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Published: August 30th 2015
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"Nowadays, we throw around the word sublime to describe gooey deserts or overpriced handbags. In (philosopher Immanuel) Kants epistemology, (he said) it meant something limitless, an aesthetically pleasing entity so huge it made the perceivers head hurt. Machu Picchu isn't just beautiful, it's sublime." - (taken from 'Turn Right at Machu Picchu', Mark Adams, 2011).
The end of our time in Peru very closely related to our arrival at Machu Picchu, and what we physically and mentally achieved over the 5 days in arriving at Machu Picchu gave us one of our greatest sense of achievements, and it was a privilege to experience such a place. But first, Cusco and then our trek.
Our arrival into Cusco greeted us with a new city to get to know in only a short space of time, while beginning to truly experience the Inca culture. Cusco itself is the gateway to the majority of the Inca Tourism tours and of course Machu Picchu, with 50% of its population reliant on tourism as its source of income. It sits at about 3400m above sea level and was the original Inca capital until the Spanish destroyed it in 1532. To
this day though, Inca ruins still exist in and around the city and if you know what you're looking for, you can see the buildings still with Inca architecture. We also learnt a little more about Cusco through a city walking tour, learning about the churches, the influence of both Inca and the Spanish on the city's lifestyles, various musical influences and a spot of shopping.
The following day, we had one final preparation for our trek, walking up to the Inca ruins Sacsahuaman and the Christo Blanco statue, just above Cusco. If Pete wasn't already excited about what the Inca’s could produce from what he had read, the ruins we saw just proved how good they were. Our trip however up to Sacsahuaman took an alternative route when we were convinced to take a horseback trail ride to some more ruins, a little further out of Cusco and a little less touristy. Horseback riding is not something that we do overly well or comfortably, so for the next hour and a half we rode horseback, checking out a couple of different Inca sites. Between these, Sacsahuaman and what we saw in Cusco, we were getting a
fair idea of what the Incas were capable of and we thought we had a good idea of what to expect at Machu Picchu. We seriously weren’t even in close in our assumptions. But then, it was a trek time, and months of exercising, attempting to prepare for altitude in a sea level town and mental excitement and trepidation was fully complete.
Some background; scientists have identified approximately 34 distinct climatic zones on earth, and Peru has claims to 20 of them, and while walking the Inca trails you can walk from icy mountain tops to tropical forests within hours. Simply stunning and amazing. Our particular trek, the 5 day Salkantay trek, had us walking 64km across 4 days, and then trekking an hour and a bit up to Machu Picchu on the morning of day 5. We would start at 2600m above sea level, go as high as 4610m on day 2 and then drop as low as 1500m during day 4.
We will let the pictures convey the amazing scenery we encountered, but highlights of the trek included;
* watching the sunset over the Humantay mountain and lake (which
was icy cold and Pete went for a quick knee deep wade through)
* trekking to the Salkantay Pass, the highest point of our trek and on the side of the 6510m high mountain Salkantay. At this point, with breathtaking scenery, we performed an Inka ceremony and played in snow for the first time!
* zip lining across a 200m deep canyon in different positions, such as sitting, upside down and then lying flat, known as the ‘superman’ position.
* meeting some amazing people from all over the world, who only enhanced the trek through their great stories, good humour and enjoyment with an end of day drink.
* and marvelling at the creations produced by our cooks, who made the most delicious 3 course meals, 3 times a day with a simple portable camp kitchen. It put some of the hostels we have stayed in, with fully equipped kitchens at their disposal, to shame.
But to the highlight of our entire trip so far, Machu Picchu. We started this blog with a quote from a book Pete read about Machu Picchu, and it perfectly
sums up our feelings about this surreal, magnificent city in amongst the clouds and mountain tops. Our day started early, with the gates to the park of Machu Picchu opening at 5am and being a 30 minute walk from our hostel (and Renee wanting to be first through the gate) – hence, we were on our way at 3:45am, and easily the first there. Upon opening, it is a 1600 step, 400m increase in altitude to the city. After months of training at home in the very flat Townsville scenery, it came down to this one last climb and there was no way we were not going to do it. And so, battling a few mental demons but a total determination to achieve and finish the trek, at 5:45am we arrived at the gates of the city and 10 minutes later walked into the most amazing scene you can feast your eyes upon.
Again, the pictures will tell the story of what we saw, but every expectation that we had for Machu Picchu was met and then exceeded. The pictures from the postcards were exactly what we saw. The sheer size of it just blew our minds.
When you take into consideration it is on top of a mountain, cut out of dense forest 2400m above sea level and was over 500 years old, you are just in awe. Sublime is the best word we can find to describe it. We spent hours walking around it, visiting the sun gate, the Inca bridge and many other features and buildings. We just couldn't get enough of it.
Upon our return to Cusco later that evening, we felt great that we had achieved a feat that at times, (through lack of fitness or old sporting injuries) we may not have been able to do. It is difficult to properly convey how great it felt, and how good it truly was.
And so, after this amazing sight, how trip goes on! We have just passed 2 months of marriage, and life is pretty damn fine. With still Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina to go, we still have so much to see and do, so until next time - Pete and Renee.
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