Machu Picchu (Nov 23rd): Warning, this is a long one. ;)

Wednesday started with a 4:30am wake-up call, a pancake breakfast, and a mad scurry to the first fleet of buses departing for Machu Picchu at 5:30am. The twisting in my stomach, brought on by nervous excitement, was exacerbated by the serpentine path to our destination.


But in less than half an hour, the journey ended and I got my first glimpse of the ancient citadel of Machu Picchu.


Marcelo decided to take a tour with a Spanish-speaking guide, and so I decided to explore the ruins on my own, taking the route opposite of that usually taken by the guides and starting in the Urban Section.



Exploring on my own proved unexpectedly and exceptionally rewarding. Unencumbered by a large group, I was able to duck in and out of the many alcoves, terraces, nooks and crannies within the Incan houses with impunity.















The profound effect of solitude in such a place is overwhelming. At one point, I realized with awe and satisfaction, that despite being in one of the most oft-visited tourist sites in the world, I had not seen another person for nearly half an hour.


But enough of my waxing philosophic. After running wild in the maze of the Prisoner's Area, the Industrial Zone, and the Factory houses and emerging onto the main square, I beheld a spectacular view of the terrazas, where I had begun.


Then it was on to the Main Temple, which had lovely views of the main square and the area beyond.


Then up to the Royal Palace and all that lies above, from which point I took my favorite photo of my trip so far.


(And Mom, here's one with me in it, just for you.)



A quick aside: One phenomenon I am still getting used to is the mild and curious form of celebrity afforded by my red hair, pale skin and freckles. On three different occasions while at Machu Picchu, groups of Peruvian teenagers asked to have their pictures taken with me, in both groups and individually. I literally took 15 individual pictures with the boys in the first group! And I saw the same thing happen to an extremely pale Swedish girl I kept running into. By the time I was approached for the final time, I had the good sense to ask for a group photo in return.


Anyway, I ambled around the terraces for a while, and took more photos than I have ever taken of one place in my life. I was able to cull them down to three, including one with me.








After nearly three hours of wandering through the city proper, I headed up and out along the winding path to the Inca Bridge.





And made a friend along the way.


The route to the bridge afforded stunning views of the valley and river below, but...


..when I finally reached the bridge itself, I decided not to cross. Why, you might ask? See that tiny little bridge just to the left of my knee? Yeah, that's why.


Besides, the time had come to climb Waynu Picchu, the steep mountain looming over in Machu Picchu in most photos of the site. Only 400 people are permitted to hike this mountain each day, in two groups of 200, and Marcelo and I were in the second group.




We met at the entrance point, where we also ran into a lovely family of Americans from our hostel, who began the hike just ahead of us. (That's them at the bottommost point on the first staircase up the mountain.)


Our destination: the ruins at the summit, where the Incans had quite ingeniously and quite madly built a small temple.


The ascent consisted of perilous stairways at the best points, and a brief shower soon provided the additional challenge of slick surfaces.


The hour's journey was spent huffing and puffing upward, passing and being passed by the same groups of people back and forth, and taking breathers at the few but very welcome flat bits. (This is me at one of them, in a pose suitable to what Marcelo called my Tomb Raider outfit.)








Atop the ruins, 20 or so travelers sat upon a collection of large stones jutting out slapdash into the air, providing spectacular views of Machu Picchu below.





Fortunately, I met an awesome Alaskan couple, Cedric and Erin, who made the descent with me, and kept me from thinking too much about how very very steep it was and how very very clumsy I usually am. And after an hour we reached the bottom!


After one more pass through the citadel, Marcelo and I boarded the bus back to Aguas Calientes, had dinner, and took a bath in the local hot springs .


From there it was just one peaceful train ride and one crazy trip in a colectivo to get back to Cuzco by 1am.

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Location:Meson De La Estrella,Cuzco,Peru