Periodista Indu prefiere Machu Picchu que al Taj Mahal

Day 67: Machu Picchu or the Taj Mahal? Who got your vote?

Priya Ramani - Wednesday, June 18, 2008 9:03 PM

I already know the answer to that question. In last year´s frenzied email polling, you voted for the Taj Mahal as the seventh wonder of the world. Why? Well, because it was Indian of course. India is great. The Taj is amazing. India´s best monuments are as good as any other country´s right? So what if you hadn´t seen Machu Picchu. As an Indian, the Taj seemed the obvious choice.
Now that I´ve been there, done that, I can say this: I´m glad Machu Picchu won.

Don´t get me wrong, I love the Taj. I even went for the godawful Yanni concert just so I could see the Taj lit up in the background. But getting to the Taj is a nightmare. Horrible railway stations, a ghastly city, no real choice of good accomodation if you don´t want to go five star, touts at every step of the way, people thrusting ugly miniatures of the real thing in your face, and, to make things worse, they always mistake me for an NRI at these places.
And Machu Picchu? Sure it´s expensive and toursity. And yes, the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge (which still gets real Inca water) controls all food and beverages once you get there. The cafe they run sells $5 miniature water bottles. Lunch is a rip off. But the experience of getting to Machu Picchu is beautiful.

On the 7.45am railcar to Machu Picchu
We caught a posh railcar (yes it was just one car) from the quaint station of Ollantaytambo, located at the northern end of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. There were windows everywhere and the scenery was stunning: snowcapped mountains on the right, the bare Andes on the left, only hedges of cactii between us and the raging Urubamba river below, lots of Inca ruins including a stunning fortress located in the clouds. We were served a boxed lunch on the painless/exquisite 1.30 hour journey to Aguas Calientes. We had wanted to do the Inca Trail, a four day hike through the mountains, but left it too late and couldn´t snag a spot (they only allow 500 hikers a day). As the husband settled into the train, his favourite mode of transport, he grinned: ¨Hike, shyke and all is okay but give me this any day.¨ The rapids in the Urubamba looked far more ferocious than the ones we tackled on our rafting trip yesterday. If you like rafting, Costa Rica is wayy better than Peru. We´ve now set our sights on the month-long Bhrahmaputra rafting trip.

Our guide Darwin (don´t laugh, he was amazing. He first saw MP when he was 7 years old, has been a guide for 28 years and has authored 5 books) met us at the station. We were headed straight for Machu Picchu, so we handed our bag to a random stranger who for a small fee would deposit it at our hotel. Can you imagine utilizing such a service at the Taj? There were zillions of locals selling souvenirs, but nobody looked like they would attack you if you didn´t buy anything.
We stood in a neat line for two minutes, hopped on to one of many airconditioned Mercedes Benz mini buses and headed straight for the monument. Why the hell can´t we do this in Agra?
Location wise too, Machu Picchu wins over the Taj. The Taj is located in one of India´s ugliest cities. MP is located at the start of Peru´s Amazon forest. It´s actually in a cloud forest (avoid coming here from December to April; it rains every day and you won´t see any of the mountains) and the weather and vegetation here is tropical.

Inca romance or Moghul love?
I think it´s cool that king wanted to build a palace for the woman he loved. But I think the story of the Incas is even more romantic than Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal.
It´s amazing that they could build this granite masterpiece from humble stone hammers, bronze chisels, clay and sandstone. Of course it took them nearly 130 years to build the place. And there is sadness in this story too. Machu Picchu was never finished. First, there was the Civil War in 1529. Then the Spanish arrived in 1532 and pretty much deleted all the Inca temples and replaced them with churches. When the Incas in Machu Picchu realized the Spanish were headed their way, they abandoned MP and rushed to Vilcabamba, the last refuge of the Incas, where they were finally destroyed. You can see the Vilcabamba glacier from MP and it´s not difficult to imagine their last journey across the Urubamba canyon.
And talking of rivers--the pristine Urubamba encircles MP; the Taj has to make do with the polluted Yamuna.

And the actual monuments?
Like most people, I fell in love with the Taj when I first saw it. I was amazed by its beauty and the intricate detailing that had gone into its creation. All those designs, wah Taj!
But Machu Picchu wins for its sheer utilitarian, rugged beauty and the lessons it teaches you. The Incas worshipped nature and lived in harmony with it. As Darwin put it: "They were the first Green Team". There´s tonnes of astronomy here. There´s a representation of the Southern Cross consellation, the only cross the Incas knew, that perfectly points out the NSEW directions. Many guides place their compasses on the stone for confirmation. Two windows of MP´s Sun Temple face north east and south east and are in perfect allignment with the sunrise on the summer and winter solstices. Incidentally, if you want to visit Cusco and Machu Picchu, come during the winter solstice in June. The Sun Festival is Peru´s biggest party.
The Incas also believed in duality. So if Machu Picchu or old mountain is towers over the southern part of this ancient city, Wynapicchu or young mountain dominates the northern view. Darwin says five people died trying to climb Wynapicchu last year. It´s a four hour roundtrip hike.
That´s another thing. Like Everest, this place inspires people to give it their best shot. All kinds of professionals in their 40s and 50s attempt the Inca Trail, said Jeff, a 42-year-old American graduate student of anthropology told us. He was the youngest member of his group. "In your 20s you don´t have enough money and in your 30s you´re busy looking after your kids," he reasoned. Wanda, a 70 something American who has undergone two knee replacement surgeries in the last couple of years, trooped bravely along with us as we did the long walking tour of Machu Picchu.
Inspired by Wanda, I convinced the husband to climb to the Intipunku or the Sun Gate. We huff and puff up the hour long trek but once we´re up we have a spectacular view of the valley below.
Of course I´m not saying the Peruvians are all good. Hell, a few years ago they filmed a beer commercial on one of the holy rocks and now there´s a crack in its southern side. Then there was the time in 1978 when the Peruvian army decided to use the holy main square--now a patch of green with grazing llamas--as a helipad to ferry some local bigwings and they hammered the Inca Obelisk that stood in its centre so hard that it now lies buried underground.
But at least they´ve got their act together now. I wonder when we will do the same.