Advertisement
Published: April 11th 2005
Edit Blog Post
Machu Picchu
This is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life! I was up at 4:30 in the morning, but I didn’t care because today, I got to see Machu Picchu! While eating breakfast, Amie and I got to watch the Pope’s funeral live (who they call Papa in Spanish), and there were others in our hotel who woke up early to witness it. We caught a train to Aguas Caliente where we met up with our guide for Machu Picchu. Our guide was great. He had a pattern. He would tell us the name of something, and then say, “What is the meaning of this? I tell you.” As we walked around Machu Picchu, there was a tour in every language. People come from all over the world to see Machu Picchu, but because of so many visitors (over 2000 daily), they might have to close Machu Picchu to preserve it.
Machu Picchu is one of the most AMAZING things I’ve ever seen. It has so much energy and mystery. They even say that when you visit Machu Picchu, you can take with the energy of the mountain. Machu Picchu is an ancient Inca City found at the top of the mountains, but it wasn’t discovered until 1911 by Hiran Bingham,
Through the Fog
Machu Picchu changes constantly, which adds to the mystery of the Lost Incan City. a young American explorer, who was actually looking for Vilcamba, The Lost City of Gold (I’ll tell you more about this later). Machu Picchu was completely covered over by jungle vegetation and they had to clear it away. They expected to find gold and treasures, but only found a few bodies and the remains of an abandoned city. Machu Picchu is the only city that was never touched by the Spaniards. The mystery is as to why they built it, and who lived in the city. Origionally when they were examining the remains of the bodies, 80% were female leaving archeologists to believe that it was a city of chosen women, but then they found the rest of the tombs making the male to female ratio 50:50. Another theory is that it was a city to train the next Inca. They had two large schools at Machu Picchu, one for girls and one for boys. The boy’s school was for selected boys to get the education and experiences required for an Inca. The girl’s school was for selected girls to be trained to be the next Inca’s wife. But, nothing has ever been recorded about Machu Picchu so the mystery
The Girls at Machu Picchu
Amie and I, in awe, at Machu Picchu. still remains.
The architecture is amazing. The stones have right angles and straight lines. Imagine the patience it must have took to sit carving a stone for months! There are many different kinds of stones at Machu Picchu. In addition to the stones from the mountain, there are stones only found along the coast and from the jungle. It was an Incan tradition to carry a stone up the mountain when visiting Machu Picchu as a gesture of the hard work it took to build the city.
All of the buildings have a different design for a different purpose. The pyramid shaped building housed the alter for their idol, The Golden Boy. The Golden Boy always faced the sun rising. People would wave their hands over the rock alter to feel the energy of Machu Picchu, and it’s true, you can feel it. I was in awe of everything at Machu Picchu!
The Lost City of Gold is said to still exist. There have been many people who have seen this city made of gold. It was what Bingham was looking for when he discovered Machu Picchu. Vilcamba, The Lost City of Gold, actually exists in the jungle. There is
an ancient tribe that guards it with arrows. They do not like white people, and only those with high spiritual growth may pass through the jungle. They say that it is not a myth.
On the train ride back, I was still excited that I got a chance to see something so wonderful. All of the travelers were so nice, and the train was buzzing with chatter of other adventures. Amie and I met two travelers who were on a medical mission. We all went to an Irish Pub for a “hamburger” and a beer (I have to travel half way around the world to Peru to eat at an Irish Pub😉. It was fun to compare notes with them because their experiences from the hospital were VERY DIFFERENT than mine with the traditional medical practices, but still they reported physicians who performed surgery without gloves and then visited the next patient. We all went to a discoteque to dance the night away (or another hour because we did get up at 4:30 in the morning), but it was nice to hear something other than the Black Eyed Peas. The drinking culture is different in Peru in that there is a pitcher of a drink and only one glass (it is a little bigger than a shot glass). The first person fills it up and drinks from the glass, and then passes the glass to the next person who repeats this. Wow, they love their sanitary practices! It was a fun way to spend our last night in Cuzco.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.065s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0365s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb