博客何飛：Peru –slowly …(Part 1)

As Cesare Pavese said, “We do not remember days, we remember moments.”

The most interesting thing about travel is about people and culture-people we interact with, the life stories we learn from and the new culture we absorb ourselves into during the journey- they are what moments are made and memories are to stay. And most of the time, we only knew where we were headed when we arrive.

During my journey to Peru, I have met a few people-they all have an inspiring project going on with them, an interesting life story to tell and dreams to share- and encountered a new culture in a great landscape, that’s unbelievably wonderful and mind-blowing. Both people and the culture become each little but deep memory staying in me that they become forces that constructively re-shaping my life perspective.

A Journey Of A Mystical Wonder -Machu Picchu

The most iconic place to visit in Peru has to be Machu Picchu- an ancient citadel in the high Andes (with an elevation of 8,000 feet) that most archaeologists believed it was found by Pachuacuti Inca Yupanqui in 1450 CE. The site of Machu Picchu was stunningly beautiful and mysterious.

Machu Picchu is busiest during the morning and the density of the crowd turns into a madness between 11:00 -15:00 as visitors usually start the tour in late morning with the bus or train and finish the general tour in about 4 hours. But, if you want to enjoy a fuller experience in this 550 years old lost Citadel (but not so convinced your thighs and lungs could cope with a classic 4-days Inca trail), I’d suggest you taking either the general train (Peru Rail) or the luxury version -Hiram Bingham (Under Oriental Express Group) -from either Poroy/Cusco or Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu (arriving at the town Aguas Calientes and then take another bus to the entrance). The scenery and experience during the train journey is incredible and it’s a warm-up for your long day spending in Machu Picchu.

And, due to the Sun movement during the day, to enjoy the beauty of Machu Picchu, it’d be
Worth re-visiting the site during different time of the day and enjoying the citadel from different viewpoints.

You could start the day, first, climb up to the Machu Picchu Mountain (it’s 1,100 feet higher than Huayna Picchu, between which the city is located). The opening hours of the Machu Picchu Mountain is from 7-11 a.m. and it takes 2.5 hours on average to climb up to the mountain top.

The entrance tickets we bought for Machu Picchu had included this mountain access part. Unfortunately, due to the crowd lining up for buses, when we arrived at the entrance, it’s already 10:30 in the morning. Our guide told us the way up is a rather straight-up stone path and since we were not sure if we could go up to the top so quickly and return back in time especially in high altitude, we decided to skip this hard hike and the chance to see the panoramic view of Machu Picchu over there.

Alternatively, we went for a relatively more moderate trail-the Sun Gate (Inti Punku) to see the site from another perspective. It’s made of steps that believed it’s a control gate for the people who enter and go out of the Sanctuary. The sun shines through this gate each day when it rises and it gives the best lookout of the citadel from a distance. Along the way, when I looked at the citadel, I felt like the site was detached from but protected by a range of mountains surrounding it, floating above the river, perching over the clouds, with a stream of fog swimming around it in moments during the morning. That scene is surreal. The location of the citadel is an intelligent choice. It’s basically an invisible site looking from the foothill below. The best way to catch this scene is from a certain distance and before noon –and the trail to the Sun gate is probably the best choice. Hiking until the Sun gate would require 2-2.5 hours and the trail is full of coarse and large stones. As the sun approaching us closer and closer towards noon, the hike surely became a detoxed exercise -both to our body and our mind.

After finishing the Sun gate and lunch, we re-entered into the site and started the main tour of the city. The ruins is large and a size of a village. The architecture of Machu Picchu is a classical Inca style, of refined stone monolith work. Its three primary structures are the Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows (and also windows of the Universe)-which represents each part of the Andean world: The inner life (Uku-Pacha) the heaven (Hanan-Pacha) and the earth/present (Kay-Pacha). It also indicates the exact location of the Sunrise. Among everything in the city, Intihuatana-a huge monolith carved from stone-meaning “the hitching post of the sun” is one of the most interesting and significant relics. It’s once served as a sundial. The corners of the stone are aligned with the four cardinal points and a series of geographical references: the mountain of Huayna Picchu (north), the snow-capped peak of Salcantay (south), the peaks of Huacau Huillca to the (east) where the sun rises during the equinox and the mountain of San Miguel-the site of Inca platform-to the (west). It’s believed that Intihuatana was used for astronomical observation or the celebration of cosmic forces.

As we were touring around the city in late afternoon, the madness was gone and only a waft of meditative ambience remained. It gave us a lot of space and freedom to enjoy every bit of the citadel. As we explored deeper into the details, the site is sanctuary and vividly shows the spiritual and cosmic importance in the Inca culture. And yet, the geometrical forms of the trapezoidal shape of the windows and doors are at the same time the symbolic expression of the domination of human (Inca) power and nobility, which well-integrated into the landscape. The site is well-balanced and it’s a “self-contained” city. You could find palaces, baths, temples, storage rooms and 150 houses over there surrounded with agricultural terraces (where llamas are now grazing on) and spring water coming underneath.

Like other visitors, before leaving Machu Picchu, we have taken poster pictures in front of the classic “Machu Picchu” view, where it’s also the turning point to separate the ways to the main city ruins and the Sun gate. And, in the hope of continuing carrying the mystical wonder with us, we had put our hands on those refined stones in the wall of the elite house, not only to feel their texture but to absorb the cosmic energy from this mythical epicenter.

As Buddha said, “It’s better to travel well than to arrive.”