Machu Picchu

4am start to see sunrise. Adriel already had bus tickets - so queued down street for buses to come. There are 28 buses that line up to take people to Machu Picchu (MP). It takes about 25 mins to drive up the zig zag mountain side.








At the top. another queue to get in. Then up a side walk to a place above MP to see the sun rise. By the time we got there the sun was just coming over the mountain range in a clear blue sky. It is impossible to descibe it. All I can say is that it was sublime - as if looking at the Divine.
Tears rolling down my face at the beauty of the setting and thinking that the Incas that used to live here must have experienced this every day.


After watching the sun stream over the mountains into Machu Picchu, Adriel lead a tour of the site.



The entrance gate, Solar temple, hitching post of the sun, ceremonial stone, women's quarters, water stream, temple of the condor and finally temple to mother earth (pacha mama).

All this left us exhausted, so we had a nap in one of the houses before the temple of the condor. Adriel gave us a lot of information about the astronomical significance of the site (as the Incas did not have clocks, they needed accurate methods of determining the time of the year and they did this by tracking the sun using solar sight lines). This was interesting , but moved us from the special experience of the sun rise to a more mundane touristy type experience.

Lunch at the cafe of the site (20 soles or over 4 pounds for a coke!). Then I went to the Intippunto or sun gate with some of the group. On the way looked at the Temple of the Apus which had a lovely energy, seemingly untouched by the hoards of people crawling over the main site.

On the way back gave deeksha to Liz, Fee & Alison.

Then alomost the last bus back to MP village (Aguas Calientes). A magic day that I will remember for a long time.