On the Trail of the Inca / Machu Picchu

(30 July)

Inca Trail - Machu Picchu, Peru
This one is for the ever fabulous Reneé Darvin.

Our last morning on the Inca Trail, we are up at 3:30am. The checkpoint five minutes downhill opens at 5:30am. The problem is there are many groups camped out, waiting to pass through the checkpoint when it opens, so we need to get there early to be at the front of the line. Once we are cleared, we have about a two hour hike to get to Machu Picchu. The anticipation is great, and the morning is still and quiet. At sunrise, we approach Intipata, the Sun Gate, from which the first views of the Machu Picchu citadel can be seen below. We´ve made it!

It´s almost another hour´s walk to get down to Machu Picchu, watching its stone contours and alleyways emerge below the rising sun. Illness, foot blisters, callouses, sore muscles, aches, and hammered knees all fade away. We are basking in the glow of arrival.

Already the buses are exhaling tourists from Auguas Calientas by the hundreds at this early hour, but at least we have the relative quiet of the morning to take in the vastness of the place. By noon, the site will be literally flooded - resembling an amusement park. The park regulations allow 2,500 tourists to enter per day. I feel entitled to my space, having walked for three and a half days to get here, but I too am one of the millions who are contributing to the demise of this precious jewel. A group of Japanese scientists recently found that the terraces at the edges of Machu Picchu are sloping downward at a rate of 2cm per month, due to the heavy traffic on the delicate site. It is not unforeseeable that this will be a site only visible from a distance at some point in the near future.