was once the main entrance to Machu Picchu, in particular it was the primary approach from the then capitol city of Cusco to the southeast. The gate likely would have been protected by Incan military.

Inti Punku is dedicated to the cult of the Inti, the Sun god. Because of its location on a ridge southeast of Machu Picchu, the rising sun would pass through the Sun Gate each year on the summer solstice.

It is located 2,745 meters above the sea level. The altitude of the climb to Inti Punku from Machu Picchu is 290 metres. It is a wide archaeological site with windows and gates that are held up by terraces. This is the first place that tourists can see the whole sanctuary. Tourists are able to see the sun rise over the whole mountains by Machu Picchu. The location of the gate was given to watch the people passing.

We were sweating but happy as we surveyed the magnificent view below. We took photographs when the ruins were revealed between the drifting clouds and watched the yellow buses plying along the zigzagging Hiram Bingham Road from the Machu Picchu Railway Station far below at the bottom of the valley to the Tourist Hotel at the top, by the entrance of the ruins.

We chatted to two American women who were on a 17-day Tour of South America which cost them more than I spent on my entire 7-month trip! We then walked down to the archaeological site with Mark and Diana.

We stopped at a high terrace by the cemetery caretakers hut overlooking the stone city. It is from here that all the textbook and postcard photographs of the Machu Picchu ruins are taken.

We sat there cooking in the hot sun for an hour or so and then decided to go down to the town of Aguas Calientes to relax. We would return tomorrow to explore the ruins at our leisure.

Machupicchu or Machupicchu Pueblo, also known as Aguas Calientes, is a location in Peru situated in the Cusco Region, Urubamba Province. It is the seat of the Machupicchu District. Machupicchu lies at the Vilcanota River. It is the closest access point to the historical site of Machu Picchu which is 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) away or about a 1.5 hours walk. There are many hotels and restaurants for tourists, as well as natural hot baths which gave the town its colloquial Spanish name.

The village of Aguas Calientes did not exist until the railroad was built, as it was a centre for construction workers. It took off after the railroad opened in 1931 and foreign tourists started arriving to visit the Machu Picchu ruins. Enterprising individuals set up businesses serving the tourists, primarily restaurants and small hotels. Those who could afford luxury stayed at the luxury hotel up by the ruins.

We ploughed through the camera-happy tourists and paid 110 I/- to be taken down to Aguas Calientes Railway Station by bus. It was sweltering hot, and we had a Coca Cola among the souvenir stalls outside the station.

It was a fifteen-minute walk through two dripping tunnels along the railway track to the village of Aguas Calientes. The brown river tumbled splashed and boiled on our right. The small town extends in a line along the railway line between the river and the cliffs of the gorge.

The wooden buildings gave it the feel of a frontier town in the American Wild West. We booked into “Gringo Bills” Hostal Qoñi Unu and gratefully demolished a couple of bottles of Cuzqueña cerveza beers and some banana pancakes.

The beer was apparently inspired by their millinary heritage. With more than 100 years of superior brewing, its origin dates back to 1908, in the imperial capital of Cusco; also called, the "Navel of the World". A captivating ancestral city full of culture. The flavors and history of our land welcome you! Discover the magic and explore more than one wonder in each variety of Cusqueña. Uncover the adventure and be part of this meeting of flavors.

To make a good beer, we carefully select and integrate each of our ingredients: yeast, water, hops and barley. But in addition, a premium beer with an incredible flavor is only achieved with a special process for malt. Therefore, each of our varieties has 100% pure malt.

Soon afterwards we joined the others who had completed the Inca Trail today in a welcome visit to the hot thermal baths. We paid our 50 I/- Intis and began to totally relax by standing up to our necks in the hot water baths.

Occasionally we would jump into the freezing cold rapids of the mountain stream next door before leaping back into the hot pool. Great stuff! All of the bathers were from Commonwealth countries so there were no communication problems. We stayed around the pools for about two hours, standing in the hot water during the afternoon bout of light rain.

In the evening we walked down to the main drag, along the railway track, to eat. I ate chicken with Jerry, his sister and his Brazilian girlfriend in the Aiko Restaurant while Eddie and the others had pizzas in another place a few doors along.

We were pestered by dogs, cats and children selling Inca artifacts and jewellery. Back at Gringo Bills the planned piss up never materialised and we sat drinking pop in the kitchen while Bill told us of the trials and tribulations of living in Peru.