seekingmygreaterperhaps

The backdrop to many a travel magazine, I have been dreaming of going to Machu Picchu for years. I had vaguely planned on treating myself after I got my master’s degree, but then Zika popped up nice and hot in this region, and if there is something to do with mosquitos, they will find me. So I postponed my longing… until NOW!

I signed up for the same 2 day/ 1 night camping trip as my friends the Teters’ and Proulx’s and we packed up our bags with Alpaca Expeditions and started on our way to Machu Picchu. If you’re looking to go, this is a great company. They are also probably the most expensive company, but they pay their employees a living wage, and they take excellent care of you. We had our own private chef on the trail guys. This is also (probably) a once in a lifetime experience for me, so I thought, sure. Let’s do it.

We started our day long hike at the bottom of the mountain and came to this ruin, Chachabamba. This would be the flattest part of our journey, and would essentially spend the rest of the day hiking uphill. Here I am, fresh faced and ready to rock and roll.

Just some views from the trail. You can see we are making our way up stairs with not a whole lot of mountain to our side before we might stumble and plummet to our deaths. But we were all fine. The Inca trail is not for the faint of heart though.

I find myself being consistently thankful for the Teters family and the Proulx family. I am a slow hiker on my best day. Add in a foot injury that I can’t shake, and I bring up the rear. I am so blessed that I went with them on this dream of a trip because no one left me behind. It’s one thing to wait for someone, but it’s an entirely different thing to experience a trail with them. Hiking alongside (well, not alongside, do you see that skinny trail?!) me brought me such joy. Everyone talked with me, no one made me feel bad for going at my pace, and I didn’t feel like a bother or a burden. That in itself was huge.

When you are at the back of the pack, it can be a problem for your enjoyment of the hike because when the person at the front waits for you, they get to rest while you catch up. Then when you get to them they are like, great let’s go! And you are like, but wait I am tired and I just got here. This happened a couple times with the Spanish couple who (sorry for them) got put with us on this trip and who are apparently amazing and natural born hikers. But the rest of us were happy to take LOTS of pictures and enjoy the hike on the Inca trail through the mountains up to Machu Picchu.

This is no Brazilian waterfall, but it is still pretty. Behind me in the second photo is another ruin that we hiked to. See the size now, and see the size when we actually got to it!

Climbing up the stairs of Winaywayna was… tiring. To say it nicely. It’s great that right afterwards we got to each an amazing lunch. This ruin was an agricultural sight- everytime you see the terraces, those were used to farming. This was also the last stop before Machu Picchu, so it was an important place on the Inca Trail.

Looking a little more hike-weary, we crested through the Sun Gate- which was probably my highlight of the entire hike. You cross through the Sun Gate and get to the first glimpse of Machu Picchu! It’s like in that moment I was realizing a huge goal. You can see the ancient ruin behind me in the picture. Also notice the mountain in the background. I would climb that the next day.

Oh, but don’t be fooled. The Sun Gate is still an hour hike to get to the spot above. THE photo spot. I don’t have a whole lot to say except God is so good to me. I mean, look at that incredible view. It wasn’t cloudy, there were no people there because it was later in the day, and we had hiked for almost 8 hours to get there. The glory in the journey was certainly worth it.

And then… it poured rain. But we were done for the day and heading back to the campsite. We camped. In the rain. I hate camping. But it’s part of the experience. The one comment that my whole group had was that we left the Inca trail to camp at the Alpaca Expeditions campsite, which was very out of the way. That part wasn’t super clear to us when we booked, and we could have easily slept in a hotel in the town of Machu Picchu that night out of the rain, as we discovered the next morning. Alas, how many people can say they camped in Machu Picchu? A lot… but not a lot at the same time.

The next day we had our guided tour through the ruins of Machu Picchu! A true delight. It is definitely a wonder of the world, because it was crowded.

The stone was carved to look like the mountain behind it. Here are some pictures of the ruins. This is not a history blog, but here are some of the things I learned:

• Machu Picchu is a religious sight, because it is super high up and close to the sun.
• Machu Picchu was “discovered” by Hiram Bingham in 1831. Basically, he was the first white guy to label it as important. There were 2 families living in the ancient sight when he found it, but no one mentions them.
• In Hiram Bingham’s book he said that he found “no gold or anything of value” at the sight when they excavated it. I’m calling bologna, I think he probably just stole it all and then claimed nothing on his taxes.
• 70% of Incan artifacts live outside of Peru. Peru has been trying to get them back into the country, but the people who “took” them aren’t giving them back. This makes me really quite angry.
• Machu Picchu was where the wealthy members of the Incan society lived, you can tell by the size of the houses. This is also where the highest priest lived, because this is the biggest religious sight.

My other highlight of this adventure was climbing to the tippy top of Wayna Picchu. Remember the mountain behind Machu Picchu? Yeah, that’s the one I climbed. If you ever want to do the same, these tickets need to be bought in advance, and sell out quickly. Only 200 people are allowed on the mountain per day, with 2 starting time slots. Others in my group wanted to go, but didn’t end up getting the tickets in time, so I was on my own.

It is 1 mile of straight up stairs. Look at the picture on the right. That is how the entire trail is- just switchbacks of stone steps. Sometimes there is a railing, but I spent a lot of time on my hands climbing like a monkey.

I felt so accomplished when I made it to the top! Very much with shaky thighs, but very proud of myself. And check out the weather and those views! I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.

You go to the legit top of the mountain, so much so that it is one way and you circle the top, stand in line for a picture (because it’s so narrow you physically cannot NOT stand in line), and then make your way down. In line I met this Dutch man named Willen (prounced like William) who had just hiked for 5 days on the Salkantay trek. He seemed very fit and was not even sweating when he made it to the top.

In all honesty, I was terrified of the way down. Going down the steps is scarier than going up because you can see where you will fall if you trip. The steps were slick from the rain the night before, and I was feeling high anxiety. So, I kicked into problem solving mode and began chatting up Willen and being so super friendly so that he would talk with me on the way down and I could distract myself. It worked! He was very kind and in the non-encouraging encouraging way that only a Dutch person could be he said, “Well they are just steps. You go down steps all the time.”

Gee, thanks for that Willen. I do go down steps, but not ancient ones that are slippery and scary.

Crawling through this cave was one of the coolest bits of the Wayna Picchu hike. You have to go down in there to get out. I was worried I would get stuck, but the caves walls have been smoothed over time by many people just like me, so it was fine.

The way down was much faster than the way up, 100% thanks to Willen. Once we exited Wayna Picchu, we walked through the rest of Machu Picchu on the way out.

I mean, just WOW!

Oh heyyyy cutie! How you doing there Alpaca friend? They don’t even know how lucky they are with views like that, strollin along an ancient Incan civilization sight that is a wonder of the world.

I met up with my group for lunch and they were all so proud of me! I felt so encouraged by them and so happy that they were happy for my success

It was a tiring 2 days, and we took the Machu Picchu train on the way back. I think this must be one of the most beautiful train rides I’ve ever been on. Here is Karen gazing out the window.

Another bucket list item checked off, and man oh man was it an incredible experience!