Searching for the Lost World

The most important destination on the trip to Peru is Machu Picchu. In Quechua, Picchu means mountain, and Machu Picchu means "ancient mountain". This world-famous ancient city is located on a ridge 2,350 meters above sea level, more than 80 kilometers northwest of Cusco. It overlooks the Urubamba River and is surrounded by tropical rainforest. The terrain is extremely steep, so it is also known as the "City in the Sky" .

Machu Picchu was built during the Inca Empire in the 15th century AD. It was forgotten by the world for four hundred years after the empire's demise. It was rediscovered in the early 20th century. Now countless people visit it every year. People from all over the world come here just to see this legendary lost world.

To go from Cusco to Machu Picchu, you usually take the train (PeruRail) to the town of Aguas Galientes at the foot of the mountain more than ten kilometers away from Machu Picchu, and then take the bus (about 30 minutes) or walk (two to three hours) to Machu Picchu.

Hot Water Town is 112 kilometers away from Cusco. Most tourists will first depart from Cusco to visit the Sacred Valley for a day, and stay for one night in Ollantay Tambo, a small town in the Sacred Valley. , and then take a two-hour train from Ouyantai to Hotwater Town. On this trip, my hiking group guide Miguel from Quechua and my two Australian teammates Anthony and William arrived at the Sacred Valley after three days of hiking and chose to stop at Ouyantai.

The small town of Ouyantai is an important transportation hub in the Sacred Valley. It is about 2,800 meters above sea level and surrounded by mountains. The name of Ollantay is Ollantay tambo in Quechua, where tambo means inn, and Ollantay is the name of a general of the Inca Empire.

Legend has it that during the time of Pachacuti, the Inca king, Ouyantai, the general who followed the Inca king in the southern and northern wars, fell in love with the Inca king's daughter. Because she was not of royal blood, the Inca king opposed this. They arranged the marriage and put the princess under house arrest for protection. Ou Yantai was so angry that he became a beauty. After he angrily launched an army to rescue the princess, he led his men to stay in this station surrounded by mountains for ten years. The Inca king was moved by his infatuation, and finally ordered him to be pardoned, thus fulfilling the love.

After listening to our guide Miguel tell this romantic legend, we felt yearning for it. It took a short bus ride from Yantian in the Sacred Valley to Ouyantai. The town is not big, and there is a small square in the center of the town. We rested in a hotel next to the square and waited for the train to Hotwater Town in the evening.

There are mountains next to the small square, and the residents’ houses are only a few steps away from an Inca staircase ruins. Since we have just hiked for three days, none of us want to climb the pile of stones again, just in the town. Hang out.

The whole town has stone roads, which are clean and tidy. Some people have bright flowers blooming on the trees in their courtyards, sticking out of the walls. They look very nice when paired with the simple stone walls.

Night gradually fell and the lights on the streets were lit. The train for the two Australian teammates was at 7 o'clock, and the train for me and my guide Miguel was at 9 o'clock. After dinner, Miguel sent them to the train station and then came back to pick me up. We sat down in a small bar next to the station to wait for the train. The America's Cup semi-finals, Colombia versus Chile, were live on TV, so we chatted while watching the game.

There always seems to be a chain of contempt between neighboring countries. For example, in Europe, the French look down on the Belgians, the Dutch don’t like the Germans, and the British look down on all Europeans. A similar situation exists in South America. Most Peruvians have a very low opinion of the Chileans. They think the Chileans dare to compete with Peru for the origin of the famous Pisco wine (there is a small town in Peru named Pisco, so the Pisco wine It seems to have justifiably originated in Peru), and talking about it is like knocking over a powder keg. Miguel shook his head while watching the game and said that Chileans are Chile lele (meaning Chilean fools).

At nine o'clock in the evening we finally got on the train bound for Hot Water Town. Miguel and I were not seated in the same compartment, so I got on the bus by myself and sat down in the aisle seat. Across the aisle on the right was a large Spanish-speaking family. It looked like they were traveling to Peru. There were about six or seven of them. Talk and laugh.

After driving, I discovered that the middle-aged man sitting by the window on my left was also a member of the big family on the right. They joked and laughed across me from time to time. So I kindly asked the middle-aged man next to me in Spanish if he wanted to change seats with me. The middle-aged man seemed surprised that I could speak Spanish. After changing seats, the whole family started chatting with me.

They are Colombians, traveling to Machu Picchu in Peru, and will also go to Cusco to watch the Sun Festival ceremony. In fact, I was very tired at this time, holding my backpack and just wanted to sleep for a while, but the big Colombian family showed great enthusiasm. They introduced themselves one by one. The man next to me was named Juan David, and then they started They took turns guessing my age, ranging from seventeen or eighteen to twenty-five or six. After guessing, they marveled that I looked so young. Then they asked me to guess their ages one by one. I guessed around randomly and only remembered the person next to me. Juan David is 41 years old, and Yuly, another young girl who looks like she is in her twenties, says she is only 15 years old (I think she is lying to me).

