Magnificent Machupicchu

"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, it is measured by the moments that take your breath away."

Peering down upon the Lost City of the Incas yesterday as the sun shone and the clouds cleared was one of those magic moments in our lives.  It was an incredible finish to our four day trek of the Inca Trail to the city at the centre of their empire.




Can you keep a secret?   Can your entire neighborhood or city?  After the Spaniards captured Cuzco in 1536 they came looking for the Incas center of worship (and wealth) Machupicchu.  Amazing, not a soul told them of its location high above the Rio Urubamba.  It would sit silently for 4 centuries until American Hiram Bingham - with the help of local farmers - 'discovered' the Lost City of the Incas in 1911.

Like schoolkids eagerly waiting to ride the ferris wheel at the summer fair, we found ourselves wiping away the sleep from our eyes in the 5am darkness as we lined up to re-enter the trail. This final 2 hour section was the most perilious and the park decided after numerous accidents the trail only be open during daylight hours.  Javier cautioned us that the trail was narrow, to stay 'mountain side', and be patient.  Machupicchu wasn't going anywhere!

Entering the trail, Javier's patience lasted all of five minutes before he began easing himself past slower moving trekkers and encouraging the few wanting to keep his pace to do so.  While we used a more cautious approach we sped along the hillside with adrenline kicking in for most of the group who suddenly were world-class trekkers.  We found ourselves bounding up the final few hundred step to Intipunka (Sun gate) rounding the corner and our first look at Machupicchu.

Our first glimpse of Machupicchu!

We were both breathless from the climb and what lay peaking through the hillside below.  It was strangely surreal, not unlike how I felt seeing the Colosseum in Rome for the first time.  How did they do it?  While we had read that the scores of other trekkers - about 150 - can ruin the experience, we honestly didn't even notice them such was the wonder before our eyes.

A 'wow' moment!

Almost on cue the low fog began to disappear and clear view began to emerge below.  Machupicchu!  Lost City of the Incas!  With each passing minute the sun shone brighter and scene clearer.  We descended the trail stopping often to drink in the view and snap photos.  From a distance its location, perched on a quasi plateau with steep cliffside on three sides to the Urubamba valley below made it easier to see how it remained hidden for so long.

It was the only site to escape the wrath of the Spanish conquest, thus offering the best glimpse into Inca culture.  Roughly resembling a shape of a condor - Their magical bird of prey - there is some debate to its signifigance.  Citadel?  Ceremonial city, farming village?  Probably best to assert that it was a combination of many theories.  Bingham himself went to his grave believing it was an entirely different place - Vilcabamba - than it was.

More significant is that it was planned, incredibly constructed, occupied, and then intentionally abandoned all in the space of century.  Moving some artifacts and gold to a different location - Vilcabamba - the Spaniards thought they had found the central city leaving the climate, flora, and fauna to hide Machupicchu.

The Temple of the Sun!

Under warm sunlight we spent the morning touring the ruins with Javier.  We were particularly struck by the Temple of the sun, built with spectacular stone work exactingly constructed to meet the sunrise through two of its windows on the summer and winter solstice.

Countless examples of stonework could be found at the Temple of the Three Windows and the Intihuatana as well the numerous residences dotted throughout the ruins.

With our tour ending, Javier quietly moved over to us.  "If you want to climb Huayna Picchu - the 'young' mountain in the backdrop to Machupicchu, just walk over to the gate and they'll probably let you in."  We had been initially disappointed to find we were not going to be able to climb this other mountain, which offers incredible bird's eye views of the ruins from the opposite direction.  We ran down towards the gate to find another Inca Trail group waiting to enter.  We blended in quietly and found ourselves signing in minutes.

Views from Huayna Picchu(MP shaped like a condor)!

As you can see the mountain is steep!  We jumped on the stairmaster-like trail quickly passing day trippers not used to hiking or the elevation.  Thirty sweaty minutes later we were at the viewpoint and just five minutes - and a crawl through a 50m long cave - later we were at the steep summit.  The views of the ruins and surrounding valleys left us slack-jawed even with the mist and light rain that began to fall intermittenly.

The walk back down would prove one of the scariest we'd seen.  Going up, we couldn't believe who was on the mountain, and going down it was doubly so.  An couple of octogenians were crawling backwards on all fours down one steep 100 step section and we were at the front of a 75 person line stand on the steps behind them.  It did give us even more time to enjoy the view!

We spent some more time lingering around the site and enjoying the last of the sunshine before bidding the incredible wonder farewell.