My new camera (Canon 90D) arrived Friday morning and early Saturday I hopped on a train to Machu Picchu Pueblo (Aguas Calientes) to test it out in one of the most photogenic places in Peru.

It was a fun two days walking along the Rio Urubamba experimenting with the camera as well as scouting out places to explore in the coming weeks now that the rainy season is behind us.

The train ride is always beautiful and it was especially so as the weather coming and going was absolutely gorgeous with very few clouds in deep blue skies. I’m always amazed at how many people sleep on the trip and completely miss out on everything there is to see along the way. Of course, this fits with the idea that most are simply tourists looking to get a selfie in a famous place, check it off of their bucket list so they can brag about being there, then move on to the next place without every experiencing or knowing anything about the place they visited.

I’ve made the trip dozens and dozens of times and still can’t help but stare out the window looking at everything I can as we pass. The view is not a movie set or a Disney adventure ride. It’s about people who will go about their lives long after the train passes and a land with a magnificent history going back centuries. Every single time I go I see new things and make new discoveries while most people are on their phones or having train attendants take their picture so they can post it on social media.

The pastoral Andean scenery eventually gives way to tropical scenes as the train makes it way to Machu Picchu. No matter the weather, the views are always breathtaking.

Arrival at Machu Picchu Pueblo has changed a bit in recent months. For a long time, passengers disembarked on the far end of town near the police station where everyone had to pass through a quick disinfection misting booth before moving on into the town. Now the exit is through the normal entrance gate where a horde of Machu Picchu guides are waiting to take you up to the site and tell you all kinds of made up stories — for a fee, of course!

[Note: if you want to learn about Machu Picchu, read up before you go and stay far, far away from the guides who are very much aware that the way to get tips is to provide the most entertaining descriptions of what you’ll see without any regard for reality. If you every see or hear anything about ancient “megalithic civilizations” or “ancient aliens” — there are tons of YouTube videos full of this kind of BS — get as far away as you can. It’s all pseudo-science garbage based on zero research.]

Machu Picchu Pueblo (commonly referred to by it’s former name, Aguas Calientes), is extremely “touristy” on the west side. Most of the hotels and especially the restaurants fill this side of town. The town is divided by the picturesque Rio Aguas Calientes which is always beautiful, though not quite as much this time of year when the water levels are considerably lower and the many waterfalls are someone subdued.

When I arrived on Saturday, I checked onto my favorite hotel, Retama Machu Picchu Inn (photos below), and immediately went to my favorite restaurant, El Antojito, which has the best milanesa de pollo in the world. After stuffing myself and visiting with the staff who are also my friends, I headed off along the river to the west in the direction of Machu Picchu.

I’m always surprised by people who make the 3-hour hike from Santa Teresa and the hidroeléctrica and never look up to see a good bit of Machu Picchu high on the ridge as they walk along the Rio Urubamba some 500m feet below.

It’s not that there isn’t some amazing scenery along to way to keep them occupied, but Machu Picchu is why most everyone makes the trip.

Sadly, on this trip, the flowers had started to fade away and much of the greenery along the paths was also starting to turn brown. Lack of rain in recent weeks has not only contributed to a drastic lowering of the river level — enough so that you can walk across many places which were raging rapids just a few weeks ago — but was affected the flora in the region. I expect the river will be even lower in the coming months as the dry season is now in full effect upriver. (The current river level is about 4-5 months ahead of what it was last year.)

As I’ve said over and over before, the best way to experience walking the rainforest is to go very, very slow and take it all in. I stop frequently to listen and look. Animals know you’re there long before you see them — if you even see them at all. With the river being low and much slower now, there are even greater opportunities to hear wildlife. While you won’t see monkeys in this high part of the jungle, things like exotic birds and their unique calls, agoutis, river otters, and even rare spectacled bears exist in this area. (I’ve seen just about everything except bears.)

Stopping and looking around also lets you take in the surroundings much better than if you march through the jungle as if you’re on a mission to be the first to reach Dunkin’ Donuts when they open!

There are multiple Inca bridge sites below Machu Picchu along with some amazing walls, and even two roads leading up into the mountains where there are a lot of ruins including rumors of large sites that have yet to be explored. Can you see the two inclines in the photos below? I wouldn’t have noticed them had I not gone very slowly while constantly stopping to look at my surroundings. I’ve become really good at finding things like this and it’s all because I learned from people more experienced than me that seeing things in the jungle takes incredible patience.

One area where I hope to explore in the coming months and maybe years is in the surrounding mountains above Machu Picchu. The dense jungle and the presence of poisonous snakes like the Andean Lancehead — a member of the fer-de-lance family –makes it an extremely daunting idea, but the thought of finding places that perhaps haven’t been seen in centuries is quite intriguing. Of course, just as with Machu Picchu before Hiram Bingham first arrived in 1911, illegal treasure hunters known as “huaqueros” likely visited and looted every site long ago.

Most people have no idea that very, very little of the area has actually been explored. New sites are still found all the time — some of them quite significant. Local residents along the river have told me of places that have yet to be explored and studying the mountains as well as Inca culture reveals lots of likely places where ruins could yet be “discovered”.

Before heading back on Sunday, I made a little trip upriver. I really wasn’t planning on going far, but something told me to go a bit farther and scout out a possibly crossing near the foundations of an Inca bridge site a few kilometers from Machu Picchu Pueblo.

It turned out to be a useful trip as I discovered two more wall segments lining the river on both sides in an area about 100m from the bridge site. Both of these walls are underwater for many months of the year, but are in a place where the river is a bit wider allowing the strength of the current to perhaps have had a less destructive effect. Both segments are very short, but indicate that what lies on the other side is perhaps more extensive than I previously thought. Both are in spots where they are almost impossible to see.

I managed to make my way along the river bank for about 100m to reach within a few meters of the bridge site. Steep banks above and raging water during the rainy season make this an impossible task during most of the year, but it was possible now, though I still wasn’t able to find an easy place to cross. Hoping from rock to rock to cross is a possibility, but frankly is still a bit more challenging — even it only means a drenching the river — than I’m ready to try.

Below are pictures of where I scrambled along the river bank across the myriad of boulders to the most likely spot to cross to the other side.

This spot really intrigues me because much of the river on that side flows below towering steep cliffs, but just upriver is an area where there is room for ruins to lie hidden in the jungle. Also, a few more kilometers upriver on that same side is the major Inca site of Choquesuysuy. Obviously, if there was a bridge here, then on the other side there must be the remains of a road and possible some building to at least provide some control of the bridge site.

All of that will have to wait until another day perhaps not too far off.

The ride back to Cusco in the late afternoon and evening was long as I was quite tired from two days of trekking. The best part was getting a nice view of Nevado Veronica — the highest mountain in the Urubamba range — illuminated by the setting sun. I wish I’d been able to get a better picture, but these will give you an idea of just how amazing this sacred mountain rising over 19,300′ (almost 5,900m) looks.

This turned out to be a fun, though quick, trip to Machu Picchu Pueblo and the surrounding rainforest. I had fun learning my new camera and both it’s limitations and the limitations of my current lens. (I need a good long lens to better photograph animals from a distance!)

I’m getting close to a time when I can turn all my recent scouting trips into real explorations.

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