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Machu Picchu – Peru Day 5
I finally want to finish writing about my trip to Peru as I finally found the right moment to do so! SO. Here goes…
An hour and forty-five minute bus ride to PeruRail train station…
Two and a half minute Vistadome scenic train ride along the Urubamba River to Aguas Calientes town/ Machu Picchu mountain…
We arrive at the bustling train station next to the river within a valley of mountains and you already feel this high energy. I’m not sure if it’s coming from the tourists scurrying about to and from, or from the very mountains themselves, hiding above in the mists and clouds. It is said that the sacredness of the area has a mystical presence. I’m not sure, but whatever it is, it felt absolutely rejuvenating being there.
After briefly eating lunch and checking in at the hip and happenin’ El Mapi Hotel, we finally hopped on the twenty-five minute bus ride up the switch-backed mountain side. We arrive at the control (ticket) area where we meet our tour guide Pascual, and submit our entry tickets. As many of our tour guides were, Pascual was Quechua, an Incan descendent. He feeds us the history of the site as we climb numerous stone steps to reach the Machu Picchu guard house. I still don’t see the famous Wonder of the World and the suspense and excitement was killing me!!! And as we’re out of breath we finally reach a bend, and the way this entrance is built is so dramatic in that it does not let you see the site at once. Little by little as you step around the bend you see more and more until you’re suddenly in complete awe. My insides wanted to celebrate! It’s been described as “hallucinogenic” and “spiraling”. And my friends, it truly was. For weeks now I still can’t find the right words to describe it, so here’s a quote that pretty much captures the gist almost perfectly…
“Suddenly, I found myself confronted with the walls of ruined houses…It seemed like an unbelievable dream…What could this place be? Why had no one given us any idea about it?… Surprise followed by surprise in bewildering succession… The site held me spellbound.” – Explorer and historian Hugh Thomson, excerpt from Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams.
Machu Picchu is so much larger than it looks in pictures. We tour and learn about every important detail as we walk through the ruins. We learned about the alignments with the solstices and sun positioning, the perfect engineering of the Inca architecture and masonry, how they made sacrifices to the Pachamama or Mother Earth, their sacred symbols of the condor, snake, and puma, the many terraces, etc. As I got a workout walking the paths, and hear, see, feel the ruins first hand, I listened to my amazing expert guide and I’m completely engulfed in the experience. I look back on it, and it really just seems all a dream now.
Three weeks has passed since then, and I’m still mystified by the sublimity of the place. I want to go back and experience more. Several of my tour guides have expressed that I trek the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. And I have every intention on going back and doing so. The place just draws you in and I guess I felt “healed” for the moment, from life itself. It was truly the most memorable and best day of the trip, and of the year.