After guessing their ages, the Colombians started asking me to teach them Chinese, "How do you say I love you?" "How do you say I hate you?"... Juan David studied very seriously, so More than an hour later, he could count from one to five, and could say more than a dozen words such as nose, ears, eyes, mouth, I love you, I hate you, etc. Watch him say "I hate you" in a serious and vicious manner. , I really couldn’t help laughing, and I was no longer sleepy.

Yuly used the Spanish word Energia (power) to describe me. When the train was about to arrive at the station, she asked for my mobile phone and wrote me a paragraph in English. She said, You are A very powerful person, you are so sweet and friendly and we are all so happy to meet you. Thank you for your Chinese class.

Juan David left me an email address and took photos as a souvenir. The enthusiastic Colombians repeatedly told me to contact them after I return.

It was already past 11am when we arrived in Hot Water Town. After getting off the bus, I found Miguel and he took me to the hotel. Just a few steps from the train station is the bus station. Miguel repeatedly told me to remember the way from the bus station to the hotel, because he had to go to the bus station in advance to buy tickets and queue up in the early hours of the next morning, and I had to bring two bags with me. An Australian went from the hotel to the bus station.

An old gentleman was on duty at the hotel front desk. Miguel took me through the check-in procedures and told me to meet my Australian teammates in the hotel lobby at four o'clock the next morning, check out and store my luggage before heading to the bus. Stand and look for him.

It was almost 12 o'clock when I entered the room, and I was finally able to take a hot bath comfortably. After sleeping in a camping tent for two days, I was lying on the soft bed of the hotel, smelling the scent of cotton from the quilt. I had never felt so relaxed and comfortable.

However, after only two or three hours of sleep, I had to get up to catch the early morning bus.

I packed my luggage and went to the hotel lobby to wake up the old gentleman on duty to check out. A few minutes later, the Australians also showed up. They looked at me with expectant eyes.

Anthony asked me, Bing, what are we going to do next? I'm confused, don't I need to go to the bus stop?

Anthony began to vividly talk about our experience after we separated last night: Miguel put them on the train at the station in Ouyantai and told them to get off the train and find the hotel on their own. Wait for Bing in the hotel lobby at one o'clock, and then follow her arrangements. The two Australians didn't have a map. After getting off the train, they couldn't tell the difference between east, west and north. They asked many people along the way and it took them a long time to find the hotel.

I took them along the same path Miguel took me the day before to the bus stop.

At this time, there were five or six people lining up. Miguel came over from the other side of the road and asked us to line up behind these people while he went to buy tickets. Anthony took out a plastic sheet and spread it on a table by the roadside. The three of us sat down side by side and started waiting for a long and boring time.

The first bus leaves at 5:30. We have already arrived at the bus station and queued up at 4:10. None of the three of us knew why Miguel asked us to come so early. Although we relied heavily on Miguel during this trip, it turns out that he is not a very reliable person. I found that on all the tickets and tickets, he wrote my age as 34 (do I look that old?! ), when checking the tickets before getting on the bus, everyone discovered that Miguel had bought the tickets for the three of them four days later, so Miguel took the Australian and ran to the ticket office to exchange the tickets. I was sweating at the time. I agreed. When we go to Machu Picchu together, do we have to do it by myself?

Fortunately, they came back soon and the tickets were exchanged. At about six o'clock, everyone got on the first bus to Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu is about ten kilometers away from Hotwater Town. It takes about half an hour to get there by bus from Hotwater Town.

It was still dark when we arrived, and people were lining up at the entrance of the attraction waiting for the door to open. Groups of steaming hikers were coming one after another on the mountain road next to them. They must have been hiking from Hot Water Town.

The guide Miguel explained the precautions. Eating and drinking is prohibited in the scenic area, and there are no toilets. After 9 a.m., we can stamp a Machu Picchu stamp at the entrance.

After waiting for a long time, the entrance was finally released. We first had to follow the guide to the ancient ruins and listen to his explanation. Teammate William took out the coca leaves he bought in the salt field the day before. We each chewed a few pieces and started climbing up the stone steps. The stone steps were shrouded in thick fog and nothing could be seen. After walking for a while, we reached a platform, and there was still thick fog below.

Miguel said that we were now on the terraces. He pointed to the stone houses under the cliff that were looming in the clouds and mist, and began to explain the history of Machu Picchu to us. At this time, I felt a little unbelievable. My dream for many years had been realized like this. I was so happy that it was a little unreal. I was in a trance and no longer had the patience to listen to his explanation, and my thoughts flew out from time to time.

