Thinking Allowed: Wonder of the world

Well before dawn we got up and hiked through the drizzling fog, paired up two to a headlamp. Our night of sleep was cut short, but we all shared a feeling of excitement as we set out. Before long we reached the first checkpoint, where a guard glared at us in the dark and grudgingly let us through despite not having the right passports. Our trail turned sharply upward and we started to climb. Tamar's poncho, with Levi's head peeping out of it, turned into a functioning model of the greenhouse effect. Aurora's asthma kicked in, and she lagged behind. But we toiled up, and gradually the blackness around us turned to grey.

Once we could see, we were rewarded with spectacular views of mountains with waterfalls of fog cascading down their ridges. The valley lay far below us, deep in the mist. Tamar couldn't get enough of the mountains (she's always had a weakness for them) and kept oohing and aahing as we reached the top. We had arrived at Machu Picchu!

We opted for Circuit 2, the longest one. First we passed some cute llamas, then up onto a ridge overlooking Machu Picchu...except it was really just a cloudbank. But everyone was hanging out, and it was only like 6AM, so we sat around and enjoyed the birdsong. At last the clouds parted, and we got our first proper view of what we were in for.

It really was a spectacular place. Our minds boggled at the size of it: it's a whole city! There were terraces everywhere, these endless grass staircases for giants. The Inca had even figured out different soils and plants for each step via experimental farms. The rocks were finely carved and seamlessly jointed together. And the whole thing is perched high atop a mountain!

We wandered through Machu Picchu. There weren't many people, since we'd started so early, and we were mostly on our own. We saw temples, water mirrors (so you can worship the sun without going blind), burial holes, quarries, and lots of ruins. It's a one-way route, but there was lots to see and we'd sneakily backtrack whenever we could.

As we left, we glanced up at the entrance and saw a choked mass of people, literally hundreds of visitors in a snaking line. I felt so grateful that Tamar made us get up at 4:15. We didn't see a single other child the whole time we were there. And so the sun came out, and we hiked all the way back down, munching on lollies and nuts, and extremely satisfied with our visit to this Wonder of the World.