Day 265
Wednesday 21st November 2007
Machu Picchu
After 4 days of hard trekking through the beautiful Peruvian Andes we finally ventured through the gates of Intiñunku at 3pm to get our first glimpse of the incredible and breaktaking MACHU PICCHU!!!
It brought tears to my eyes..to be standing here...overlooking the most incredible wonder...something we´d dreamed about reaching, not just for the last four ardous nights..but for a long, long time..ever since i can remember..
In the end, to our surprise, Greg and I arrived at the gate after Jim and Carly - the second couple, after having the feeling on day 2 and half of day 3 that we´d either never make it, or be hours behind everyone else!
It seems we were able to decend much more efficiently than we were able to ascend, as on day 1 and 2.
Today we had the formal tour of Machu Picchu. And on the way up to the site, from our hotel, Hostal Cusco Plaza, we saw another condor! Two in two days..and both on the bus on the way from and to Machu Picchu! We felt there was good luck in store for us along the way for sure!
Going back to Machu Picchu the second time felt sacred. We had the breathtaking experience of seeing it from the heights after we arrived from our trek..and today we experienced it at level ground and it looked even more overpowering and amazing. So much civilisation here..the Inca´s were brilliant stonesmith and engineers and it was all so well planned out.
They had only lived in the civilisation for 94 years so it wasn´t a long rule but in that time they had built such an amazing city, or civilisation. It´s situated in the province of Urubamba against the backdrop of the mountains and is the perfect spot. It is part of the Vilcabamba Batolite, a granite mountain range. Machu Picchu means öld mountain¨.
It looks amazing...its divided into two zones. An agricultural zone and an urban zone and is formed by terraces. Hundreds of terraces! THe agricultural zone is on the south and that has the terraces surrounding it. The urban zone is surrounded by a big wall and is separated from the agricultural zone by a big stairway that runs from the top to bottom by a big moat, which is now dry.
IT has a main entrance gate and has heaps of rooms...of all different designs and architectual styles..Jose says there are about seven styles there..and as well as all the different rooms there are temples, water fountains (channels) and squares, pyramids and lots of stairs. Literally hundreds of them!!! At the very top is a gatekeepers inn.
There are so many stories surrounding this sacred and lost city. There are still questions as to how it was built and what happened to the Inca{s and why and how did they flee when they did.
It was scientifically founded by Hiram Bingham in 1911 when he went there with a local farmer..and was searching for the last inca settlement called the Vilcabamba...but he found the machupicchu (on the signs here it´s all one word!!). In the end it was a farmer´s son, an eleven year old boy who showed him this site. Farmers had been farming the terraces..and when the boy pulled back the branches of all the overgrowth..that{s what Bingham found!!! THe first thing he saw was what he called, the Royal Residence¨¨.
Imagine how he must have felt???
He later got people involved in evacuating a lot of the things he found from here...in about 78 cartons apparently, to be stored in Yale University (which are coming back to Peru for the 100th Anniversary in 2001) but there was no record of gold. THey think it was either looted by the spanish or never recorded...
So many stories..
Who knows whether it was the Spanish conquest that stopped the development of the inca state...or whether it was fire that banished the people..or what it was...myth and legent make this site even more fascinating because no one really knows the answers to the mystery.
But so incredible to be here....in Machu Picchu, the lost city of the inca´s!
When we left...i had a sad feeling..of maybe never coming back.
And leaving the hotel, on the train to Cusco...was sad..but it had amazing views....Peru is so beautiful. The Andes are so special.
The train ride was another story....it was late..supposed to leave at 4.20 but ended up leaving at 5.30 and arriving in Ollanyaytambo at 6.30...and we left an elderly couple behind (?!)
We caught a bus to Cusco...and we eventually arrived in Cusco at 7pm. And still had the energy to go out for dinner at night!!!! I think we are still feeling exhilarated! And refreshed. Even though we felt sore all over after we´d first arrived!
But that couldn´t dampen our spirits...our feeling of conquer and achieving something..and knowing we´d been through a challenging experience...and survived!!!
This has been the highlight of our trip! The trek. And seeing Machu Picchu.
Memories will never cease..of being in this incredible place...and of the 4 day journey to get here!
I will publish the 4 DAY TREK journey here when i finish it..so far, the four days of trekking to Machu Picchu are still in draft!
xx
