Machu Christmas!

December 25th - Christmas Day!!!

That morning we woke up at 3:30am. Apparently I talked in my sleep the night before and said,“Wake up, they’re coming” which freaked the heck out of Shelby (go figure)! Woops! But even though we were tired we were ready to finish the last 2hrs of our trek! My Mom had sent me some fun jingle bell earrings, Christmas socks, and a red & green jingle hair tie. I put those on and Sarah donned a Santa hat that Percy “stole” from another guide. The trail to Machu Picchu opens at 5:30am and everyone wants to get there early. Additionally, the porters leave us here and take a train back at 5:30am so they have to have everything cleaned up in time. This morning was a quick breakfast and a scramble to get everything packed and ready in time. It was a rough morning for a couple of our group who weren’t feeling well so we were the last group to leave camp. 

We had to wait at the gate for a bit but we were treated to beautiful snow covered mountains. A white Christmas after all! 

Even though we were last we had no complaints because we then had the trail to ourselves and we were able to really enjoy the view. The rain had stopped and everything looked gorgeous. We had a moment of silence as we walked across a landslide area where a woman and her guide were killed last year during a terrible rainy season.

Landslide area... scary

About an hour of fairly easy hiking and a final set of 50 almost-vertical stairs we arrived at Intipunku or “The Sun Gate”. It’s the first glimpse of Machu Picchu itself and even though it was too cloudy for the sunrise the view was breathtaking. There was much celebrating and picture taking! We’d made it!!! Below us was Machu Picchu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the seven modern wonders of the world!

Jacquie, Shelby, Sarah, and I at the Sun Gate! The twisty white part in the middle is the road down to Aguas Calientes and the area beyond that is Machu Picchu!

The last hour in was an easy downhill walk. We stopped half way to look at a large towering rock where apparently a body was found along with the bodies of servants and pets. They aren’t sure who was buried there but it must have been someone important due to the closeness to the city. It’s custom to leave something of importance to the traveler there, however, seeing as we didn’t have much with us we each chose to leave a piece of our hair as our “offering”.

The rock "tombstone" and offering area (the black streaks on the rock are lichens)

We continued on to the main gate feeling tired and sore but very excited. We spent quite a while taking lots of pictures while Percy patiently waited. Then we went to go see if we could find Amy. She had gone up to Aguas Calientes (the town 20min below Machu Picchu) the night before and taken the bus up early that morning. We didn’t see her but we did find a bathroom with REAL toilets and toilet paper! It was amazing (despite the $1 sol it cost to get in). We decided to start the tour and hope that we found Amy on the way. Percy brought us to the “start”. Everyone who visits the city walks in a clockwise direction to help with flow of traffic. It was busy on Christmas but definitely not crowded and we never felt like we were overwhelmed with other tourists. Though it was pretty funny to see other people who had showered and actually looked clean and smelled good!

We've arrived!

Merry Christmas!! (Or, as we said, "Machu Christmas!")

Just as we were beginning we found Amy! After hugs and “Merry Christmases” we were ready to begin. During our 3hour tour we learned SO much, far more then I could put here. However, I’ll give some of the highlights! First Percy started explaining how Machu Picchu probably had three purposes: 1) Religious significance, 2) Training/educational purposes, and 3) Astronomy/science studies. Most of the work that you see is original with only 30% being reconstructed. Most of the buildings and stonework align with the mountains since the Incans believed that everything (rocks, dirt, etc) had a spirit. In fact, the city is surrounded on three sides by the Urubamba River – one of the reasons it may have been placed where it is.

View of the terraces and much of the city

Another angle

The city was actually re-discovered 100 years ago. As I understand it: Some locals living below the city had uncovered it and knew it existed. Back in the late 1800s a local man decided to start exploring the city and looking for gold. He made several trips up the mountain and took much of the gold and then brought some friends up with him. Two of the families he brought actually started living up there. Then in 1911 an American explorer named Hiram Bingham arrived looking for “the lost city” or the last stronghold of the Incans. Instead he met the local man that knew of Machu Picchu and Hiram convinced the local man to bring him up. While the city was mostly grown over much of it was intact. This is why it is believed that the Spanish never found Machu Picchu –it was probably the best-kept secret of the Inca and Quechua people.  

Beautiful!

Walking through one of the incredible doorways!

On the outskirts of the city is the guard tower (where many of the post card pictures are taken from) and a series of terraces. The terraces where probably used to grow some food, to beautify the city, and to protect against landslides. 

The coca tea plant - this is the plant we'd been using to help with altitude all along! They were growing several plants to show how the terraces might have been decorated in the Incan's time. 

