Saturday

- the classic view of Machu Picchu
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Don’t get me wrong, we could have gone back to Machu Picchu even twice more. However, the way that we did Machu Picchu… beginning by getting up at 4:30… precluded my even wanting to go back... talk about sleep-deprivation!! The morning started out exactly how I’d hoped it wouldn’t – with Wilma explaining ‘history’ throughout the sunrise (such as it was) - and us barely hearing that because of the shouting ‘ugly Americans’ in the same area. I had hoped to take it real easy that early, early morning "communing with spirits past" or... well, you know what I mean.  But we proceeded to “Do” the rest of MP until I was exhausted! Fortunately no one in our group was feeling any symptoms of altitude sickness (a major worry), but hiking around for some four or five hours at nearly 8,000 feet above sea level was challenge enough.  Finally (& only around 10:00 in the morning!), the Condors were left to our own devices. Climb Wayna Picchu? You must be joking… no way! Hike to the Sun Gate? I don’t think so. How about the less-than-an-hour trek to to the Inca Bridge?  Well, the other four CCCondors did that while I sat in the restaurant outside the park entrance with Karen & Penny. The 3 of us DID venture back into the sanctuary after a while to just check out a few more of the areas on our own, but anything too strenuous was out of the question. No one – not a soul out of the seven of us – chose to return to Machu Picchu that afternoon or the next day - much less to take the train back up from Ollantaytambo on the third day that it would have been possible.

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Why?  Was Machu Picchu not that great?  Was it a lot smaller & more easily ‘covered’ than what you’re led to think from photos? Were there too many vendors… was it way over-commercialized? No. No. No, NO!! It’s true, there WERE too many tourists, but no vendors at all, and it wasn’t a disappointment in size or grandeur. Machu Picchu still has the power take your breath away! No pun intended. It is NOT “Disney-ized,” and – in truth – I think I let Machu Picchu down, rather than the other way around! And, as I found out later, there were extenuating circumstances to my exaustion & funk.

Machu Picchu still has the power take your breath away… No pun intended!

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In hindsight, I think it would be worth spending the extra bucks & going (yes, EARLY) two even-shorter days. “Commune” by yourself on the first & just plain wonder at the glory of what you see, then get your tour & explanation of it all on the second partial day. That’s my recommendation if you can swing it.

As for using lunch as a break, well, realize that you CAN re-enter the sanctuary at any time during that same day (I wasn’t sure about that), but that it’ll probably be too crowded to want to. Where to eat? See my review of the Sanctuary Hotel’s buffet restaurant. It was not relaxing.

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Note that I am not even going to attempt to review all that we saw and learned at Machu Picchu. It was too awesome, and there is too much already written about it. But - please! - look at ALL of my photos for this page, regardless.  These are just a few of my favorites.

Amazingly – considering the ungodly hour we started this day - we got back to the Pueblo in the late afternoon & - once again – all we really had time for was dinner. I can’t imagine where the time went… but it did. This evening we opted to try the hotel’s InkaTerra Café restaurant, uniquely located in a wishbone of the railroad tracks below the lodge. I loved my steak with a Roquefort sauce & positively gorged. It was a wonderful meal & a wonderful time… until around 1:00 that night.

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I, of course, had been asleep for hours. What woke me up was the need to LOSE my roquefort steak! Well, I did, then I had to visit the toilet, then I went back to bed & repeated the whole grisly process about every two hours throughout the night. Dic thought I probably had gotten food poisoning, but I had no stomach pain, & it seemed to me more like the flu.

Regardless, I was sick. Would this unfortunate development ruin the whole rest of my trip? I clutched my stomach, ran to the bathroom, and moaned another ancient Inca mantra... "PLEASE... NO!!"