Style: March 06, 2020

STYLE | travel 79
The colourful markets at Aguas Calientes, where we disembarked near the foot of Machu Picchu mountain.
It was such a simple gesture, but one I’ll always treasure. A
Chilean lady was gazing at the sun with a look of wonder and
astonishment on her face. She was wearing 3D sunglasses and
her expression suggested she had just glimpsed the gates of
heaven. As I passed by, she held out the sunglasses to me and
pointed at the sun. I put them on, turned towards the sun and
gasped.
A solar eclipse was underway... at Machu Picchu... at the
Temple of the Sun.
The Chilean lady and her husband had come all the way
from Santiago to Peru, armed with special glasses to witness
the eclipse at the legendary ‘City of the Incas’ – but I just
happened to be there on the right day at the right time
standing beside a lady with 3D glasses. The sight of the sun
obscured by a black sickle-shaped shadow was spine-tingling.
It was one of many moments of utter disbelief for me that
afternoon as I followed our guide around the vast Inca citadel,
incredulous that, after years of yearning, I was actually there.
Had it not been for photographic evidence, I might still believe
the entire experience to be a fantasy.
The day began early at Poroy train station in Cusco, where
we boarded Great Train Journeys’ Belmond Hiram Bingham for
the three-hour, 20-minute journey to Aguas Calientes at the
foot of Machu Picchu. The trip on the luxury train through the
Sacred Valley of the Incas added to the magic. The champagne,
lavish lunch and entertainment helped too!
After 112km, the train reached its final destination at Aguas
Calientes, where a coach was waiting to take us up the narrow,
zigzag road to the citadel.
When I dared to look down, I could see the railway track
running alongside the Urubamba River and the mountains rising
perpendicularly from the valley floor, their heads in the mist.
My pulse was racing by the time we reached the entrance to
the historical site. The stars and, as it turned out, the sun were
well-aligned for a perfect day. The winter sky was cloudless, the
temperatures mild, I’d adjusted to the high altitude, the crowds
were manageable (thanks to a new system of limiting the
number of people allowed on the site at any given time) and I
was well-prepared for the experience of a lifetime, having done
some reading in advance.
To begin with, we climbed steps and pathways for 20–30
minutes to gain an elevated perspective of the entire site, and
grasp the impact that first glimpse would have on hikers as they
came over the ridge after four days on the Camino Inca.
From above, you see the full extent of Machu Picchu and
the surrounding terrain. It’s a spectacular, heart-stopping sight. I
had a sense of disbelief that the genius of Inca architecture and
engineering, and one of the most famous archaeological sites
on the planet, lay literally at my feet.
The Incas built the citadel in the 15th century (1450 to
1460) on the most improbable of sites – a long narrow ridge
between the mountains of Machu Picchu and the rhinoceros
horn-shaped Wayna Picchu (also known as Huayna Picchu),
2430m above the valley floor.
On three sides of the ridge there are sheer drops to the
valley floor below, where the Urubamba River coils around the
foot of the mountains like a snake.
At the southern end of the city, the Incas cut giant steps