Inca Trail Day 4 Machu Picchu

Sunday October 24. This is it! The reward for all the hard work, the final prize. Ali told us that all the groups would be up early and trying to be the first through the check point. So he talked us into a 3:00 start! He also told us to keep left on the path as we rounded Machu Picchu mountain and stay on the mountain side, because the right side has some very steep drop offs and there would be some people who would race to be at the front and be the first to reach the Sun Gate. So, we got up at 3:00 had a really basic breakfast and set off in the dark with our headlamps to the checkpoint. Thankfully, it had stopped raining! We were the first, but we had to wait one and half hours for the guard to come and open the gate! By the way there was no sign of Ali. The leader of the next group that come down, about fifteen minutes later, said "Ali's group, right?" Anyway, Ali finally showed up and we were allowed through. We began on a narrow undulating path. The prize was around the other side of the mountain. The last kilometre was a steep climb up to the Sun Gate where we could look down and have our first view of Machu Picchu. Beautiful. We descended and Ali gave us a two hour tour of the highlights of the site. There were lots of other tourists there who had arrived by train and bus. After that, Ali suggested that we climb to the top of the site and go to see an Inca bridge. Some of us headed there. That's the last photo. Look for the small wooden bridge and the steps that traverse the sheer rock face. No one is allowed to cross the bridge, viewing only. If you blow up that photo, look closely how much work they did to build up that walkway. Imagine working in those days and trying to build that path. This is a civilization that had neither written language or the wheel! And yet look what they had accomplished! They used nothing but harder rocks and primitive chisels to turn the top of a mountain into a city. Ali showed us a stone that marked the four directions that Inca trails headed out on. He placed his compass on it and it read directly all four cardinal points, north, south, east and west. They, apparently had an astrologer map the skies for a minimum of two years, before they would build any of their cities or temples, in order to make sure that they faced the right direction and that the two most important days, the winter and summer solstice would be reflected accurately in their temples. Amazing. That's it, what an amazing place, challenging hike and great tour.