On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
arrieve
I made it to Machu Picchu! The day before, when I’d been lying on a bed in a clinic in the Sacred Valley sucking on oxygen, I’d been resigned to missing Machu Picchu. I hated to come so far and not see the main attraction, but I didn’t see how I could keep going.
But here I was. And, since I apparently couldn’t go 24 hours without any drama, my digestive system had chosen this particular day to throw a tantrum. Since there are no bathrooms inside Machu Picchu I decided not to take any chances, and so while the rest of my group did the long circuit of the ruins, including the top levels, I stayed below, closer to the exit, just in case.
I took this picture from the bus going up the mountain. (The road was basically a series of steep switchbacks and taking pictures distracted me from the lack of guardrails.) You can see the Urubamba River in the valley far below.
There have been a few times in my life where I was stunned by my first glimpse of a place, where I thought, Oh my God, there it is! I’m actually here! The first sight of Petra through the narrow canyon walls was one such experience. Mont St-Michel, rising above the waves. The pyramids. And now, Machu Picchu.
Staying on the lower circuit turned out to have huge advantages. I was mostly alone. A few single tourists, and two couples with their guides wandered by, along with several llamas, but I got to spend as much time as I wanted sitting on a bench and looking at this view by myself.
It wasn’t what I had expected, and I was a little disappointed at first that I didn’t see everything, and get the “classic view” photo looking down over the site. But when I talked with other members of the group afterwards and described how I had found being at Machu Picchu almost a spiritual experience, they talked about how crowded and noisy it was, and that they didn’t have time to appreciate all the views.
But I did. Maybe I’ll even go back some day, but I don’t have to.
The holiest spot in Machu Picchu was atop that pyramid.
The Incas definitely had a talent for stonework. They had no written language and didn’t use the wheel, but I’ve sometimes read that they didn’t have metal tools, and it turns out that isn’t true. They didn’t have iron or steel, and they seem to have thought of metal as a religious material rather than a practical one, but they did have bronze tools, including knives. At Machu Picchu they built with the stone that was already on the mountain, and if you look closely you can see that only one of these walls uses the perfectly shaped and fitted ashlar masonry you see in some of their buildings. Still, to have cut all of this stone using only stone or bronze tools is mind-boggling.
Slightly off topic: While I was in Peru I read a novel called Civilizations, by Laurent Binet. It’s an alternate history, where Atahualpa conquers Spain instead of the other way around. It’s written in the style of a contemporary historical account, and so there wasn’t the world-building or character development I would have liked, but it was very clever and it was amusing to see Europe (now “the New World”) through Atahualpa’s eyes. (One of his generals dreams of being the first to “discover” Italy. Jesus, aka The Nailed God, is “a local fable.”)
The novel’s version of events is possible because a daughter of Erik the Red flees Greenland after a murder and sails south to Central and South America, where the Norsemen show the natives how to find and use iron. When Columbus turns up a few centuries later, he and his men are killed and Atahualpa uses one of his abandoned ships as a model to build his own. The Incas could live without a written language or the wheel, but if they’d had steel, history might have been very different.
Stone steps. You can see why you wouldn’t want to have to run down several flights of these in a real hurry.
I spent a lot of time looking at this view as well.
The llamas think they own the place.
Llama baby! It was trying to nurse but every time it latched on, Mom would move on to a more promising patch of grass and baby was left running after her to try again.
Baud
Very nice photos. I agree that crowds can ruin an experience.
JR
In the years before timed ticketing you could stay all day. We were one of the lucky ones, which allowed us to explore everything; upper circuit, lower circuit, Huayna Picchu (the mountain). All of it. Towards the end of the day the place would be practically deserted.
LiminalOwl
Lovely photos!
I visited Peru in 2013. Spent three weeks in Cusco and the Sacred Valley but health issues took me out before the planned trip to Machu Picchu. I still hope to return some day, and at least I did have a day in Ollantaytambo.
J.
Glad you made it! Great photos!
CCL
Wonderful description! I’ll never visit the place, but from your writing, I get a real sense of its majesty. Nice photos too.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”
eta Nice pics arrieve, thanx much.
YY_Sima Qian
Awe inspiring photos! Machu Picchu is definitely on my bucket list.
Denali5
Great photos! A magical place- much better at a time or place with no crowds.
randy khan
The best part of our visit (now almost 15 years ago) was the time at the end of the day when all of the people who were staying down by the river or were there for the day had left. We were staying at the hotel on the top of the mountain (pricey but worth it) and ended up being the last people on the site or very close to it. The guards, for whatever reason, weren’t in a rush to get us off so long as we were working our way to the exit, so we had a good half hour there more or les by ourselves.
Doug
“The llamas think they own the place.”
They are not wrong.
Dagaetch
lovely shots, thank you for sharing!
Elma
When we were in Peru in 2015, my traveling companion had the issues that you did. The night before Machu Picchu, she was taken to the local clinic by taxi. That is a whole other story; but she came back before morning and was determined to go with the group. Although we did go up onto the main area, we did not attempt to go up to the very top.
We were lucky with the weather. It had rained the day before and our guide told us that if it rained while we were there, they would shut down and make everyone leave. There were a couple of brief sprinkles, but not enough to trigger the closure rule. Until in the evening. We rode through a massive thunderstorm on the way back to our hotel; and once there, the power went out for several hours.
pieceofpeace
Your angles and viewpoints with closer-up than the usual pictures, gives a good sense of the place. What a tremendous amount of energy, and probably devotion, these original ‘architects’ possessed to take on this place of living space.
Madeleine
Your photos convey how awe-inspiring it is. Really, so does your commentary, which helped me see the stonework more clearly. Thank you.
Edit: yes, what pieceofpeace said!
SkyBluePink
What a magnificent place! And photos!
mvr
These are good photos, especially of the stonework. Thanks!
Mike in Pasadena
You exercised good judgment and self knowledge. As a result you got a great experience. Wonderful to see your unusual pictures presenting a new perspective on the place. Stunning.
eclare
Great photos and commentary.
I have a fear of heights, so a lot of the time I don’t go to the top of whatever. There is a better view, not crowded, just below. Glad you found it.
arrieve
Thanks for the comments, everyone. As I said, I was disappointed at first because I thought I was getting a lesser experience by not seeing the upper circuit. But what I did see was wonderful–and of course I had been so sick from the altitude the day before that I hadn’t expected to be there at all. I think you really do get more of a sense of the stonework from the bottom looking up than you do at the top looking down.
And the experience of sitting there by myself gazing out at the mountain, not thinking about anything in particular, just feeling the place, and then realizing that there was a very large llama standing next to me!
Origuy
There’s very little tin in the Western Hemisphere. Some in Mexico and some in Peru. The Incas had started working with bronze not long before the Europeans arrived.
Great pictures; Machu Picchu is one of many places in the Andes I’d like to visit someday. Llamas!
BigJimSlade
Sounds like a visit well-done, and great photos!
Mom Says I*m Handsome
I visited Machu Picchu with my mom & brother in 1979. Apart from a German couple (they’re everywhere, like llamas), we had the place to ourselves for the entire day. Looking at these tremendous photos, I realize now that having the run of the place was wasted on a 13-year-old…
Wag
Great photos. We visited Machu Picchu in 2021 right after Peru’s initial COVID outbreak had ended and MP was just reopening. An amazing place. Sorry to hear about your GI bug. My wife had a similar issue when we were there and also missed out on much of the tour.