The "You gotta be there at sunrise" Myth

When I told friends that Linda and I were going to visit Machupichu, they told me that I had to be there at sunrise!  It is breathtaking at sunrise!  You haven't seen Machupichu if you haven't seen it at sunrise!

Well, the only way to do that is to stay for a second day, get up before sunrise, get on a bus before sunrise, and stand in line to get in before sunrise.  Well, we didn't want to come all this way for nothing so we stayed an extra day.  However, I should have known this would be a star-crossed day from the time of our 4:00 am wakeup call.  Linda was feeling just a little out of sorts and had doubts about going up the mountain.  She felt bad about me possibly missing the glorious sunrise on Machpichu.  So, she convinced me I should go ahead without her.   

So, I am up at 0 dark o'clock and headed up the side of the mountain.  When I get to the top, I discover a lot of other people have been let in on this same secret because there is a half hour line to get in.  Never mind, I get through the gate and huff and puff my way immediately to highest point so I won't miss the golden moment.  I check my camera and I wait .............

Along with a few of my new best friends.  You see, the sun doesn't rise this day on Machupichu, it just sort of brightens the high clouds that envelope everything.  I wait for the sun to burn away the clouds.  And I shoot a few pics because it doesn't cost anything with digital and I am getting a little bored waiting.

 

The clouds don't go away for a couple of hours, they just move to new positions.

To make a long story shorter, I spent another couple of hours shooting pictures of llamas, birds and other fog-soaked people just to pass the time.  I am not yet convinced there really is such a thing as a sunrise on Machupichu.  Like most other mountainous locations, it just suddenly gets light ... no glorious multi-hued rays of light emanating out of the east.   I do absolutely agree that the morning light is by far the best to take pictures of Machupichu.  However, I could have slept in a couple of hours, had coffee with Linda and still been in plenty of time to take this shot.

I headed back to the hotel to make sure Linda was OK.  She needed a little more rest so we didn't check out until a little after noon.  We thought we would just go to the train station, maybe get a soda and wait leisurely for our luxury train back to the city.  We would have a bite on the train and then have a nice dinner in  Cuzco.

There are no photos of the rest of this day's adventure because most of the time I was so upset, I probably would have dropped the camera.  When it came time to get on our train, it seems they wouldn't accept our ticket because it had somehow been changed to a train that left while we were sitting there in the station about and hour earlier.  Now our only option to get back to Cuzco that day was to purchase another ticket on the Backpacker Special, which regretfully, I did.


This is a train, with a slightly lower fare, that is designed for those hearty souls who just trekked 38 km over mountains and slept in caves or wherever.  There are no deluxe accommodations.  There is no food. It is going to arrive at our destination some 3 hours later than planned.  And it is very loud with train noise and excited backpackers, most of whom are some fraction of our age.  Now I know that we returned over exactly the same tracks over which we had dined on linen table cloths on the way there.  On our way back, the train bounced and lurched so wildly and so consistently that it was difficult to stay in one's seat, let alone keep your gear safely stowed on the racks overhead.  I honestly don't know what kind of engineering could make such a difference in the two trains. Did I say it was noisy?

When we arrived at our destination, fortunately Linda had called ahead to have a driver meet us at the new later time.  Suffice it so say, we were tired, hungry and, after being thrown around like a BB in a boxcar for 4 hours, somewhat stiff and sore.  We had our driver take us directly to the hotel, where we prevailed upon them to hold our luggage while we went to the nice restaurant next door ... we were starved.  If it gives you any idea of our condition after the ride on the Backpacker Special, they immediately escorted us to a table as far to the back of the restaurant as they could ... right by the kitchen.  And I don't blame them.

The next day will be much better.  Meanwhile. sleep was the most desirable thing we could imagine.