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Inca Trail - Machu Picchu by Joe Mazzarella - added January 31, 2007
 We awoke at 4:30 am and after another undersized breakfast,
Julie went ahead to try to catch the sunrise on Machu Picchu as I stayed
behind to break camp. She was able to catch a ride with a couple of employees
of the park, who liked the fact that she spoke Spanish and were interested in
her marital status. When Julie was a young girl she had a picture from a
magazine of Machu Picchu on the wall in her room. I doubt it could live up
to viewing it in person. While chilling out by the river before starting the
walk up to the ruins, I thought I would try my camera one more time, just for
the hell of it. Sure enough it started working like nothing ever happened to it.
We spent the day exploring the ruins of Machu Picchu and
climbed the mountain of Huayna Picchu, all the time trying to learn as much as we
could of this strange civilization whose empire spread throughout Peru, and into
Ecuador, Chile, and Bolivia. Although it is hard to make sense of the meaning behind
the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu, Peter Frost seems do a good job of it in his book
Exploring Cusco.
"Machu Picchu and the Inca trail make no sense to our rational
minds, but our hearts can readily understand. The Incas worshipped the natural
world - particularly the snowcapped mountains which are visible from all the major
sites - and tried to communicate with its spirits. They were willing to make an
enormous investment in the contemplation of natural beauty." - Peter Frost,
Exploring Cusco, 5th ed., 1999.
We used his book as a guidebook on the Inca trail, at Machu
Picchu, and throughout the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Also, many facts and theories
about the Inca trail and the coca leaf written in this journal were taken from his book.
[Phuyuptamarca, Day 3] [Travel Journal Index] [The Bus Ride, Day 1]
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