Energy in Machu Picchu

I felt a tremendous feeling of awe on my first real sight of this incredible ancient citadel in it's ruinous splendour. For centuries Machu Picchu had been buried in jungle until July 1911 when Hiram Bingham stumbled upon it. Then on Yale University sent an archaeological expedition to explore it.

A stunning archaeological find, Machu Picchu was the only Inca site to escape 400 years of looting and destruction and it was remarkably preserved. Nor was it an ordinary Inca settlement. Located in an inaccessible location above the Urubamba gorge it contained so many fine buildings that people have been puzzling over it's meaning since discovery.

I have been fortunate to visit Machu Picchu twice. The first was the usual touristy visit, taking a rickety designated bus from Aquas Calientes. The speedy uphill drive was rather suicidal I thought with the driver oblivious to the hair-pin curves and driving as if there was no tomorrow. I was so preoccupied with the thought of another suicidal drive down later, it rather took away the excitement of being in Machu Picchu. Fortunately another driver took over our bus and it was quite a relief.

My second visit was with two friends and we decided to treat ourselves and stay up in Machu Picchu where the only accommodation was then was the 36-room Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge with an expensive room rate to boot. We were lucky as the rooms were very much in demand and difficult to secure. We can now claim to be among the few people who had actually slept up there in Machu Picchu.

The ruins had a completely different feel once the hordes of day tourists had left . I remember asking my friends to join me to explore the place (we had free access to the ruins as guests at the lodge) after the last day tourists had been herded off and before the sun goes down. It was a rude and memorable shock to me when they told me to go ahead first as they wanted to finish watching 'All About Eve' from a video they found in the lodge's library! God, did they come all the way to Machu Picchu to watch ' All About Eve'? (Abed, are you reading this? Hehehe!)

So I went on my own. And contrary to what most people expected of the place when deserted or at twilight (there was no sunset anyway, it just slowly and gradually got dark), I felt nothing spiritual nor frightening. What I felt was a tremendous amount of peace, calm and ENERGY! I found a solitary orchid flower growing out from a crack on a wall. And I had the whole place to myself, save for a few solitary people wondering about at a distance, and one man meditating on one of the higher points.

Next morning the three of us were up early to catch the place in a different mood before the tourist crowd arrive from Aguas Calientes. We encountered a whole group of people who had been hiking for 3-4 days from the Sacred Valley on the Inca Trail, and had finally reached their destination in the same tradition the Incas did hundreds of years ago.....