The Road I have taken

I had heard a lot of peoples stories about hiking the Inca Trail and they all sounded wonderfully painful. Four days through the Sacred Valley before arriving at the ruins of Machu Piccu. Unfortunately given my schedule there was no way I had four days to spare. So instead I took the four hour train from Cusco to Aquas Caliente instead.

The train ride was long and arduous as well but somehow I managed to survive. I think it was because I broke down and paid the 5 Soles they were asking for a Snickers bar. As we neared the last stop my excitement built. Machu Piccu was one of the few things I knew I wanted to see while I was in South America. Everything else I had mostly just stumbled across.

They say that when you hike the Inca trail and you get up early on the fourth day and pull through the last 3 hours and come around the Sun Gate early in the morning an hour or so after sunrise, before the trains and tourists roll in, that you get a view of Machu Piccu that is humbling unlike any other in the world. Well it turns out the view when you get when you hike up from Aquas Caliente and stand in line behind the 15 person tour group from Idaho is fairly amazing as well.

As I looked out on the mostly intact ruins of the Incan the one thought that kept running through my head was ¨what the heck where they thinking???¨ The Incans had built Machu Piccu over a period of a 100 years on top of an incredibly steep mountain surrounded on all sides by other sacred majestic peaks, completely out of painstakingly carved stone. Meanwhile at the bottom of the hill lies a lush valley with a flowing river.

But, Luis, my Peruvian guide I met the other day at the ruins outside of Cusco explained to me that Machu Piccu was a retreat for the Incan royality. And the location was thought to be chosen because it was centrally located around several sacred mountains. He said the Incans believed that mountains were the children of mother earth and Machu Piccu was special because if you look it at with your head turned on its side the profile of the mountain looks like a face staring up towards the heavens.

As I looked out towards the magnificent rolling city that was once Machu Piccu I thought back to the set of ruins I had visited in the previous days. They had all been raized by the invading Spanish conquistadors and brought down to their foundations as a demonstration of the power of Catholicism and Spain. I thought if the remote retreat of Machu Piccu was so awe-inspiring what must all those other ruins have looked like before they were ruined.

I find it odd that throughout history the most devout Christians are generally the most un-Christlike people. Of course Christianity is not alone in this, I can´t think of anything in the history of the world that has caused more human misery and suffering than organized religion. It´s been true as long as anyone can remember and continues to this day.

The Incans seemed to have a wonderful religion from what I understand. It was truly egalitarian with a respect of all things natural with an welcoming of outsiders and their influences and a deep emphasis on personal excellence. Sure there was all the ritual sacrifice but no one said it was perfect. Besides, it`s so much easier to love a loser that has been wronged and think of what might have been than to look at the course of history and accept what actually did occur.

I thought again about my camera that I left in that cab in Buenos Aires. It would be nice to have at least one photo of Machu Piccu, but I´m still hoping the English guy Mark I met hiking around will hold true to his word and send me a couple snaps. I´m not really too concerned about it, I feel like I´ll be back. This is the kind of thing I´d like to see again with someone by my side so I can say things like ¨look how perfect the stone work is.¨ I know the poet tells us that one way leads to another and doubts that he´ll be back to retrace his steps, but we always come back to the things we truly care about.