Inca Trail - Day 4

Christmas Juan

Our wake up call today was at 4:15. Ugh. We had our breakfast and then hurried to get our place in line - the gate of the final check point opens at 5:30.

The gate is by no means near Machu Picchu - no. This is the final check point for those doing the trail - I guess they want to make sure all those that go in, come out. After the checkpoint its another 5kms to the Sun Gate, one of the four cardinal points of Machu Picchu.

Once past the final checkpoint, we walked. This final 5k was easy compared to what we had endured to date, it was relatively flat and the rented sleeping bag and mat had been taken by the porters back to town - suddenly our packs were 3kg lighter! AHHHHHH!

Juan had called the stairs before reaching the Sun Gate, the monkey stairs because they´re so steep you end  up using your hands to climb up. 45 steps up and we were finally overlooking Machu Picchu....it looked kinda puny...but then we still had about 20 more minutes to walk - we weren´t there yet.

When we finally did arrive (after more administration and a really expensive tea); we were all awed. We had made it....and it was huge.

"Discovered" in 1911 by Hiram Bingham - who claimed he discovered nothing of value...most of the gold had been pilfered by then - Machu Picchu had already been standing for over 460 years; its watering and drainage system was still working, and still works today. Scientists and archaeologists now believe that no more than 1000 people lived there and that it was an important place of learning, research, and religion. The architecture is truly the pièce de résistance though and there is still much speculation on how they managed to fit the stones so perfectly. Only the most important buildings are made with such precision, but even while wandering around the "common" buildings its amazing to think that people without modern lifting equipment or modern tools could have built such things in such a place.

It was drizzling most of the morning, but no one minded - it was Christmas day and we were in Machu Picchu...and the clouds had come to play. Wind currents would swoop them out of the valleys and up into the surrounding mountains, sometimes blowing them coyly over Machu Picchu - playing a game of peek-a-boo with the entire place. Truly magical.






There were a lot of people there - less than I thought there would be - but many nonetheless. Yet, there were times and places that I would wander into and it felt like I had the place to myself. Even the sounds of the crowds would disappear into the mists and I was alone with the builders of this beautiful place.