Pilgrimage to Machu Picchu: Part Eleven - Alone on Wayna Picchu

When we arrived at Machu Picchu, we all had to go through yet another checkpoint. Once again, passports were checked, and knightky and I had to check our backpacks into storage. Unladen, I felt much lighter on my feet. David and Jesus took us around the city, showing us various temples and explaining their significance to us. Machu Picchu is made of steep stairways, so it was just as demanding to explore as the Inca Trail.

Tourists, not yet acclimatized to the altitude, were winded and moving slowly. The vast majority of visitors to Machu Picchu arrive there by train. The rest, a small minority, hike there over the Inca Trail. Our guides believe that in order to get a true sense of the enormity and import of Machu Picchu, one must follow the Inca Trail as did their ancestors. With my whole heart, I agree with this. When I bussed to the ruins in the Sacred Valley, I did not have a strong sense of the effort and hardship people faced in creating and journeying to those sites in antiquity. But by trekking through the mountain passes, creeping along handmade pathways, exerting myself to exhaustion, witnessing the effects of the journey on fellow pilgrims, experiencing the dramatic changes in temperature and environment firsthand, ( I had gained a far greater appreciation than before my journey. )