Inca Trail, Day 4: WOW!

The wake-up call for Machu Picchu: 4am. After breakfast, we had to do a bit of night hiking to the last checkpoint before Machu Picchu. No problem for me, though, I was rocking the head lamp. (Although Kris and Armando will probably tell you I was a bit of a blinding menace with that thing on.) The checkpoint was scheduled to open at 5:30, but actually opened a few minutes early, which must be a first in South American history. After we got through the checkpoint, it was about a 90 minute hike to Machu Picchu. It wasn't exactly a sunrise, (since the sun doesn't really rise or set in the mountains, it just gets light and dark) but the sun coming up over the mountains was awesome. It was a clear morning, with only a few clouds surrounding the mountaintops.

The first view of Machu Picchu was from the Sun Gate, which our guide told us could sometimes be the cloud gate or fog gate, but on that morning, it was nothing but sunshine. I was in complete awe. The view was clear, and my camera was functioning. I was pumped.

From the Sun Gate, we hiked down to the keeper's house, which is the view you always see in pictures and postcards. After taking all the pictures we could, we walked down to the main entrance (where you enter if you take the bus) to put our stuff in storage for the day, including my trusty walking stick. While gathering my stuff for storage, I heard a familiar voice. I realized it was one of my former students, who is a trail guide. I asked him how he was, and he said he was doing great, and that he was able to be a guide because of me. He introduced me to the couple he was guiding, who told me I must be a good teacher, because his English is so good. He was only in my class for a month, though, I can't take all the credit, but it was very nice to hear.

By 7am, it was already a hot day. It was fabulous. The first thing we did was hike up Wayna Picchu, the mountain behind Machu Picchu. Only 400 people can climb Wayne Picchu in a day. We were numbers 82 and 83 at 8am. It took about an hour to get up, and it was steep. After hiking for 3 days, I kept asking myself "why am I doing this?" To get to the top, I had to crawl through a very small tunnel (those Incas were tiny!) then had to scramble up a few precariously perched rocks. The view from the top was fantastic. The only thing surrounding Machu Picchu is mountains and trees, with the river and train tracks waaaaaay down below. Coming down from Wayna Picchu, my already sore knee became quite painful. I had to limp around on a bum leg for the rest of the day.

Armando gave us a tour of the ruins afterwards. Despite my bum knee, I had a fantastic time walking around the ruins and taking it all in. Kris decided it was more interesting to look at from a distance. I told him he was more than welcome to keep looking at it from a distance, but I had every intention of exploring every inch. (I like to think I shatter the stereotype of whiney
Americans.)

After I had finished exploring every inch, we took the bus down the mountain to the town of Aguas Calientes, a town that exists solely to get to and from Machu Picchu. I was downright dirty, and I know I smelled bad, but I certainly wasn't the only one. While we were waiting for the train, Kris asked me where my walking stick was. Oops. It hadn't been returned with the rest of my stuff from storage. Oh, well. We intended to rest during the 4 hour train ride back to Cusco (it's not that far, the train is just that slow), but we ended up sitting with a very chatty and hilarious group made up of 3 Canadians, an Irish couple, and a clueless Australian girl. (When Kris told her he was from Norway, she seriously replied, "Where's that?" Thank goodness she wasn't American.) The conversation made the long ride not seem so bad.

All in all, the Inca Trail is one of the coolest things I've ever done. Maybe it was the buttload of karma I racked up volunteering a few weeks ago, but everything worked out perfectly. I wouldn't have changed a thing.