The Inca Trail (5 of 5)

We ate a little, quickly, and then walked at a fast, excited pace towards the treasure at the end of this journey. I checked in, showing my badly worn ticket I had purchased just three days before. Next, I left my bag at storage. Before long I was amongst the walls and structures of the most amazing place I had ever been. The only places that come close for me were a few temples in Thailand or Indonesia, but there was just something about Machu Picchu. There was just something about having to go for an excruciating hike to see this place. There was just something about that trail. It made this place all the more unique and enchanting. I could have taken the train, but this was so much more rewarding. What was I doing here? I was just here and that was all that mattered to me.

It’s extremely hard to describe what it was like. It was better than I expected and I had had high expectations. The thing about Machu Picchu wasn’t the ruins, which were cool, don’t get me wrong, but it was just the whole experience. Walking around the maze-like walls of the main complexes was amazing. The terraces were so unusual to behold. The most inspiring aspect was the incredible views through the smoky mist. As the sun heated the landscape around me the mist rose to reveal the true identity of Machu Picchu. The Urubamba River was far below. The jade green mountains and the high glacial peaks of the Andes were in the distance all 360 degrees around me. Here I was, in this mythical lost city. It existed. The pure energy of the place fulfilled my soul. For that moment I completely forgot how exhausted the trail had made me. It was as if the energy “recharged” my tired body.

I hiked up to Huayna Picchu (Young Mountain). From there I got a true feeling of Machu Picchu. I saw how elaborate it is and what it must have looked like all those years ago. In fact I spent most of my time up on Hauyna Picchu watching the Peruvian men clear the jungle from the newly discovered ruins with machetes. I imagined Incas walking around the ruins below. I imagined farmers working among the terraces. I could see them picking crops and plowing the strips of flat land on the steep mountainside. What had it been like when it was at it’s full glory? This whole place remained a secret from the Spanish. Was this El Dorado? Or is there an even more unbelievable place still undiscovered? It seemed hard to imagine a lost city even better than this one.

With all the intricacies of Machu Picchu one could spend a lot of time there. I didn’t want to leave. What was it about this place that drew hundred of thousands of people to see it every year? It’s an unanswerable question because it’s unique to each and every person.

I had done it. What was I doing here? Now the real question was… Why was I even questioning myself for doing this? Another question was brewing in my head: How long is it going to take my legs to recover?

I returned home changed. That wondrous place had actually changed me. It had transformed who I was and how I looked at people and the world around me.

“To visit Machupijchu, you must prepare the soul, sharpen the senses. Forget for some minutes, the small and transcendental problems of our lives, of modern… man…”

“Not only has it great snow peaks looming above the clouds more than two miles overhead; gigantic precipices of many colored granite rising sheer for thousands of feet above the foaming, river.”

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