It’s not hard to wake up so early when you’re about to see Machu Picchu for the first time. Extremely excited we went to the bus terminal with the happy surprise we were going to be on the first bus to go to this amazing site.

By the time we arrived there were already about 30-40 people waiting at the door, they had come walking up the mountain and let me tell you that’s a hard walk but if you want to spare 18 USD you’ll have to do it. 

It was exactly 6:00am when the doors opened, we ran to get the first picture without tourists. At first I was just running to get an advance but then when we stopped and realized where we were, tears wouldn’t stop running down my face. All the excitement in the air, the giant mountains, the green and that feeling of freedom all reunited in this magical place. 

Like the Mayans, the Inca’s were a very advanced civilization in complete harmony with nature too, of course it was not perfect but their vision of the universe was far more scientifically and spiritually accurate than the one we have today.

I wonder how much knowledge was conceived in this place. 

Wayna Picchu is the name of the most famous mountain next to Machu Picchu ruins, only 400 people per day are allowed to climb its immense and dangerous path. Bernd and I were among the chosen ones. It was a pretty steep and sweaty trek, I was losing my breath but just continued in the excitement of the reward awaiting for us at the top.

Have you ever felt in the start or the end of the world? Being on top of this mountain feels exactly like it. I couldn’t identify all that I was feeling; melancholic thoughts of the past, insecurity of the future and the unbearable beauty of the present were about to make my heart burst out, luckily for me, it didn’t. 

There we were, among other lucky and young ones who have worked their ass off to get to this place where everything was possible, no limits, except for the clear ones that maintained you from falling down the mountain, otherwise this is what I would describe as being one with all.

Going back was as hard as going up, in fact, it was even more scary, the stairs where extremely narrow and almost too steep to keep balance on each of them, so after a very slow descent I gave both of us a nice round of applause.

Hungry and extremely exhausted we took a bus back to Aguascalientes where we had lunch, waited for a while and then went to get the train back to Ollantaytambo where our transfer would take us back to Cuzco.

Bus Lucy was the name, I will never forget; an old medium size bus with a driver that could not switch the bus lights on, so he started to try out all the buttons: the reading lights, the inside lights, fans and others went on and off for a while until people started to get a bit worried and started to shout to the driver. He got off the bus, moved and turned the lights on manually. A bus without proper lights in the night? Scary! But if that wasn’t enough! With those manually adjusted lights he decided to drive like he was in a rally, now, the roads were far enough from being appropriate for speeding, but the police officer aboard did not mind and a while later when our eyes gave up and closed we didn’t mind either. 

Luckily for us, we arrived safe and sound getting mentally ready for the next day, the next flight and the next city: Quito, Ecuador.