We started hiking at 04:45 in the dark after having hastly put some food in our still sleepy bodies. Armed with torches we hike the 10 minutes to the qiew for the last checkpoint onto the mountain of Machu Picchu. some groups had been waiting there for 1.5 hours in the dark. we are only there for 45 minutes and my wait seems a lot shorter as i have to sprint back to the loo.
our group walks so fast that its more running we do. after all the training of the last 3 days i have no problem keeping up with jimmy, the assistant guide, as he leads us past the groups before us to be the first to lay eyes on Machu Picchu. This goes not without trouble as i as politely in Dutch if i may pass a Dutch couple which is walking so slow and blocking the path (which is not so wide and has a steep ridge). he says no and shoves me back as i try to walk pass them. The man was very lucky Graham missed that and doesnt speak enough Dutch to understand what the man was saying as I`m afraid he would have see Machu Picchi in a different light. I´m still a bit shocked by this but hey, i guess you have assholes everywhere.
we continue our hike from the Sungate to Machu Picchu city where we walk into some Lama´s blocking the trail but they give great opportunity for photos. Sunrise on Machu Picchu truely is a great view. we try hard to keep all the other tourists who arrive by bus out of the Photos but there are so many that it looks like the place is covered in ants. we visit the temple of the sun, where they have to windows, one facing the sungate where at summer solstice the sun would aline with the inner shrine telling them its the new year on the inca calender. on the highest point of the city we find the temple with the three windows where they have a shrine for the 3 stages of life, the condor the puma and the snake representing life, the transet and death. they also have a compass rock in the shape of a kite which points exactly south, and a big stone which was said to be either a sundial or healing stone, giving back the energy Pacha Mama (mother earth) took from you during the walk here.
The irrigation system still works perfectly and the Inca´s were careful building in a way which would result in as little damage as possible from earthquakes. Unfortunately it is modern man who damages the most as the city is subsiding 1cm a year due to damage made while creating the railway and blowing up pieces of the mountain. some walls are falling apart already.
as we walk around the huge terrain we are held up by panting fat americans who cant make it up the 10 steps. its nice to notice we have got so much fitter.when we get back to the town of Aquas Calientes at the bottom of the mountain. we treat ourselves to 2 hours in the medicinal hot springs were i made friends with princess Sita and Aurelia who are 6 and 7 years old and what to know if i have a baby. its great to relax with a view of the surrounding green mountains before the train and bus back to Cusco.
