First view of Machu Picchu - Henrietta - Poetry at Your Fingertips

First view of Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is the place to go

It took six modes of transport to get here

But nobody is complaining.

Some even walk for four days over

Treacherous passes and dizzying heights just to get here

You follow a little path up and around the mountain

Until you reach a small archway and the delight begins

You feel like Alice in Wonderland or the children in Narnia

When they go through the wardrobe, past the old furs

And they suddenly feel a magical land open up before them.

You can't really believe your here

I didn't think you were ever supposed to reach your holy grail?

This was definitely one ticked.

The sun was hot and our ridiculous trekking hats we had been carrying

For so long finally came into their own.

It didn't matter that you were here with your

Own respective tour group as each of us was lost in

Our wonderment at what was before us.

Past the archway lay a tiered mountainside

Made from enormous crafted rocks glittering in the sunshine

This was interposed with brilliant green grass that

Would have once been sown with herbal remedies for everything under the sun.

Llama and alpaca grazed further down the hillside

Taking no notice of their ever changing onlookers.

The mountain itself is surrounded by a circle of large mountains

Thick with trees and mist and forever reminding you just how far you are

From the valley below.

The ruins cover this mountain and you wonder how and who did all this work.

Rumours abound and burnt evidence doesn't make it any easier.

The terraces are steep but fear hides its ugly head when the panoramic view

Gets better and better with every step and it will be an hour or two

before we have to make the long walk, bus, train, coach, plane, taxi home.