Thanksgiving in Machu Picchu - A strange irony.

A 3AM wake up call November 24 in Aguas Caliente was the perfect way to start my Thanksgiving, unaware it was actually a holiday. I stumbled out into the rainy night and walked the 30 minutes to the Machu Picchu entrance via flashlight. There I met 5 other mates from England and Sweden also dedicated to saving money and being the first ones there. When the first tourist train arrived we furociously stood infront of the gate to guard our place.

At 4:30AM the guard opened the gate and allowed the 6 of us to run across the the bridge while the others were forced to show tickets, giving us a good head start. Nothing like an early morning climb up the side of a mountain in the rain with a ball of coca leaves in your mouth. At the top we were soaked in our own sweat and dying of exhaustion, but the first ones in line to enter the actual park. As the buses started arriving and dumping people off we felt damned proud. A girl from the USA came up with a paper turkey and for the first time I realized it was Thanksgiving.

When the park finally opened at 6AM we received our Wanapicchu tickets and then ran into the park before anyone. I instantly found myself lost in the ancient ruins, masked by early morning mist. With no sense of direction I weaved my way in and out of the labyrinth of ruins eventually getting to the Wanapichu entrance. When it opened at 7AM I joined up with 4 guys from Peru and began the tiresome hour climb up the misty jungle mountain. While relaxing on the ruins at the top the clouds and mist cleared revealing the most spectacular view down into the canyon and Machu Picchu.

Touring the ruins all day was a mystical experience and took me into an ancient world. The irony was, that being Thanksgiving, we celebrate a holiday that essentially signifies the beginning of European conquest and the decline of native culture. Yet there I was exploring the ruins of a great city that once thrived before European conquest. It was a very powerful feeling of sorrow amongst a day of beauty and excitement.