Virgin Sacrifices for Pachamama (Inca Trail - Day 4)


    The grand finale started with a painfully early morning for the final walk, arriving at the Sun Gate of Machu Picchu at sunrise.


      By now the crew has learned quite a lot about us. My Himalayan friend earned the nickname "mountain goat”. Not because she was an incredible trekker, but because she tried to sample random plants along the trail and climbed on everything she wasn't supposed to touch.

      She also operated on her own standard time. Our guide Danny told us later that before the final day, the head porter asked him: "Jefe, should we wake up mountain goat at 2:30am and everyone else at 3?"

      The whole point of the early wake up is to get to the Sun Gate and get that first awe inspiring view just as the sun hits Machu Picchu. Behold, the awe inspiring view:


      Sometimes it be like that. Pachamama (Mother Earth) didn't have her coffee yet and wasn't in the mood.

      I was getting ready to prepare our somewhat unwilling sacrificial lamb to appease the gods, but our guide, who earned the nickname “weather.com", had been at this for 16 years and promised the fog would clear up by 10am.

      Sure enough, the weatherman was right. No sacrifice needed.


        Walking into Machu Picchu we felt like celebrities - all the tour guides we passed were telling their groups how we just did the 4 day Inca Trail. I'm not sure how they knew, probably by the smells from not showering for 4 days. We puffed out our chests all the same and looked down on those train takers.

        4 days of trekking wasn't enough. We continued through to Huayna Picchu, that steep mountain behind the city in all the pictures.


          Now that was one stairwell from hell.

          Practically vertical with very few rails, none of which were positioned where they would have been useful. It was one of the few times in my life I've felt vertigo. My knees decayed by another decade in just one day.


            Yet the views, divine.

              Comments

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