Machu Picchu and we still Wonder

The Bicycle Diaries : MUCOV on the Road! Once we settled in Cusco for a bit, we started searching for the best and most affordable way to make our path to one of the seven marvels of the world (and to make Carly´s long time dream come true): the ancient and mysterious world renown site of Machu Picchu. We picked Julia Tours, a family owned tour agency managed by upbeat Julia, a womyn with a fascinating Herstory who we later interviewed for the MUCOV Proyect. We decided to take one of the roads a bit less traveled: a four day route of which the first day includes a four hour bike ride and the rest consists of a trekking journey all the way to Machupicchu. With anticipation and excitement, we were off to the nearby town of Ollantaytambo known as the last Inca city of Peru. Curved into the mountain side above its city streets are impressive agricultural terraces left from the royal estate of the Inca Emperor Pachacuti. We marveled at the way in which the small town, crisscrossed by the remaining long water ducts, had managed to preserve its ancestors´ presence in the streets and in the air surrounding its mountains.

From there we went up a long winding mountain path. We had plenty of time to get to know our guide Marco, a young and cheerful man, knowledgeable on every Inca aspect. Due to change of plans of other travels, Marco became our own personal guide for the whole four days of the trip! Lucky us. We also got to know Julia and her young son Jack and our driver Carlos and passed the rest of the ride exchanging jokes, stories and laughter.

As we were reaching the top our stomachs begin to tighten and we were warned, ¨not to get nervous or look down." We were about to descend a mountain highway, full of passing cars and trucks, of winding curves and only our wits and our warm scarves about us! The van with Julia would be trailing behind us, filming us as we rode and watching over our wheels and all of our body parts. But what a thrill!

With the wind whistling free!

A rhythm our feet follow in circular glee

Sky above and below

The colors blend in slow

Mountains move as we pass

Majestic blurs in our path

The curves of our bodies match those of the earth

Divided into parts that together give us birth

Hearts, wheels, brakes, ears,

Speed,light, hands, steer

Bicycles or bodies?

There or here?

Moving along or standing still?

Peddeling fast that is for REAL!

In one of frequent picture-and-filming stops Marco mentions, "You ladies are doing something like the Bicycle Diaries!" We thought it was actually really funny and responded stating that we would title our adventure as such. At the end of the day we fell like monolithic stones onto our hostel beds in Santa Maria. Our next two days passed by in a walking blur. Here is the MUCOV usual run-on adventure description:

Ruins, dirt roads, hot springs, Santa Teresa, full meals, heat, the past, womyn construction workers, rainbow, gushing waterfalls, lots and lots of evil blood-sucking mosquitoes, Mayra with a full blown allergy reaction (only appearing sexy to more and more mosquitoes), Monkeys, Inca trails, Chasquis (agile and highly-trained runners that delivered messages and other objects throughout the Inca Empire), trains, bridges, coca tea, llamas, alpacas, mountains, climbs, steps, rivers, hydraulic plant, never ending train tracks, the tourist packed city of Aguas Calientes, plants and flowers beautiful and unfamiliar to us, wind, dirt, hammocks, new friends, clouds, cold , anticipation, 3:30am hike, sunburn, Malinche falling, and lots of pictures! On the fourth day we woke up at 3 in the morning so that we could start the one and a a half hour climb up steep stone steps to Machupicchu. We wanted to arrive early in order to purchase the limited entrance ticket to climb the near by mountain of Wayna Picchu. In the cold and dark we waited by the gates as more and more tourists started pouring in. We were to meet with a guide who would show us around for two hours and then we would be left to explore the site on our own. What would we find as we walked in? Is it as magnificent as the stories tell it to be? We were about to find out.

First thing to greet our vision

Magnificent green giants surrounding a sacred site

Abandoned for a reason unknown by us

Sleeping for centuries and then woken up

Overtaken by ambitious and greedy industries of wealth Waiting for the masses that pass its gates All the feet that trespass its sacred grounds All the hands that touch its smooth long lines

All that was forgotten and can never be brought back

Immense smooth rocks, fused together like the moon and tide By unknown creative hands and tools Following visions of universal magnitudes Ingenious minds with knowledge of the greater stars

Rich cultures of suns and gods and rituals of light An empire of vast understandings And only a glimpse into its past A kingdom of temples constructed with gold
Once upon a time too significant to behold

Stretching halfway to the horizon A mysterious city of stones carved with might The echo of warriors protecting its fronts A king with power weaved into his tresses
The sound of his commands bound with the fate of the sun reaching across all of the borders together made into one

Long rows of green mixed with gray Traces of the working voices dreaming the land Whispering to the Pachamama their knowledge of the bigger plan Their hands filled with seeds Their bags overflowing with water Manifesting the same destiny shared by their mothers and daughters

We are left with the silence of spirits past Their presence felt in the smooth rocks and green paths The sounds of rituals, work and songs carried by the winds Are covered by the curious footsteps Of hundreds and thousands of stranger dreams A purposeful past forever unknown to us A present in which we have to maintain what we have and keep looking back.