This area in particular had many steps which definitely were a challenge on our already sore legs! Soon we entered the main area of the city. The buildings are all built at a slight inward angle, also to protect against earthquakes (brilliant and something the Spanish never figured out – their buildings fell to the ground in the terrible 1950 earthquake). One of the first things we saw were two temples constructed near the middle of the city. There was one large one that was never finished and one facing towards Aguas Calientes with three openings. The openings probably represented the three worlds (underworld, present world, and next world).

The three openings

Just beyond the temple there was also a very neat rock that acted as a compass with one corner pointing straight to magnetic north. There was also a large pile of rocks that seemed to be broken apart. This quarry was probably used for building material.  

Rock area where much of the stone probably came from

Then we came across two pools of water in shallow 2 ft circular indents in the ground. Percy let us take guesses at what we thought they were but none of us were close. In fact they were mirror pools that astronomers used to view the stars. They would spend all night peering into the pools so they could see how the stars moved as they looked at a fixed point. 

The viewing pools

We continued to walk along the city looking at temples and religious areas. The city is set up like a rectangle with a green courtyard area in the middle that was probably used for gatherings. 

Courtyard area and a llama!

From L to R: Me, Sarah, Percy, Shelby, and Jacquie

Shelby, Sarah, me, Jac, and Amy with the city and Wayna Picchu behind us

After about 1.5 hrs we came to the short side of the rectangle and took a moment to pause. As we caught our breath Percy suddenly noticed a gathering of people coming down from a nearby mountain called Wayna Picchu. The summit is a short hike up from where we were resting and the top is apparently where priests and priestess may have resided. Right near the area where you come down Percy saw the Mayor of Machu Picchu (Oscar Valencia)! We were excited to just see him but all of a sudden Percy got really excited as Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, appeared!!! President Morales had just become the first president to climb Wayna Picchu and he had come down to give a speech! Very cool! There wasn’t very much security so it was easy to see him up close!

Bolivian President Evo Morales (in the red hat) and the Mayor of Machu Picchu (in the sash)!

After that we still had a whole other side to walk. Here was where most of the houses were as well as the classrooms where young boys would learn. Here was also one of my favorite parts – the temple of the condor! There was a flat rock on the ground representing the body, eye, and the white “collar” of the condor. Then two huge rocks towered up to the left and right of the rock on the ground. These represented the wings and on the left there was a platform above the wing. Here the Incans would leave mummies – a spiritual representation of the “flight” to the next world. The condor was extremely sacred to the Inca and on the body rock they would sacrifice guinea pigs and llamas. The blood and bones would be swept past the body to a rock tunnel that represented to stomach. Pretty awesome.

The body rock of the condor - the eye is on the left side and the white "collar" beyond that

We also saw the famous “sun temple” which had the most incredible architecture of the whole city. The granite stonework was impeccable and you could see where there was once a wooden door that would have been used for security. This temple was both a religious and scientific center. Inside there was a stone-carved altar where a priest would sacrifice animals and read the future by analyzing the entrails. The temple also has two windows – one faced the sun gate where the summer solstice could be seen perfectly and one facing a slightly different direction where the winter solstice could be seen.

The upper part of the Sun Temple 

Near the end of the walk we also got the view one of the 16 fountains that ran water through the city. They were very impressive and like the other cities the highest fountains were for the wealthiest people. We finally went through the house of the ‘leader’ of Machu Picchu (whoever that might have been). The house was impressive and included four rooms, a bathroom (which probably had a bathtub as opposed to a toilet), a space to hold a torch, and little ‘kitchen’ type area with a built in mortar and pestle. Like all Inca houses there was no evidence of furniture, just spaces in the house to hold trinkets or idols.

A small house or study area

After three hours we had completed the tour, all while mist and clouds rose up and down the mountains around it. Just astonishing! 

The mist

To finish our time we walked around a little more and took a couple last pictures. 

Looking out at the clouds (Sarah, me, and Percy)

Finally, tired and hungry, we headed to go catch our bus down to Aguas Calientes. We were booked on a 6:45pm train back to Cusco so we had some time to kill. The bus ride was a quick 20min incredible windy twisty drive down 400m to the town. I was so sad that the adventure was coming to the end. The experience was just so wonderful – by far one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. We met Percy at a little restaurant, filled out our evaluations, and spent some time wandering.

Over the next 6 hours we did a little shopping, emailed our families to tell them we were alive, ate a delicious lunch, and tried to relax a bit.

"Wish You Were Here!"

Here is where we thought the story would end and I’d say we headed back caught our flights, and went home. However, our journey home turned into a WILD adventure that no one could have predicted. I suppose I’ll have to do one more post to include that adventure, as this story wouldn’t be complete without it!