Flight back

The next obstacle was a cancelled flight.

We left Cusco about 10am (with lots of heart felt goodbyes) and flew to Lima. Booked into a KLM flight to Amsterdam at 6pm. Spent the afternoon reading the Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho. The book was about the pligrimage to Compostella de Santiago. A trip I would like to do at some stage.

At 5pm we were told that there were electrical problmes and that the flight would be delayed by 1 hour whilst they contacted KLM in the Netherlands. As time dragged on, it became clear that it was not going to tajke off, then the flight crew disappeared and we (about 500 people) were left to fend for ourself, helped by 4 KLM ground staff. At about 8pm were handed in our passports to have the disembarkation stamp annulled.

Altitude sickness

One of our group had to be taken to hospital. It was quite serious as Fiona was in a coma. After having to move to a better hospital (organised by the travel insurance company) , she was diagnosed as suffering from altitude sickness. She was put on a drip due to de hydration, and given oxygen - her blood count was down to 47 when the normal reading is 80 to 90.

Subsequently, she has made a full recovery but will stay on until next Saturday.

This was a lesson in working together as a group. Also the British Embassy was very helpful.

Lizard picture at Machu Picchu

Here is a picture of a lizard hiding behind a stone at Machu Picchu.

Purification

This day was spent taking the purification medicinal plants and then resting and fasting until the evening when we went to Dr Pio's home on the outskirts of Cusco to carry out the ceremony of the sacred drink.

The ceremony lasted until 3am the following morning.

Dr Pio

Left MP at 9.30am by train to Ollantaytambo. Then bus to Cusco to meet Dr Pio who will lead us through the next phase of this amazing and varied trip. For this phase we needed to first be interviewed by Dr Pio, so that he could design the healing for each one of us. This was in two parts:

1. Purification using special medicinal plants to remove trapped negative energy from the body.

2. On the evening, partake of a special ceremony using the sacred drink to reconnect with oneself and one's power (often in the form of animals) and to allow the energy to flow freely again, after the blocakges have been removed. Normally the course would be 4 ceremonies, but for us as we do not have sufficient time, two ceremonies are offerred to those wishing to have them.

Day 3 End of trek

6am start with breakfast and a ceremony to say thank you. Despacho offering performed by Pascal was burnt using eucalypus branches ( eucalypus trees are everywhere and were imported from Australia).

Bus to Ollantaytambo (Adriel's home town), then train to Machu Picchu village (1 and a half hours).

Evening spent at Hot Thermal Baths at top of village.

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.