Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters
Anna Nalick, "Breathe"
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Excerpts from Day Eighgt of My Travel Journal Post Date: 11/23/04
Original Journal Date: 11/05/04 11-05-Friday, Aquas Calientes, Machu Picchu
We had originally planned to get up at 6am and head on out Machu Picchu. That was also when we were planning to arrive in Aquas Calientes at 10pm the night before. So, needless to say, the time for departure got changed to 9am. At 8:30am, Joel knocked on the door to let Ho and I know that breakfast was ready. At the mention of breakfast, I realized I was not going to be ready to go any time soon. Any time soon at all. So they all head up to the ruins. I am so sick that the hostel moves me into a single room at no extra charge so that I will not disturb people. This later proves to be a good move. Joel tells this story. I woke up very early because something in my stomach felt so very wrong. I roll over, only to discover how sick and am, and Joel says later when telling the story, "All I heard was Jocelyn say, 'Ooooooh Nooooo,' and it was the lowest I'd ever heard her be." That is how sick I was. I spend the morning with a thermos of tea and a bed. But fortunately, around noon, I feel somewhat good enough to go catch the bus to Machu Picchu. There are many times during this trip when things that otherwise seemed to be negative turned out to be happening for the best. Because I did not go with them at 9am, I missed out on some cool things like climbing towards the Moon Tower (though I would have been too sick to do that anyway). But what I did get to do was find a quiet spot near what apparently (I didn't know this at the time) was the graveyard. I sat there and looked out over the ruins and looked out over the mountains and wrote and thought and felt for two hours without a soul walking past me. It was so rare. There's really not a lot I can say about Machu Picchu that hasn't been said before. You can feel the energy, you can be awed by the construction, you can stand in wonder that people lived here for as long as they did. But there's really not a way to translate that experience back. Do you know how Machu Picchu was discovered, because, you know, it spent years being covered and hidden by vegetation? There was a researcher, and he came to South America. And he went to the place where the oldest houses he knew were, and he asked the people who lived there, "Where are the oldest houses that you know of?" And then he went to where those houses were, and he asked those people, "Where are the oldest houses that you know of?" And this went on and on and on, until eventually he found the oldest houses of all at Machu Picchu. You are also wondrous at how well the local Peruvians maintain Machu Picchu. Okay, in fairness, much of this has to do with the fact that an American has now turned much of this into a tourist event (argh), but the whole time we are there, they are working on preservation. It's impressive. At 3pm, I meet back up with the group. They are relaying some information from the tour. I loved this series.
And then up there, on either side is where the guard stations were located, and they would use mirrors to send light signals to communicate with each other. Joel
But seriously, look around, who was attacking them? Seriously.