Meeting Machu Picchu

The site that launched a thousand tour buses. The city that put Peru on the map. The top of every traveler's list in South America. The enigmatic city of Machu Picchu. Notwithstanding the farmer's protest strike that paralyzed the transports around the province of Cuzco, we made it to the heartland of the Incan civilization.

Hardly an ancient site as it was built around the fifteenth century, its discovery in 1911 seems to have obliterated Peru's history before the Incas. Dubbed as the "Lost City of the Incas," it is shrouded by mystery of how it was built 2,350 meters above sea level and why it was built and subsequently abandoned. An American historian, Hiram Bingham, brought the site to international recognition, and to this day his footsteps are followed by throngs of American college students in their summer break. (Read: "Tourist Menu" means pizzas and beer which is suspiciously aplenty in Peru.)

The architecture of the city is impressive, as its innovation in terms of "laboratory" farming. How the city maintained its water source, as well as support an irrigation system for its

sizable farms is genius of the age. The huge trapezoidal rocks are iconic, and how they were put together without the aid of wheel or mortar remains a wonder. It is even more remarkable that it remain standing even after earthquakes that took down more modern structures. Of course, I am "personally" impressed that the Incas who reputedly had an average height of five feet is able to climb up and down this city, let alone lug all those boulders around.

First impression of meeting Machu Picchu in the Winter of 2009 is that it seems like a manicured park. (That is, of course, after the stark observation that there are no toilets in the whole site except for the ones before the entry gate. It's like Mongolia all over again.)

Nevertheless, going around the city, it does not fail to impress. The views from the mountain are captivating, there are curious nooks and crannies to explore and the bigger structures are awesome. The pleasant surprise of the experience is that it is not crowded at all. First of all, the site is huge, also, it is "off" season: winter in the Southern hemisphere. (Translation: it is the best time to go. It is not that cold anyway.) By the afternoon, there were only a handful of people around, so we scale the place at a leisurely pace with plenty of 'megapixel' moments.

A couple of hours of detour, we took a hike to Intipunku which gives rewarding views of the whole city, as well as the winding roads carved on the mountain that lead to it. Everyone will tell you that this is where they found the bodies of two fateful lovers- a local Inca woman and a Spanish soldier- killed to save the city from being found by invading Spanish conquistadores. (You can always count on forbidden romance to endanger a whole civilization.)

Whether Machu Picchu is a citadel, an experimental farm, a prison city or the birthplace of the gods no one is certain. Whether it was abandoned wilfully or its inhabitants died of an epidemic no one is sure. I think that is part of the journey to Machu Picchu, not knowing. However, I would say, it would not be the highlight of Peru. The country is too beautiful, interesting and diverse to be reduced to that. It is well worth a visit.

P.S. I would definitely want to come back and do the famous Inca trail... you know, the opportunity to not shower for four days.