Machu Picchu

I did it!

Machu Picchu was always the central focus of my South American trip and it did not disappoint.  I had imagined 4 days of glorious sunshine, cold evenings and some wonderful views.  On the weather front only our 4th and final day was glorious sunshine, but we counted ourselves really lucky to be able to go through the sun gate at 6.30 in the morning with the sun behind us.  We were all a bit surprised at how far MP was in the distance ... not much more than a blob but magical none-the-less.  We ate our breakfast there and soaked up the magnificent Andes views for over one hour before embarking on the 1 1/2 hour walk down to the main site.  Incredible to think that the Incas could only access the site 5-600 years ago by walking the same route.  Euphoric.  

View from sun gate day 4.  

No one really knows why MP was first built as all records have been lost.  Popular opinion is that it was some kind of summer home for royalty and the like as well as for a few peasants who lived there year round.  There is evidence of a home for the king and the main priest, although we were insistent that it was a high priestess!  The Inca temple's main focus of worship is the mountains; the infamous sun gate is the point on the horizon at which the sun rises on the winter solstice.  The summer solstice occurs over Mount Veronica, an ice capped volcano much respected by the locals.  During the torrential rain of our 3rd day, our wonderful level headed (and female) guide prayed to Veronica for sunshine for our final morning.  What can I say!

View of Veronica from my tent day 1 ... The photos from MP on day 4 did not really show how majestic she was.

The Incas, like many civilisations before them, integrated local customs into their own.  Pacchumama, or Mother Earth, seems to be a constant in this area dating from pre-Incan times. Mount Veronica represents Pacchumama. She overseas all that belongs to the earth.  There are also three zones regularly worshipped as evidenced by the different parts of most temples here and elsewhere: upper, represented by a condor; middle represented by a puma; and lower represented by a snake.  Pacchumama presided over the middle and lower earths as well as everything female or to do with harvests and fertility.  That the puma never inhabited this area illustrates he integration of beliefs across the whole of the Andes/Incan area.

This is the part of the temple worshipping the condor ..... See if you can work it out.  Thank you to Mira for the photo as guess who managed to leave her camera behind!

As for the walk, Day 1 was supposed to be "training" .... the views were fantastic, the legendary porters were amazing, and our evening meal of guacamole, soup and chicken with rice was out of this world.  Our guide, Tina, was excellent too.  We really did feel as though we were embarking on an adventure with the best team ever!

1 guide, two cooks, 10 porters and 6 travellers!

Me and my 5 fellow travellers .... all around 30 years old .... It's thanks to them all that this was such an enjoyable trip for me.  

Day 2 was "challenge day" and dead woman's pass going up 1200ms to 4200ms and back down again, mostly steps.  We got into camp early and were all pretty proud of ourselves believing the hardest bit was over.  Little did we know!

Cloudy at the top.

Day 3 was supposed to be "incredible day" going through 3 different ecosystems, fantastic views and visiting some inca ruins ...  All I saw was rain and steps, more steps, and more steps ... the others faired a little better but we were all a bit down at the end of the day ... having  to go out after lunch in wet clothes with aching knees nearly finished me off.  

Thank goodness for walking sticks.

Here is a photo of the last evening after we said thank you and goodbye to our wonderful team.  Dishevelle, still damp but looking positive.  

Day 4 was indeed a "magical day" with sunshine as we had been promised.  Starting with a 3.45 am wake-up call with cup of coca tea, we set out at 4.30am and positively raced the 6k trek to the sun gate.  We seemed to enjoy the day more and more as it went along.  

There was one wobbly moment though ... Caught so well in this photo c/o Mira of Sarah and I clearly wondering what we were doing!

Thank you to Tina, Sarah, Ngaire, Andrew, Kirby and Mira for their company, card games (caca something or other!) and for supporting me through this. 

The pisco sours in the restaurant in MP town at the end of the day never tasted so good!