Peru & Machu Picchu
Sitting at my little desk, my first year as a young professional in my first job out of college, I received a very nice bonus check- halleluia! While I was learning the ropes of being a responsible adult, I still had the college-age adventure bug that beckoned me to use it on something extraordinary. Like a plane ride to see my friend in Peru! YES!
She was living above the church where she did mission work. There was a sign on her door to keep the record straight – “no soy una monja” or “I am not a nun.” This in’t the church, but it was closeby and pretty, no?
The day before we make an all-important trip to Machu Picchu, I ate something weird and ended up in a horrible nauseous mess. Do you need to rest instead of travel 8,000 feet up a super steep mountain? My travel companions asked. Heck no I must press on! I will take those mystery meds from the mystery pharmacy and get myself out to see one of the 7 wonders of the world! Nevermind if it made me hallucinate on the train ride- but no upchucking ensued. And a world marvel was seen!
At the foot of the mountain there are vendors selling all kinds of whatevers to over-excited tourists. One offered us ponchos for 2 soles (50 cents). Nah, no thanks, don’t need that. At the top of the mountain (I don’t actually remember how I got up there, that part is fuzzy, hmmm…) the traditional amazing view of the ancient ruins is there for us to snap away our tourist shots. And it lasts for 5 minutes before clouds come in and hide it all- wow what a short window to see that famous sight.
Those clouds also brought— rain. COLD rain. We sheltered ourselves under trash bags, and eventually, to keep off the cold, a newly purchased alpaca wool sweater. That sweater became legendary, it has never been worn- or thrown out. It lives on in memory of that amazing and messy day. And to look back and think -it could have had an alternate ending for 2 soles!
While this place is known for being a well preserved historical site of Incan culture high up on a mountain peak like Masada, it was a place where the people worshiped the sun. There is a story that one of the Incan priests who would daily worship the sun and observe it’s rhythms, passages, and seasons, had an epiphany that changed the tune of his prayers. He noticed that the sun moved in predictable ways- faithful, but… predictable. It was not… free. He realized the sun was a slave, it had no free will to deviate from its path. To whom is the sun a slave? Who does the sun obey? His prayer became, “show me Who the sun obeys…” I hope that his prayer lead him to know Yahweh.
