Machu Picchu

Waking up without hot coca tea was actually not a problem, because we were so excited to see Machu Picchu. Time actually flew by in the bus line and the rain stopped as the sun came up. It was going to be a beautiful day! Finally! There are really no perfect words to describe seeing Machu Picchu for the first time in person. Breathtaking, unbelievable, and uplifting might be a good start, but nothing can do it justice. The most incredible part of the ruins is really location. It is located at the top of some mountains in this gorgeous region of the Andes, where the sacred river literally snakes around the site. After taking countless pictures, Saul began to explain the history of the site. Apparently, many historians and archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was a sort of university or college for boys of the royal Incan families. There are countless terraces that were used for crop experimentation, several temples, astrological viewing points, and homes on the site.

We walked through a few amazing temples were amazed by a perfect replica of the Southern Cross star constellation made from stone, and a temple to the Condor, where granite rock was placed to strategically look like a Condor in the temple. We also walked through some sacred sacrificial sites and tomb locations. Saul made a point of also telling us that many people believe Machu Picchu was an unfinished and eventually abandoned Incan project, based on the fact that an expansive rock quarry was located on site. Also, when the residents of Machu Picchu heard of the Spanish conquest, they took all of their treasure into the jungle, which have not yet been uncovered! Hiram Bingham, A professor at Yale Universty “found” Machu Picchu in 1911 and started taking any artifact he could find (something like over 50,000 artifacts) and shipping them back to the states. This year, 2011, Yale is supposed to ship all the artifacts back and of course, everyone in Peru is really excited about it.

Around 10am, we started heading up Huayna (Wayna) Picchu with our group. JJ and I were in Zion National Park only a few months ago, and this steep mountain rising above us reminded us of the rock fin we recently hiked up known as Angel’s Landing. The way up was very steep and I decided to get it done as quickly as possible so we could enjoy the view and miss the rain. It was supposed to take an hour to hike up to the top, but we hiked up with a friend from our group named Jamie (the PE Teacher) in about 30 minutes. I think that was a pretty good time considering the steep rock steps we clambered up and a few narrow passages including a tunnel that I could barely squeeze out of. About one minute from the top, I saw a girl wearing a white, lacy hippy dress, wearing flowers in her hair. She was singing some sort of chant while she was walking and at this point I figured the altitude was getting to me, but JJ and Jamie saw her too, so I knew I didn’t totally loose it!

The view from the top was astounding! We could see the entire Machu Picchu complex and a 360 degree view of the surrounding area, making the whole place seem even more mystical. Because of the rain, there were waterfalls in almost every direction coming down the steep Andes Mountains. After we all made it up, we sang Happy Birthday to Jeremy, another guy in our group, and all had a shot of tequila to celebrate! Slowly making our way down to a lower platform, we said our first set of goodbyes to the group. We would see some of them again in Cuzco a few days later, but we really did luck out and have awesome people in our group and we were sad to part ways. JJ and I had a lunch of avocado and cheese sandwiches we had brought while we watched our friends make their way down the steep stone steps and gazed at Machu Picchu below us. We could see the place where we hiked down from the Inca Trail the day before and noted how close it was to the entrance of the sun gate. We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon wandering around the ruins and making our way over to the sun gate, the place we would have hiked through if the Inca Trail had not been closed in that section. Before leaving the top, I reflected on the fact that there were terraces and housing ruins all round me on the top of this very high mountain. The Incan people must have been very focused on protecting their sacred city to have developed a place so high and remote.

After making it down from Huayna (Wayna) Picchu, we hiked to the top part of the complex, where we got a different set of views and found what seemed to be a high altar of sacrifice. This beautiful cut piece of granite with elevated steps awed us, especially since we saw every person who passed by it hold their hands above it as if they were extracting some sort of powerful energy from it. I had to try it out of course. From there we hiked back towards the entrance in with perfect timing to see Machu Picchu lit up with sunlight as the clouds parted! We could not believe our good luck with the weather on the day that mattered most. Next, we hiked up to the top terraces of the complex, where we found many Llamas grazing! There were so many posing Llamas to take pictures of, but we could not stop paying attention to the baby llamas (or maybe they were alpacas?). We made the gradual uphill journey to the sun gate. The views were great, but our legs were getting tired and it was time to make our way out of the complex. Ten hours after arriving at the complex, we took one last view and made our way back to Aguas Calientes via bus.

The next morning, we took the tourist train back to Ollantambo. The train was really nice and had overhead windows. I felt really special on the train, repeating a journey that my grandparents and one of my aunts had taken to get to Machu Picchu many years before me. The ride was really beautiful and the weather was nice along the way. We stopped for lunch before heading back to Cuzco via collectivo bus. When we arrived, we walked around and then had dinner with the friends me made from our Inca Trail group who were still in town. Eleven of us when out for an eclectic meal which including people ordering pizza, ravioli, nachos, alpaca, and even guinea pig (cui). There were some very funny moments playing with the guinea pig remains after dinner and I am sure people enjoyed my faces, being universally recognized as the only vegetarian on the trip. Afterwards, we went back to their hostal and had a red wine fest. We drank and had a good time until about midnight when we could not keep our eyes open anymore. We said our final goodbyes and walked back to the El Tuco. Once again, JJ and I really think we got lucky to have spent 4 days with a great variety of entertaining, generous, and positive people. Our experience getting to Machu Picchu and actually being at that world wonder is something that we will reflect on for the rest of our lives.

We flew from Cuzco to Santiago, Chile. We are now in Santiago, having a great time with our new friend, Helena. We will write more about this soon!