Almost Heaven-South American journeys Part 1:

Being in the Andes is one of the most amazing experiences you can imagine. There is no way to describe how breath-taking it is [sometimes literally for those -like me- who suffer from altitude sickness] to see the mountains rise up from the ground. Come to think of it, no photo captures it either. It is the nearest thing to Heaven I can imagine.

Here I am at the highest point in Machu Pichu [at what is called the Guard House or Caretaker's House -depending on what map you read- about to meet the rest of the group I toured with. They walked the Inca Trail for 4 days and from what they told me, it was tough. I took the train. In retrospect, I am glad I did take the train....even though it was tempting to give myself a "trial", I realised after spending a day walking around Machu Pichu, which is filled with steep steps and trailways, that my knees would have never made it on the Inca Trail. By the end of the day in Machu Pichu, I could barely drag myself up and down the stairways. There must be something about ancient peoples and building cities on steep hillsides. Again, as in the South West of the US, the living quarters are in one area and the food storage on another hill altogether. I think I am always too close to my food source, which might explain away the condition of dragging myself up and down steep stairs.

Machu Pichu is totally amazing. It's a very spiritual place...all the important buildings are aligned with the Sun Gate, which is on the top of a mountain opposite from where I am standing in the above photo...so that when the sun comes through the "gate" [it's not really a gate it's a dip in the hillside, surrounded by trees] on the Solstices, it strikes certain formations in the Sun Temple, or the Temple of the Puma or whatever building that holds some importance, at first light. Our guide Margaret took us all around the place and explained the sacred significance of each place along with the meanings behind some of the Incan symbols. She was very passionate about Incan culture which made it really interesting.

What you are looking at on the right is the Sun Temple. You can sort of tell how steep it is from the picture, but in reality it doesn't show the spectacular heights of the mountains. To me, it looks flat compared to what it looks like in person. Machu Pichu- thank god- is at a lower elevation than Cuzco, the base town we flew to from Lima in order to start this part of the journey. Cuzco is some 4,500m above sea level, and from the minute I stepped off the plane I had altitude sickness. Native Andeans drink Coca tea which is supposed to cure the sickness, but it never happened for me. Luckily it did not affect me at Machu Pichu, but the minute we returned to Cuzco, it all started up again. As beautiful as the Andes were, I was glad to be out of them.

One of the places we went before everyone started on the Inca Trail was to the Sacred Valley. It too is filled with Inca ruins and a variety of towns that Andean people still live in -though admittedly, the towns are not dotted along the mountainsides, but rather nestled in valleys. Along the way are groups of women and children waiting to sell us anything from hand knitted water bottle holders [now here's an argument for evolution and survival of the fittest-adapting a sellable craft to westerners who drink out of water bottles] to hats and other woven things. This group are singing us a song. What I love about this is the amount of women who are carrying their babies on their backs. What's unusual about it is that they also scamper up and down the hillsides-steps and trails- loaded up with baby and crafts....how do they do it? Notice they are wearing sandals, not Nikes or Pumas designed for mountain climbing. Nor do they have walking sticks, which the rest of us need to make our way up and down trails and steps. Their climbing gear is genetically built in.


All in all, we spent 8 days in the Andes. Even though I was ill for a lot of the time, I was glad I went...it has always been a dream of mine to see Machu Pichu and I got more than I dreamed about.....which is not such a bad place to be in eh?

Part 2- the Amazon Jungle and Part 3: the Galapagos to follow.