We started off at a brisk walk to the bridge which lets you into Machu Picchu park, we were going at a good pace, and at good spirits until we reached the bridge, and realized that it actually opened in an hour. Why had we gotten up at 3 then?
But, this being Perú, Henry soon came around and in hushed tones informed us that we could each pay 1 Sol and get in now. Since that equals about $0.76, we of course paid and went on our merry way. And thank goodness we got to enter an hour early, because as we walked up an hours worth of stairs we had to stop for breaks multiple times.
Huffing and puffing we slowly worked our way up the mountain stopping at every crossroad. With lots of water, bug spray and encouraging words we all made it up and collapsed on the floor outside of the gates. We then waited around 40 minutes for the gates to open, and got our tickets stamped for Huayna Picchu, a neighboring mountain which only 400 people are let up each day.
We raced up to the overlook for a fabulous first view of Machu Picchu. As much as you may have seen it on postcards, the first hand view is more than you can imagine. Buildings, commons, terraces and of course llamas completed the view, but most of us agreed that it still felt like a picture. The only drawback was the echoing lawn mower that the groundskeepers were trimming with.
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| The Inca's Face is slowly illuminated by the sun |
As the sun slowly illuminated the mountains behind us we waited patiently for it to hit us and Machu Picchu. As the site slowly lit up, you could see the sun rise straight though a V in the tip of a mountain. People snapped pictures as we all gasped at the view before being shooed off the wall that we were sitting on.
Tyler and I then went to explore the actual ruins before catching up with the tour and learning more about the city. We saw parts of the religious side of the city, recognizable by the finer stonework, with little mortar and flat-faced rocks, and also saw the sundial, an important large stone that comes with multiple stories. The guide told us that it could be a sacrifice stone for the most important sacrifice, a black llama whose insides foretold the future as interpreted by the priests. Another hypothesis is that it served as a sundial allowing the Incas to track the solstices and plan their year accordingly.
After the tour we took a short siesta with the llamas before utilizing our 10am time ticket to go hike up Hayna Picchu, another 40 min walk of stairs. Climbing through a tunnel that represented Panchamama (Mother Earth) giving birth, we finally reached the top by climbing up a short ladder. Who knew that the top of the mountain was really just a couple of large rocks stacked on top of each other, which we are allowed to sit on. We spent an hour or so relaxing from the hikes before going back down, during which the exertion of the past 8 hours was felt as my legs started shaking a bit.
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| Hayna Picchu as seen from Machu Picchu |
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| Machu Picchu as seen from Hayna Picchu |
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| Rachel and I resting at the top |
More relaxing with llamas followed, and then Leslie, Rachel and I decided to undertake the easy hike to the Inka Bridge, a supposed stone bridge. We first had to hike up Mt. Machu Picchu a bit but then hit the flat part, which after about 20 min took us to the bridge, which was a bit underwhelming. Instead of being a stone bridge it really seemed to be a wooden bridge covering a gap in the stones that built the rest of the walkway. From my point of view the whole thing didn’t seem to make much sense, but it was an interesting thing to see.
Some short exploring in the civilian part of Machu Picchu followed, but we all quickly agreed that we were exhausted and it’d be best to take the bus home, a good 11 hours since we first arrived at the gates.
Dinner, a train to Ollatamba, and a bus to Cusco completed the day and at 2am we arrived at our hotel. After one of the best showers ever to remove the sun screen, bug spray and dirt that I had accumulated over the day I collapsed into bed and fell asleep.
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