The energy is what got me. The distinct ebb and flow of contagious energy that flows through the ancient city, like the wind cursing through the valley and through the city walls. It's in the rocks of the city walls, the thin air that you breath and especially in the sun. Permit the energy can consume you and it will bring you to a higher place where you feel everything slightly differently. Everything is taken up a notch. Your senses, your emotions and the way you feel your muscles contract and release, muscles that you didn't even know you had. The energy grown stronger the longer the sun is up. In the heat of the afternoon its like the tourists have become the city dwellers and the sun is your God. The ancient ruins and the Peruvian jungle that preserved the city for so long are equally breath taking. It makes you wish there were more hours in the day to prolong the fleeting colors of the sunset in which to marvel the city. It is so beautiful that I can't write. I don't know how the put the words together or make sense of what the city made me feel. I would like to think that what I felt was the magic of time and the presence of lost souls that still inhabit the walls built of stone. Its the energy that I have no words to describe. It is different from love which is different from feeling powerful which is different from feeling awake and alive. My words will hardly do these ruins justice. Nor will my photos. But for the sake of an interesting blog, here are some faves:
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| My travel buddies Christian, Erika and Hannah |
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| Photo cred: Christian Papesch |
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| Checking out Wynapicchu, the mountain in all of the postcards. We climbed it. |
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| Floating in the clouds after a little meditation with our new friend Joel from Australia. |
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| Rapunzel Rapunzel let down your long hair |
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| Shadow fun |
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| Some surrounding Peruvian jungle mountains. Its no wonder Hiram Bingham didn't discover this until 1911. |
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| Weird Asian boxing movie anyone? |
A little back story now. My friends Hannah, Erika, Christian and I traveled 48 straight hours to get to Machu Picchu. As in, we departed from Vina on a Monday night to catch a 4:20am flight from Santiago to Arica, Chile. We crossed the Peruvian border at 8am and then got on a bus to Ariquipa, Peru. After one of our more interesting dinners we got on a night bus from Ariquipa to Cuzco and ended up on a tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas which ended in the town Ollantaytambo where we caught a train that night, ending up in Aguas Calientes at around midnight. After 4 hours of "sleep" Christian and I waited in line for the buses that brought us up through the mountains to the entrance of the park while Erika and Hannah braved the early morning darkness and hiked up. Being a grandmother at heart, I almost died of relief to see their smiling faces, dripping with sweat, at the entrance gate. The gates opened at 6am to welcome us to one of the most incredible days of our lives.
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| I found them! They're alive! |
The ladies spent the following day exploring Cuzco which vibrates with the same infectious flow as Machu Picchu, while Christian took a ride in the clouds with the San Pedro cactus. Cuzco was one of those days where there the best word to describe it turns out to be something completely generic and unoriginal. It was a real good day. A day you can look back on while story swapping with your friends and get a warm feeling inside and know its more than just the sun on your back. Its that good day feeling. That was my day in Cuzco. It was spent bartering for paintings on the street, picking out various clothing items made from alpaca to give as presents and reminiscing about our adventure in Machu Picchu.
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| The Plaza de Armas, Cuzco |
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| Got this goat thrown into my arms. Thanks. |
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| Hannah bartering with some Peruvian artisan women. Getting a little flustered. |
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| Saqsaywaman ruins above Cusco |
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| Cusco lit up |
We also thought a lot about our families and the people we love. I have found that on vacations like these you start to think about coming back to these places to share them with people who you love the most. This is not to say that I do not love my friends that I tackled this adventurcation with, it just means to say that you start to realize who is truly important to you. You take notice of the people that are always on your mind and you miss them even harder when you go on incredible adventures without them. I know my family would have had the greatest time in the world exploring those ruins, misunderstanding the locals and eating things like alpaca. So would have my guy friends at school. Its a cool feeling when you stop for a minute or do a double take because those neon sneakers should belong to a guy that lives in a place called the Court House or because someone's grandma's beach house should really have one of those wind chimes hanging outside of her screened in porch. Its those bittersweet moments that I have learned to cherish and appreciate. It means you've probably got someone missing you right back on the other side and they probably think of you time to time as well.
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| Shout out to the Penguin. I miss the way you waddle. |
After Cuzco we made our way to Lake Titicaca which is the largest and highest lake in South America. It holds a different kind of beauty than Machu Picchu. Its more fluid and placid. After seeing a pre-Incan burial/ceremony site one afternoon we took a boat ride to visit the Uros, a group of people who constructed islands out of reeds and live on them. They lead the most interesting lives out of any civilization I have ever studied or encountered. They live on man made islands of reeds. Impressive. We also visited an island called Taquila. Not tequila, TAquila. This was another peculiar group for several reasons. For one, you could tell a person's entire life story just by looking at them. Their clothes said it all. Wearing a certain sized belt with a certain pattern and color scheme combined with this style shirt with a cloth hat topped with a top hat meant something very clear that none of us could see. Their island was so small that a communistic approach to their economy made sense and actually functioned. Each guided group was assigned a restaurant to eat at. There was no competition for customers. The only souvenir store that we encountered, aside from the children trying to sell us woven bracelets along the stone paths, was in the main plaza and was 2 stories high. They sold hats and belts. There were also no cars on the island. If you wanted to go somewhere you walked along the stone paths that weaved in and around the countryside.
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| Us and our new friend Tom from France |
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| Cruzin with another new friend from Norway |
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| View of the lakeside city Puno |
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| Looking out to where blue meets blue |
Lake Titicaca is so big it looks like it could be the sea. There are spaces on the horizon, between the dotted islands where that is all that you can see, the line of the horizon. Where blue meets blue, the water and the sky. It was strange knowing that Bolivia, the forbidden land for us Americans without visas, was on the other side of all of that water. It was right there, but we couldn't even catch a glimpse of it. It suppose Bolivia will have to be saved for another adventure.
This is a video Christian put together of our time in Peru:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgQWIJlcFDQ&feature=feedu
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After Cuzco we made our way to Lake Titicaca which is the largest and highest lake in South America. It holds a different kind of beauty than Machu Picchu. Its more fluid and placid. After seeing a pre-Incan burial/ceremony site one afternoon we took a boat ride to visit the Uros, a group of people who constructed islands out of reeds and live on them. They lead the most interesting lives out of any civilization I have ever studied or encountered. They live on man made islands of reeds. Impressive. We also visited an island called Taquila. Not tequila, TAquila. This was another peculiar group for several reasons. For one, you could tell a person's entire life story just by looking at them. Their clothes said it all. Wearing a certain sized belt with a certain pattern and color scheme combined with this style shirt with a cloth hat topped with a top hat meant something very clear that none of us could see. Their island was so small that a communistic approach to their economy made sense and actually functioned. Each guided group was assigned a restaurant to eat at. There was no competition for customers. The only souvenir store that we encountered, aside from the children trying to sell us woven bracelets along the stone paths, was in the main plaza and was 2 stories high. They sold hats and belts. There were also no cars on the island. If you wanted to go somewhere you walked along the stone paths that weaved in and around the countryside.
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