Not your run-of-the-mill Machu Picchu post

I´ll try to make this as exciting as possible.  Lord knows every time someone showed me their photos of Machu Picchu (MP) I had trouble supressing sleep, much less a yawn.  The fact is, if you haven´t been, then it looks just like all the other postcards you´ve seen.  In fact, the inevitability you feel when traveling in Peru — the feeling that you MUST see MP no matter what — grated on us like a Celine Dion song on repeat.

But in the end, you gotta go.  So we did.  We were about 9 months too late to sign up for the Inca Trail, the 4 day trek that takes the same road the Incas took to MP.  Instead, we spent a good week or so exploring the other cities and ruins in the Sacred Valley, and then took the train to Aguas Calientes (the MP base town). 

On our designated MP day, we arose at 4:30, purchased the overpriced entry ticket, and hiked in half darkness up the wicked switchbacks to MP.  The morning was misty as all hell, but it was that magical sort of mist you expect when you go to see the Inca´s most impressive ruin, perched magically on top of a magical jungly mountain, magically overlooking the river that snakes a full 270 degrees around it.  All magic aside, though, it was magical.  We climbed up Huayna Picchu, the mountain overlooking MP that you see in the background of all the postcards, and the mist burned off as we sat on the very top, looking down on MP and the glorious ridges and mountain surrounding it.  As folks annoying told us, and as I am annoying relating to you: you gotta see it.

But enough of that.  Scope the few paltry photos I´ve uploaded if you´re interested.  Otherwise, I am glad to be done with that particularly touristy portion of our trip.  It was beautiful and worthwhile, and I admit to have enjoyed a taste of “mexican food” at the tourist restaurants in Aguas Calientes, but come on folks, the Aguas weren´t that Calientes, and I could get get five days accommodation for the price I paid for that plate of Chilaquiles, which, among other strange edibles, prominently featured a crepe, but no eggs.  Good night.

Advertisement