Page 104 - ATHENS RIVIERA JOURNAL 2024

ATHENS RIVIERA JOURNAL
escape

committed to our goal the outcome of our adventure ˝THIS IS THE SPOT, THE PLACE that both accentuated the architecture’s triangular peaks and created
The next morning, we begin our dance with fate. We purchase tickets on the Vistadome train, which We are three to four hours behind the morning rush of people, but as a separate sense of time. Every structure seems designed to interact
will take us from Ollantaytambo station to Aguas Calientes, where we will catch a bus to the site. there are few selfie sticks still visible ahead, we turn left to go toward WHERE THEY LIVED: with the nature of light.
Sitting next to me on the train is an older Indian woman who leans over and whispers a very long the Temple of the Sun instead of right toward the main citadel. This Aspects of daily life, like rows of terraces for agriculture, are intermixed
story about the string of circumstances that allowed her to be here on this train right now. This is is a long, steady upwardly pitched hike. The farther we go along the HERE THE FAT KERNELS OF CORN with the sacred, like the Temple of the Condor, where a large rock is
a pilgrimage of sorts for her. path, the fewer the people. We wind through the jungle, losing sight shaped into the outspread wings of a condor in flight.
Hearing her story stirs up my excitement and eases an internal debate that I often have when visiting of the main citadel. It is here that we turn to see how Machu Picchu WERE CARRIED UP It is believed that the Incas lived here for about 100 years before dis-
a highly-visited place: go and see or avoid entirely? We are too close now not to try. Plus, luck, so far, sits, low in the large embrace of a mountainscape; its structures reach- appearing. To me, it seems they are still here.
is on our side. And then, just like that, our luck changes. When we present them at the entrance to ing almost two miles above sea level, yet still invisible unless you have AND FELL AGAIN TO EARTH
Machu Picchu, we learn that our tickets are good for the train only. Citadel tickets are separate and already made it up and over its embracing arms. “In the variety of its sanctuary of sacred dreams
can only be purchased in Aguas Calientes, which means re-boarding a bus and retracing our steps charms and the power of its spell, I know of no place in the world LIKE RED HAIL.˝ To arrive back to our lodge, we drive through dusk into darkness,
a bumpy half-hour dusty winding road away, and then coming back. We don’t have time for this. which can compare with it” writes Hiram Bingham, the explorer who still under the spell of the land and its spirit. We pass a mysterious
It becomes a real possibility that our adventure will stop right here, at the gates. brought Machu Picchu to the attention of the world. Excerpt from Heights of Machu Picchu, Poem VI, by Pablo Neruda. but not frightening room full of coffins in one of the small towns,
What follows is a story that could have many different endings: We ask everyone we see for tips on For us, the spell was cast by the surprise discovery that we had Machu boys playing basketball in the streets in another, bright blue tuk-tuks
what to do, and we spend a long time in a hotel lobby trying to buy tickets online (it doesn’t work). Picchu all to ourselves. Because of our delay, it is afternoon by the buzzing people about.
Right when I am about to give up, a young employee of the hotel approaches us, a little slyly, and time we make it into the heart of the citadel, and the only other souls At last, at the end of a very long dirt road that looks like it will lead to
says that he has a friend who can run back into Aguas Calientes for us. All we need to do is give to be seen are two caretakers. And a few llamas. It is as if there was a nothingness, we reach our lodge, a simple sanctuary tucked into the
him our passports and about $100 in cash for his trouble. He will then have another friend slip us mysterious evacuation. Thousands of people, vanished. Andean foothills. The temperature drops below freezing this time
past the entrance, and we can collect our passports at the end of the day. Yes, I know what you are The next two hours are spent in observation and joyful reverence. of year, and there is a light snow on the ground. We go to sleep to the
thinking… But we were committed to our goal. The sun sits low in the afternoon sky, casting long deep shadows sound of gentle rushing rapids and the smell of firewood and euca-
lyptus. It will be very hard to leave here… 

SOULFUL
Tall white hat suggests a mixed
Inca/ Spanish heritage.
Tuk-tuks of the Andes are
the traditional means of
transportation.

ANOTHER WORLD
Horses, Argentinian meat dishes, exceptional wines, smiling people and within just a few kilometers, land and sky converging.A 105
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