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Published: June 13th 2010
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View from the Sun Gate
The last in a succession of photos watching the sun peer over the hill onto Machu Picchu The day started with a surreal wake up at 3:15am, a porter shaking the tent but not saying anything for a few minutes until he finally woke us... felt like part of a dream! The porters had a train to catch at 5:15am, a good 40 minute run away, so tents were dismantled around us and the camp disappeared. Breakfast was a rushed affair.. too early for most to eat, but I managed to find space for 5 bits of cake. Luckily we were given a packed sandwich and chocolate biscuits, which would no doubt be appreciated later. After breakfast we headed straight for the entrance to the Machu Picchu area and were the second group in the queue. By the time the entrance was opened at 5:30m (after an hour of queuing in the dark) there were a couple of hundred people queued behind us. What followed was a bizarre sprint in the dark (grateful for our head-torches) along a bumpy, stony, undulating path for about 4km. Dressed for standing around in the cold for an hour we were sweaty and overheated in seconds. The group ahead of us wanted to walk slow but most of our group was intent
on making the Sun Gate for sunrise. Sophie and I passed the group but has to stop and pass them twice more en route, once to de-layer and once for a minor twisted ankle (guess who!) One of our own, Ben, made it to the view point first and caught sunrise but the rest of us resided ourselves, as the sun rose around us, to watch the sun come down over the hill onto Machu Picchu instead. Sophie and I climbed the steps to the Sun Gate overlooking the peaks that surrounded Machu Picchu and were the 12th and 13th people to see Machu Picchu that day. There is no way to describe the feeling of those first views and the satisfaction of completing the trail laid out by the Incas before us.
We relaxed on the terraces of the Sun Gate and spent an hour watching the sun light up this "lost city" before descending into its midst. Whilst Machu Picchu is often referred to as the lost city, it was in fact only
re-discovered by Hiram Bingham on July 24th 1911. The local Quechua farmers had known of its existence for years and an 11-year old boy
lead Bingham's party (actually in search of Vilcabamba) to the site, at that time covered in thick vegetation. The site itself is massive, and compared to the other ruins we have seen, Machu Picchu was in a fantastic state due to not being discovered by the Spanish conquistadors. We started with a tour from Wilbert, expanding on the knowledge he had already imparted, before exploring for ourselves.
As we got closer to the city, the view over it just got better and became postcard perfect. Great opportunity for photos. The tour lead us through the quarry where we could see the system for splitting rocks; chisels were used to open holes before wood inserted and subsequently wet to expand and part the rocks. A painstaking process without modern tools. A temple of the 3 windows (representing Hauan Pacha - world above, Kay Pacha - world we live in, and Hurin Pacha - the underworld), temple of the condor, main square and Inti Huantana (sun dial) were all sites to behold in themselves. Machu Picchu, meaning old mountain, had Incas living at the site until 1690, despite the Spanish arriving in Cusco in 1532. The Incas made landslides to cover
the trails and protect themselves from discovery.
To celebrate our trail and end our time at Machu Picchu, Matt, Claire, Erin, Jill, Heather, Ben, Dan, Adam, Emma, Alice, Sophie and I decided on a design created by the Shipmans to spell out Inka with our bodies. Despite being told off for making so much noise (mainly due to Soph's squealing.. you'll see why) it was a lot of fun and worked a treat.
We headed down to the town of Aguas Calientes where we restaurant hopped for the afternoon and were able to use our collective mass of twelve (group less the crazy Canadian ladies) to bargain in a lot of free beer and nachos with the food we bought. Much to the crazy Canadian ladies' disgust (due to a flight the following morning) we had to wait til the 7:30pm train, catch a 2 hour train with a drunken Wilbert, a rail replacement bus from kilometre 82 to Cusco, then another bus from their to our hotel... all the while carrying our own 6kg bags!! With no porters they became inconsolably grumpy. We arrived back at about 12:30am, exhausted but happy (well, the majority of us!)
How Sophie Sees It The day started well - as we were waiting in line for the gates to open, Dan got out his iPhone for some musical entertainment. I of course requested Mmbop, and sure enough he had it! Chris and I danced and sung along, much to the other's amusement/horror!
The run to the Sun Gate was exciting but I was frustrated not to be able to keep up due to my body generally falling apart like a grandma! But we still got the best viewing spot of Machu Picchu with the others, and soaked it up for longer than any of the other groups up there! (Mmbop also got another play!) It was such a relief and a joy to have made it, I can't imagine having caught the train - where's the satisfaction in that!? The Canadian ladies though otherwise, and one in fact uttered the words, "Well it's not really
that impressive is it?" Unbelievable!
The spelling out of "Inka" with our bodies was the fruits of the Shipmans' plotting the previous night, when we had been absent. I would certainly not have agreed to have been the top of the "I"
if I had been there! I objected right up until the moment I was hoisted up onto Matt and Chris's heads for the practice run, but when I survived with no broken bones it turned out to be quite fun. For some reason we were the first letter to be "erected", so Matt and Chris had to wait ages with me on their heads, and I just could not stop giggling - I did feel sorry for poor Matt as he was under my back he got the worst of my squirming.
We had not seen the crazy Canadians all day until we reached our pre-arranged meeting point for dinner (a restaurant chosen by our guide) in Aguas Calientes. We were all rather disappointed with the over-priced and very poor quality food, but of course the only ones to complain were the crazies. The complaints snow-balled when we were told we had to carry our own 6kg bags (that the porters had been carrying until now, but had quite rightly gone home when we had gone to Machu Picchu) all the way to the train station, which was a staggering 200 metres away! Christine's catchphrase of the trek, "F***ing
unbelievable!!!" returned with a vengeance, and she quizzed me "Have you ever been on one of these things and had to carry your
own bag before?!?!?!" I retorted, "Well on our 72km trek in Patagonia we each carried 15kg for 4 days." I was SO proud of myself! Christine was dumbfounded! She truly expected the red carpet to be rolled out for her everywhere she went. We only had the porters so we could survive the trek, why would they carry our bags now? The next catastrophe came when we disembarked the train and had to walk up a few stairs to the road where our bus was waiting - she could not believe we had to walk up some stairs, carrying our bags no less, and she requested the bus come to us. Preposterous considering there was no road alongside the train station! Luckily we were in separate carriages for the train ride, which was hilarious! Wilbert was drunk, and proceeded to explain some of the 600 karma sutra positions the Incas practised, some involving llamas and even snakes! He then taught us the card game "nervous", which resulted in a few injuries and a telling off from the
train attendant! A fantastic end to a fantastic 4 days.
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Sarah
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Jealous!!
Looks like you had an amazing 4 days-so jealous! Definitely adding the Inca trail to our growing list of trips! Glad your knee survived the trek, hope it doesn't give you too much more grief. Enjoy the galapagus islands!! Miss u loads xxxx