Machu Picchu

I'm not normally one of those people who gets really worked up over ruins or natural history museums. While I find them interesting and usually somewhat aesthetically pleasing, I have never really harbored a desire to be an archaeologist and spend my time "uncovering the mysteries of the past" or whatever. It's kind of like, I really like to understand a bit about the culture of the place I'm in, but when it comes to looking at site after site of ancient stones that we actually know very little about, I kind of get bored.

That said, I have to admit that not only Machu Picchu, but also the sites we visited along the way totally blew me away. It is SO beautiful there it is hard to even describe, and the photos I took don't even come close to doing it all justice. I think one of the reasons I really enjoyed Machu Picchu so much is that so much of it is still really intact, I mean like even in full working order, in the case of the water drainage systems. So it doesn't require quite such a flight of imagination to envision what life here was like, and, most importantly, the site itself is absolutely breathtaking. It makes a lot of sense that it was never found (and therefore never destroyed) by the Spanish simply because the location is so remote and so incredibly high- it sits atop a mountain peak, amid several other similar peaks, some of which are also built up and others of which are not. But who would of thought to attack there? Nonetheless, this gorgeous place was only used for about 100 years before it was abandoned, though to this day nobody is certain of why.

Anyway, even though really doing it right means getting up at 5am to catch the first hours of light, it was well worth the effort. After spending the better part of the morning on our little guided tour of the pueblo of Machu Picchu, I decided that I was feeling up for the hike up to Waynapicchu, a neighboring mountain that also has ruins at the top. The climb up Waynapicchu is grueling, but I was actually relishing the exercise, since I have basically become a human vegetable in the last year, lacking any kind of real cardio or legs workout. I was quite pleased at the fact that I was able to pass up most of the others on the trail too, and I made it to the top in about 35 minutes, though the average is an hour. I took my time once I got there, hot and sweaty, to relax, cool down, climb around, take pictures and eat my lunch of choclo (native, huge corn on the cob) and an apple, legs dangling off into nowhere at what feels like the top of the world. By the time I was ready to move on, I was feeling pretty good and energized again, so when I got to the crossroads that gave me the choice between going back to the entrance or descending to the bottom to see the Great Caves (also called the moon caves), I opted to press on and check out the caves. This, as it turns out, was perhaps a bit overambitious.

The trail was gorgeous: as it snakes down the mountain (through a combination of carved stone steps, normal dirt path and lashed-together wooden ladders, depending on the steepness), the air becomes less dry and the vegetation more tropical, with lush green vines, twisting trees and wild orchids of all kinds tangling into a thick forest on all sides of you. I continued on for around 40 minutes, down, down, down, and then came to the first bit of ruins, which was some kind of hallway that I couldn't really determine the purpose of. It was a little complicated getting down from that first part, but when I did I immediately spotted the brightly dressed woman who had sat across from me on the train the night before. She was perched on the ledge of the overlook, moving her hands in front of her and chanting some kind of hippie mantra, I don't know what. She ignored me and I looked behind her and saw another middle-aged woman, this one slightly less woo-woo seeming, sitting on a carved stone bench inside the mouth of the great cave, talking to her friend in Spanish and then contorting herself so she was sitting upside down now, her head hanging close to the ground and her legs perching atop the stone, attempting to balance like that. I did my best to pretend they weren't there and went on about my way, walking into the cave, which had been meticulously inlaid with stone walls and cupolas, where, if my guide is correct, is where the Inkas would have placed their precious ceremonial objects to be displayed while they used the space to perform rituals and religious ceremonies. There was also the "double carved" door jamb, which was only used for holy buildings. I ventured further back into the darker part of the cave, but even though there were obviously more structures built up back there, I didn't have a light and the damp darkness that pervaded it creeped me out so I left.

Climbing back out and back to the main site proved to be a lot more of a challenge than coming in had been. I noticed that when I stood still my legs started shaking, so I figured the only thing to do was to keep walking. I tried to take it steadily, not going as fast as I usually like to in order to pace myself, but after climbing steadily up for more than an hour, only to come to a place where I then had to descend and could clearly see that ahead of me I would have to RE-ascend that which I was about to "undo", I started to feel annoyed. The Inkas were some tough mothers, that's all I can say. About two hours after I had left the Cave of the Moon, I finally reached familiar ground again, where I had originally come in to climb to Waynapicchu.
By the time I stumbled out, I was hot and sweaty, my legs were shaking and sore, and I was ready to go back to town and take a shower.

Leaving wasn't that easy either, since without a map, Machu Picchu is something of a maze, and more than once I found myself following labyrinthine pathways only to wind up at a dead end stone wall. But eventually I did make it out, only to discover that my tour company had only sent me with a one way ticket- I had no bus ticket back down. Annoyed (since I had actually already paid the exhorbitant $12 roundtrip fee with my tour), I eventually convinced the surly woman behind the counter to at least give me a student priced ticket, which she did, only to get me out of her hair I think. While waiting in line for the bus, I noticed a man who had just been delivered by stretcher to the front of the line. He was covered to his chest in an orange bodybag, but he was conscious. The woman beside me couldn't help but explain to me, in a loud New York accent, how they had been "stuck behind" him the whole time on the top of Waynapicchu, and how he had somehow managed to injure his leg and a rescue crew had to come and carry him all the way down on the stretcher, a feat I can hardly imagine as even being possible. By this time the man was being helped up and the bodybag was pulled back to let him out, and the leg that was revealed did indeed look pretty badly broken- it was all purple and swolled, from foot to about halfway up his lower leg. Poor guy. He looked dazed, and the woman beside me just continued to complain about how every time she had tried to get around the rescue party she still ended up behind them, which had clearly been a great nuisance to her. I just gave her a look of disbelief and commented how horrible it must have been for the guy and the rescuers, and she shut up shortly thereafter.

So yeah, it was a little rough, but it could've been a lot worse!

When I got back to town I went to the local "hot springs", which proved to be a lot less lovely than I had imagined, since really it was just several concrete pools full of dirty-looking water, but still , I think it was good for me. I tried to ignore the Pink Floyd and Bob Marley that was being cranked from the loudspeaker, and befriended a nice girl from Slovenia, a doctoral student who had just arrived from Bolivia that day and was exhausted. We hung out in the warm water until our skin was all pruny, and then went to eat and have a drink in town before we went our separate ways. For the first time in days, I slept like a baby, completely exhausted but warm and cozy in my hostel room.

I took the train and bus back to Cusco the following morning, and now, here I am, typing away at the ONLY wi-fi spot I could find in Cuzco, a super bougie restaurant/ cafe, hoping they don't say anything about the fact that all I've ordered in the past two hours is a tea. Tonight I will take a 5pm bus back to Lima (about 22 hours away), where I will spend my last few days before I head back to the US! The goal is to try to find gays. We shall see.

I hope this finds you all well and good. Other than having to pee right now, I myself am doing great, and can't wait to see you all again and eat delicious soy ice cream and vegan donuts! It's so hard to be vegan here! But I am staying stong- just a little cranky about it.

Big hugs to all! xoxo, me.