I wish I could say I was happy to awake this morning, but the truth is I wasn’t. I had gotten basically no sleep and was incredibly ill. I had severe stomach problems all night long and spent most of the night in the porter’s bathroom (incidentally cleaner than the tourists bathrooms, thankfully). But, when you’re sick and in need of a toilet, squatting over a hole in the ground for an hour isn’t exactly what you’re hoping for.
Anyhow, 3:30am rolled around, we got ready for the day, had breakfast at 4:30, and took a short hike in the dark to the morning checkpoint gate for its opening at 5:30. After that, we headed out like horses through a start gate. We were head to tail in line and people were passing each other right and left on the narrow trails. In fact, an old man stopped on the side smacked Jenny with his bag and very nearly knocked her off the cliff with it when he tried to sling it back on in a hurry. A little scary I might say…
We finally hit the gringa killer (a set of steep narrow stairs) after about an hour’s hike and on their steps we found a few fat, white ladies (gringas) crying while complaining that they can’t possibly hike any more stairs. It apparently had a well-deserved name.
The sun gate was the next stop and was quite literally littered with tourists. It reminded me of pigeons in Chicago. Anyhow, it was the first point in which we could see Machupicchu and was a sight for sore eyes. Finally the moment we had been hiking for 3 days for… the coveted Machupicchu.
It was built on the mountainside that got the first sun of the day and stood out upon the mountainside like a gold ring upon a finger. We slowly descended the distance from the sun gate to Machupicchu and received the chance to take a gander at the wonders within. The architecture and planning were absolutely astonishing. We viewed the sun dial and many of the buildings and terraces. Viewing a post card or a picture doesn’t do it justice, you have got to see it with your own eyes to appreciate its presence.
By noon, the ruins were becoming packed with tourists from buses and trains, so we decided to head down to the local town to take some time at aguas calientes and relax our ridiculously tired legs. Later, we met up with more of the group for lunch and drinks and then took the train back to Cusco.
What a wonderful journey this has been! New friends and lots of stories…
No comments:
Post a Comment