Trek to Machu Picchu

Day 1 (11/23/07)
Waking up early, I strolled through the courtyard of the Casa Grande hotel, making sure my bike was locked up and protected from the rain, as I waited to be picked up for my four day adventure on the Inca trails to Machu Picchu. After one cramped taxi ride, a micro bus trip through Cuscu, and a five hour shuttle to our drop off point, we were sitting at 13,200 feet looking over the Rio Urubamba. We had 48 kilometers to go, and I was sitting on top of a mountain bike with a bent frame, no rear break, a shaky front suspension, and a loose chain that would fall off every 15 minutes.
It took me a while to get use to the bike, but after a while, I was cruising down the mountain, enjoying the marvelous mountain sides, and dreaming of the messengers that once ran on the trails long before these wheels landed on their soil.
The bike trip landed us north of Machu Picchu in a small village called Santa Maria, where we cleaned up, grabbed some beers and sat with our tour guide at the local soccer match. The evening gave us time to meet the others in the group, consisting of three Brits, one Dutchman, our Peruvian tour guide and myself. There was a second group, who were all contracted through a separate company, that kind of followed our tracks as well. The night ended with a drinking game, where we all ended up snoring in our chairs with saliva stringing ever so poetically from our lips.
Day 2 (11/24/07)
Although slightly hung over, I was definitely excited about the 28 kilometer hike on the Inca trails through the mountains just north of Machu Picchu. Our tour was called the "Jungle Tour" quite specifically because the entire day consisted of rain, wet palms, fresh fruit picked on the side of the path, the call of Parrots across the valley, the rapid Urubamba river running below us, and the multitude of mosquito bites that came along with it.
It is difficult to describe the Incan trails, mostly because it is a massive construction of arterial interconnection between a culture that spread over thousands of miles through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. The Incans produced massive stone masonry, and endless miles of trails hundreds of years before the wheel even set foot on the continent. The very trail that I was climbing that day, chewing on coca leaves, picking the tangerines and pineapple; was the same trail taken hundreds of years prior by the Incan messengers .
We climbed through dark jungle filled with spider webs and butterflies, crossed the river on swaying bridges with missing planks, and even zip-lined across the river using a small box and a pull rope. I drank fresh coffee brewed in the old Incan mountains and juice made from purple Indian corn.
After our exciting crossing using the zip line 200 feet above the river, we hiked to the hotsprings just outside of Santa Teresa. It was a beautiful natural hot spring, that lay on the back of a dramatic Andean cliff. We ended up throwing our puddy muscles into a minibus, and headed into Santa Teresa for food, pool, and the discotech (where a drunk man insisted that I trade shirts with him, of which I am now the proud owner of the 1995 Santa Teresa soccer jersey...holes, smell, and all).
Day 3 (11/25/07)
Today did not compare to the Incan trails that we had yesterday. Mostly because, the trails had been replaced by railroad track, and we were left following them for most of the hike. It was nice walking by the river, surrounded by wet jungle and beautiful flowers, however, when the ties are not aligned on the track in a consistent pattern, it becomes quite annoying to walk the right of way.
All the same, we made it into Aguas Caliente, flooded with tourism and over-priced lodging, where ironically enough my water was Aguas muy muy frio! We had dinner and hit the bed early in order to wake up at 4 the next morn in order to hike up to Machu Picchu.
Day 4 (11/26/07)
Today was the day we have all been working so hard for. We had biked 48 kms and hiked 46 kms in three days...now we were to climb over 3,200 steps...and I am not talking about normal steps, but old Incan steps that will make your thighs wish they were taking the train.
However, when you are hiking up steps of that intensity, you have to get in a mood, and the fact that one of the New Seven Wonders of the World was only steps away from me...I had no problem sweating off gallons of man smell with one goal in mind...making it to the top.
We finally made it to the Machu Picchu site, in about one hours time, and started out on our guided tour through the village. The sites were overwhelming...perfectly cut stone masonry had come together with logically tiered agricultural plots overlooking a massive valley in the flora of dramatic Andes. Canals ran through the city, providing resources to the lost community that once lived up here. It turns out that Machu Picchu was like a University of sorts, where families would come to study agriculture, astronomy, weaving, and artisan works. Priests would hold sacrificial ceremonies on large granite boulders. Being just miles from the moon, you could easily feel the presence of the sun pounding on my volatile skin. While the llamas chewed on the grassy plaza, we made our way around to the temples where they had created sun dials and a massive boulder construction of a condor. The condor is significant, being that it circled in the air creating the circular patter, which to the Incans, represented the sun...worshiped very closely. There are three main Peruvian animals that were very dear to the ancient culture; the condor in the sky, the puma on the land, and the snakes below. This tradition can be seen quite amazingly in the construction of the cities, where as Cusco took on the formation of the puma, the shape of Machu Picchu can be seen as a condor from up above.
Being so, I continued the hike with some of the other boys in the group, up to Wayna Picchu that overlooks Machu Picchu. The hike was steep and a little dangerous, however, when reaching the top and sitting on the boulder overlooking the condor village, I understood what life is all about. So we popped a bottle of Champagne and celebrated it's beauty.
The trip back into Cusco consisted of a three hour train ride and a three hour bus trip...of which, I began to feel the tired muscles take their toll. Driving by more of the older ruins in Ollantaytambo an Urubamba, I kept thinking how fortunate I am to be alive on this earth. I could have been living hundreds of years ago, cutting out stones for these terraces and building the first network of highways in the american world. Only I a living here today, as I sit in unending awe of the magic that lies within the Incan history.