Inca Trail: Arriving at Machu Picchu (Part 7)

It was not a good night’s sleep as I lay in the warm tent and listened to the trains whistling down below in the Urubamba River valley.  I was excited for the next day and finally drifted off, only to hear my watch alarm sound at 3:30am.  We got up, back up our gear one last time in the light of headlamps, and ate a quick breakfast before gathering up and walking down to the last control point on the Inca Trail.  The sky was dark, but we could see many stars and knew that it was going to be another great day.  The control point finally opened up and we hiked through after a quick check of our paperwork, finally on our way with the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu just a couple of miles away.

The trail was fairly exposed and we passed a couple of areas damaged by mudslides during the last wet season, but we soon climbed one last set of steep stairs and arrived at Intipati, the Sun Gate, overlooking Machu Picchu below us in the near distance.  After a half hour for pictures and time to simply take in the view, we gathered into our trekking group and started down the trail to the “Lost City of the Incas” as the sun broke over a mountain ridge and lit up the ancient site built around 1450 AD and fortunately never found by the Spanish when they invaded the area in the 1530’s.

Walking into Machu Picchu at about 8am, the site was still quiet.  The buses had started running up the mountain from Aguas Calientes, but there weren’t many tourists yet and we felt like we had really earned it after walking the 42-kilometer trail over the last four days.  After dropping of our daypacks at the entrance, our guide gave us a 2-hour of the site.  We walked through the ancient city and saw the sun temple, terraces, the king’s quarters, the priests’ quarters and two incomplete temples (including the room with three windows).  We sat on a narrow terrace on the west side of the site (used primarily for erosion control, not food production), our backs to a rock wall, and took in a vista that stretched from the river valley below us to the top of distant mountain peaks.

The sun was bright and the late morning was getting very warm, so my wife and several others in our group returned to the entrance area for some shade and a snack.  I stayed in the site and walked around alone (well, with a couple hundred tourists) for the next hour and simply tried to immerse myself in the ruins and surrounding mountains.  Machu Picchu was on my bucket list and I enjoyed walking the path among the buildings and terraces.  By 11:30am, I returned to the entrance.  That may not seem like much time at the site, but it was enough.  As one of the trekkers in my group observed at the Sun Gate, Machu Picchu was the highlight, but it was the entire trek experience that was special.

We caught a tour bus and descended down the mountain, and a dozen sharp switchbacks later, rolled out onto a paved road and arrived in the touristy town of Aguas Calientes shortly afterward.  A quick walk later, we were at a local restaurant and enjoyed a large wood-fired alpaca pizza and a couple of cold Inka Colas.  After saying farewell to one of our guides, Evelin, we walked to the train station at about 2:30pm.  The trains were running about two hours late, but we finally took a nice ride along the Urubamba River back to the town of Ollantaytambo for the 2-hour bus ride back to Cusco.  The night sky was once again lit by the Milky Way and a multitude of stars as the bus soon grew quiet.  Some of us were catching a nap, but I simply sat and reflected on the past days.  This is one of my favorite parts of a big trek, when I’ve accomplished what I set out to do, but am not quite ready for it to end.

Finally, we arrived back in Cusco and were dropped at our hotel.  After quick showers and a change of clothes, we went to dinner and enjoyed cuy appetizer (guinea pig), cold drinks (including Peru’s famous pisco sour) and a variety of delicious foods.  We said farewell to our guide David and presented him with a group tip, thanking him for sharing his culture, wisdom and friendship along the trail.  Leaving the restaurant after midnight, we walked back through the Plaza de Armas and the lamp-lit streets to our hotel.