If you ask a person to compile a list of places to see before he or she dies, I'm pretty sure Machu Picchu would be on that list. It's one of those "must see" places we all read about and see pictures of. Right up there with Stonehenge, or the Acropolis, or the Pyramids, or the Great Wall. Etcetra.
There are no adequate words to describe Machu Picchu, so I won't even try. Suffice to say, it fully deserves all the accolades as one of the world's truly wonderful places.
As for the day itself: it was strange. We had another early wake up call in Yukay and trudged to the bus and then train for Aguas Calientes. The ride, along the Urubamba River, was magical. We saw many snow-capped peaks and green farms, exotic rain forest and a cobalt blue sky. The river was wild with impassable rapids and I found myself imagining the Inca controlling commerce and political power while living harmoniously with nature. They knew how to use the land, and their famous terrace farms are still in use today.Aguas Calientes is a wild town, wholly devoted to backpackers and other tourists to Machu Picchu. It is a corrugated roof and adobe brick rabbit warren of pizza joints, bars, hotels and hostels, restaurants of every price range, and Inca souvenir shops. I found it strangely claustrophobic.
Then, the ride and climb up to Machu Picchu itself. Such unbelievable wonder, a masterpiece of man's ability to create, organize, adapt and flourish. It was a brutally hot day and we were all sleep deprived. But we were like giddy school kids as we walked among the stones of the site. Terry, one of group, kept saying "We're in Machu Picchu !" like she could scarcely believe she was there, and her spirit was infectious. And Micheal and Gail got engaged in a private moment at the site: Gail had said to us that she'd wanted to come to Machu Picchu since she was 17.
There are two things that make Machu Picchu special. First is the fact that the Spanish never plundered the site: it remained hidden from them. The only plundering occurred when Hiram Bingham and his colleagues from Yale excavated it in the early 1900's and took most of the valuable things to a museum in the US. Second is the incredible setting. How people managed to build such a site in this location defies the imagination. The Inca were great engineers, no doubt: but they built Machu Picchu without the wheel or large beasts of burden to carry the stones from nearby quarries to the site.
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| Our group at Machu Picchu |
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| Pablo and our wonderful local guide, Jackie. |
It was a great day under difficult conditions. We managed to see most of it before the hordes of people arrived from Cusco. What a place !!
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