Machu Picchu

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I opted to stay in Agua Calientes overnight, so that I could get up early for sunrise at Machu Picchu. I was really tired from all the hiking in the Sacred Valley, and after getting my bus tickets up and back and my entry ticket for the next day, I completely crashed.

I missed sunrise by a few mintues, but was truly happy when I arrived at the top of the mountain: it was a perfectly clear morning. I had talked with several people in the days before, and they all had complained that it either rained the whole time they were there, or there was mostly just mist. So I happily thanked my good fortune, and strode through the entrance gate. You see basically only a few storage houses as you enter the gate. Turn immediately left and climb up the path, and you enter Machu Picchu as if you had come off the Inca trail.

It's dazzling. Jaw dropping dazzling.

I couldn't force myself to go down into it. I had to turn away, and take a path to an Incan drawbridge around the mountain from the site. And when I came back, it was a good 30 mintes before I could actually walk into this amazing place.

I had read so much about Machu Picchu and had gone to the Yale exhibits twice. I really kind of expected to be feel "This is nice. I'm glad I saw the real thing." I spent 6 hours walking in it and never lost the elation of that first jaw dropping moment.......well that's not entirely true....there are no bathrooms available on the site.......you have to leave, and reenter. None-the-less, it is completely worth any trouble and expense getting there. Everything you have ever heard about Machu Picchu is understatement.

One of the little moments in this place of immense feeling: watching a chinchilla chewing his grass cud.

My return train was late in the afternoon. So once back down the mountain (the clouds came about 1 PM) all I could manage to do was watch the Urubamba river (which is a raging unnavigable torrent this far down the valley) and watch people and be brainless. Even the Chinese ladies laughing at my long legs didn't bother me.

Don't miss this place in your lifetime.

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