Inca Trail, day 4/Machu Picchu
The third night of the trek, I spent a sleepless night, tossing and turning, contemplating the early morning that lay ahead and distracted by how dirty I suddenly realized I was. These are the sorts of situations where I probably would have been better off had I intentionally stayed up all night, rather than attempting to sleep, snoozing a few minutes here and there. But either way, 3 a.m. came way too early. There was no pleasant offering of coca tea to ease us into a more awake state this morning. Instead, the porters came around hitting our tents every few minutes, announcing that there was hot water outside the tent, bringing paper towels, and then even starting to take our tents down around us while we were still in them! All this rush so early in the morning left me feeling a little disoriented and grouchy.
Why the rush to get going this morning? The porters do not go with us to Machu Picchu. They needed to get all the equipment back to Ollantaytambo and prepare for their next group, which would start that same day! There is only one local train each day to Ollantaytambo that is not for tourists, and it leaves at 5 a.m. Therefore, we needed to be out of the campsite early enough for the porters to get everything loaded up and to the train station on time.
Additionally, the earlier we get going, the closer we can be to the front of the line to get in the gate to the Sun Gate. The gate opens at 5:30, so all groups are lined up waiting to get in. There are only a limited number of benches under a shelter. On a nice morning like we had, this was not a big deal, but if it had been raining, waiting two hours and getting drenched would have been pretty miserable. However, my group was there early enough to claim the last couple of benches.
5:30 rolled around, and everyone got in a looong line to start hiking to the Sun Gate. Knowing there were a couple of hundred people behind me made me feel a little anxious about trying to keep up with the pace of everyone else. Instead of taking it easy, I was pushing way too hard, which was not a good idea considering the altitude, the lack of sleep, and the lack of breakfast. I did not start enjoying myself until I finally forced myself to slow down and hike at my own pace.
The trail to the Sun Gate took about two hours to complete, and included interesting features such as 50 nearly vertical steps, where I needed to use my hands to help me climb up, like a ladder. When I finally got to the Sun Gate and had my first real look at Machu Picchu, I was blown away! After a nice break enjoying the view and a cheese sandwich to build some energy, we moved on.
As we continued toward Machu Picchu, we started to notice a strange site–clean people, walking in the opposite direction! Where did they come from? That is when we realized that tourists were already coming up to Machu Picchu by train. It was honestly a little disappointing that after four days of challenging ourselves towards this final destination, all these clean people were able to arrive before us. I understand that not everyone can physically complete the hike, and I don’t look down on people who visit Machu Picchu without having completed the Inca Trail, but I just felt that after all the work we had put into getting here, it would have been a nice reward if completing the Inca Trail allowed people to get early access to Machu Picchu. But no need to complain. The clean people did not take away from the fact that I had made it to Machu Picchu, and I would still enjoy the experience!
After a break for snacks in the Machu Picchu restaurant and a bathroom break in a real, clean bathroom, we lined up to head into Machu Picchu. To get in, we needed to show tickets and our passport. The interesting thing about going to Machu Picchu is you can actually get a stamp in your passport, showing that you were there! My passport is getting ready to expire, so that was a fun final stamp to add to its pages!
No matter how you get to Machu Picchu, you really should get a guide to explain everything so that you are not just wandering around. Having a guide helps you better understand what you are looking at, and helps you better appreciate the site. Fortunately, Daniel is a licensed guide at Machu Picchu, so he was able to give us our tour. Although it was crowded, the tour was excellent, and it is amazing how well these structures have stood up throughout the years. Daniel pointed out that they were built to be earthquake proof, and that seems to be accurate. The one place that we could see splitting was apparently caused by tree roots, not by an earthquake. Maintenance crews help to regularly retouch parts of Machu Picchu, but the majority is original.
One thing we learned that was a little disappointing to hear is that in the next five years, there are plans to close Machu Picchu to the public, in efforts to better preserve the site. Instead, tourists would be able to take a cable car from above for a birds eye view. I can understand their concerns for preservation. We saw some people who were less conscious of their surroundings than others. However, it is still disappointing to think that people in the future will not be able to experience being inside Machu Picchu. It is, after all, a spiritual site, and there is a particular feeling you can get from being there. Besides that, I think it would be more difficult to appreciate the construction from high above in the sky. I hope the government can come up with some other solution. I think putting stricter limits on daily visitors could be a start. But to completely close off the site would be a shame.
After our excellent tour, we were free to wander around and explore. I decided to go check out the Inca Bridge. On the way, there is a spot that has the best view of Machu Picchu, so we all naturally stopped for pictures. The Inca Bridge was still about 20 minutes out from that spot. It was interesting, but you can only get so close to the old wooden bridge. It is gated off because it is clearly unsafe to walk on. Still, I felt it was worth the hike.
Then we all headed into the nearby town of Aguas Calientes for lunch. This was our farewell lunch for Mickey, since he would not be heading back to Cusco with us. We celebrated by ordering his favorite meal, cuy (guinea pig). This is a traditional Peruvian dish, and several of us were curious to try it. It is not bad–rather gamey, but flavorful. I ate a leg, but Mickey even ate the head!
From lunch, we took the train to Ollantaytambo, arriving around 4 p.m., then loaded onto a bus for the long drive back to Cusco. We hit Cusco around rush hour and didn’t make it back to our hotel until around 7:30 p.m. Keep in mind that we woke up at 3 a.m.! We were all so tired when we got back to the hotel, that we weren’t really enthusiastic about the prospect of heading back out for a final dinner, and decided to order pizza to the hotel instead. Unfortunately, this meant our goodbye to Daniel was a little anticlimactic. I think we all agreed that after such a busy day and an early morning, it would have been nice to stay in Ollantaytambo that night where we could have had showers and refreshed ourselves, and then enjoy a final dinner in Ollantaytambo. I would have been fine with waking up a little early the next morning to take the bus back to Cusco, in exchange for having a more ceremonious final evening with the group. Basically, this means that the trip would have to be extended by a day, though. Nevertheless, it was actually a calm and relaxing evening, just hanging out in the hotel and eating pizza. So maybe I wouldn’t change things, after all.
And so the trip was officially over. My flight was not scheduled until the following evening (and that was quite the fiasco, but that’s another story), so I had most of the day in Cusco to myself to explore more of the city.
All in all, it was an enjoyable trip. It was for sure the most physically challenging experience of my life, but also extremely rewarding. I would highly recommend to anyone considering this trip to just go ahead and do it! You will not regret your decision!
Tracy Travels & Teaches 
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