Almost Insta-famous

Today, we woke up in the Sacred Valley, and tonight, we sleep within feet of the entry to Machu Picchu.  Sometimes, I have to step back from my life and look at what’s happening as if I am seeing it from the outside.  I live an amazing existence.  Sorry to get too overwhelmed or taken aback today, but Cas and I walked through massive stone walls, terraces and temples made by people who had only the most rudimentary tools, and looking at what they created with just stones, logs and muscle makes me feel like I somehow live in magical times.  

We look back now and call them primitive.  We wait our turn to take a photo while a pair of teenagers take what can only be a full Instagram album of carefully posed photos.  We gasp for breath just lugging a small backpack with bottled water, knowing the builders lugged so much more.  So often in our travels, Cas and I find things that existed long before our births that will persist long after we are dust, and we take stock.  Travel can do that for you, if you’re paying attention.  If you’re, not, it can make a really nice Instagram album for you while you aggravate others.  

Full disclosure-  today wasn’t all majesty and wonder.  We also contemplated how gratifying it would be to deliberately stand in between the person being photographed and the camera taking the photo.  We wouldn’t, really.  Not for the first two or three dozen photos, but seriously.  Take a moment and drink it in, kid!  

Macho Picchu was all it was cracked up to be.  Massive grand, inexplicable, impressive.  We marched about today on the dirt and stones and saw the wonder that it is.  And to get here, we took a train on a railroad track that paralleled the river that Hiram Bingham followed to “discover” this lost city.  A lot has been made of Bingham’s discovery.  Interesting that he found a place where people owned the surrounding land and lived there, knowing full well that there were old ruins nearby.  Stories like that make me think of Tenzing Norgay.  Nobody ever celebrates old Tenzing Norgay.  Nobody put his face on money or made his “discovery” a chapter in a schoolbook.  Tenzing Norgay was the Sherpa who helped Sir Edmund Hilary climb Mount Everest.  Hillary gets all the credit, but Norgay hauled all his stuff up the mountain in his own darn country.  

I digress.  I usually do.  

We went up the path that Bingham used and saw the place he “discovered.”  It was amazing.  And tonight, we stay at a sanctuary lodge that is within feet of the entry of Machu Picchu.  I mean, wow.  There are only something like 31 rooms here, and they’re impossible to get. The tour company is going to stop using it soon because it’s too hard to secure.  It’s also really, really expensive.  All that is to say, I am glad we’re here.  It’s a once in a lifetime stay.  This place is extra fancy.  I snapped a few pics of the bizarrely tailored amenities in the room.  They folded the TP in the bathroom to an origami point and secured it to the rest of the roll with a logo sticker.  That’s doing too much, if you ask me.  

But tomorrow, we have a breakfast and a final hike through Machu Picchu before heading to Cuzco again.  This is a really neat trip, folks.  Cas and I are really happy to be here, in just a little but of awe of the something so old and strange.  

We need to get some dinner, now, check out  Our Photo Album.