Just as described in the book, in the mountains and thick fog in the distance, the golden rays of the sun are looming, slowly awakening the ruins.

Machu Picchu was built by the Inca king Pachacuti around 1440. On July 24, 1911, Yale University professor Hiram Bingham discovered it. A lost city. However, the Incas had a completely different version of the discovery of Machu Picchu.

After the demise of the Inca Empire in the 16th century, the Incas cut off the mountain road leading to Machu Picchu. The entire city was abandoned and no one cared about it for four hundred years. It was gradually covered by virgin forest.

In the late 19th century, farmers in the Urubamba Valley were still burning mountains to acquire farmland and constantly exploring the mountains. One day, a farmer climbed up the hillside from the valley. He set a fire in the valley to burn a piece of cultivated land. However, after the fire broke out, it was uncontrollable and burned for several days and nights. The fire revealed most of Machu Picchu covered by the jungle. The farmers were shocked to see that there was such a huge stone city under the forest cover.

The farmer returned to the village and told people that there was such a city, but no one believed him. The discoverer of Machu Picchu guided Peruvian treasure hunters to the lost city twice, in 1894 and 1901, and in 1902 he carved his name on a stone slab in the ruined temple.

Ten years later, when Machu Picchu was truly rediscovered by the world, the Americans took away more than 4,000 precious cultural relics excavated from Machu Picchu, and the piece engraved with the words of the Peruvian Augustin Lisa The slate of Augustin Lizarraga's name has disappeared.

The ancient city of Machu Picchu is located on the top of a mountain at an altitude of 2,430 meters, sandwiched between the two peaks of Machu Picchu Mountain and Huayna Picchu Mountain. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and under the cliff on the other side is the rushing Urubamba. river water.

After the sun rose and the clouds and fog dispersed, I stood on the top of the mountain and looked down at my feet. The scene in front of me reminded me of some fragments of Neruda’s poems about Machu Picchu that I had seen before setting off:

Chilean poet Pablo Neruda is probably the best love talker in the Spanish-speaking world. His soft verses are like the whispers of a lover, making people unable to help but want to find the "one between the violins" Waiting for my people”.

On the hillside surrounding the ancient city, layers of terraces were built along the mountain. This was where the ancient Inca people planted crops, and it is now covered with green grass.

Walk down the stone steps from the terraces to the middle of the ancient stone buildings. The ancient city consists of 200 Inca stone buildings and 109 stone staircases, divided into an upper city and a lower city. The upper city mainly houses temples and noble residences, while the lower city houses warehouses and residential buildings.

The huge stones that make up the building are polished smooth and fine, and the stones are tightly connected without any gaps, which shows the exquisite craftsmanship. However, how people transported the boulders up the cliff and how they measured and polished them remains a mystery.

The most important buildings in the upper city are Sun Sun Stone, Sun Temple and Three Window Temple.

Inti Watana is a stone that holds the sun. Inti means the sun god in Quechua, and Watana means binding. The Incas believed that this stone tethered the sun to this spot, causing its rays to follow a fixed path across the sky year after year.

The Sunstone is located at 13°9’48’’ south latitude. The Incas determined the time by observing the shadow of the stone pillar. At noon on January 30 and November 11 every year, the sun is just above the stone pillar, casting no shadow; and on June 21 every year, the stone pillar will cast the longest shadow in the south. It is said that on this day the sun will accurately shine from The east window of the temple shines in and projects onto the stone pillars.

All the houses in the ancient city have no roofs. The guide said that those roofs were made of grass and trees. After hundreds of years of erosion, they have long since rotted away and only the stone walls are still standing.

Some alpacas are grazing leisurely and basking in the sun on the lawns in the city, making people instantly forget the vicissitudes of history.

After walking around the ruins, Miguel was about to say goodbye to us. Two teammates asked me to do the Speech before we said goodbye.

After four days of getting along day and night, and walking through plateaus and river valleys together, we became very familiar with each other, just like old friends who have known each other for many years. I know that after this separation, we will never see each other again. See you, just like the many friends I met on the road before.

Having experienced so many different separations, I have long been immune to separation. In fact, everyone will know in the long time after separation that the world is not different because of who we are separated from. Different, more importantly, every encounter.

However, apart from thanking me, I couldn’t say anything sentimental. I just followed the local Peruvian custom and said goodbye to Miguel with a cheek-to-cheek ceremony. The two Australians were going to climb Machu Picchu Mountain next. Since I didn’t buy a ticket, I decided to go to Puerta del Sol, the end point of the Inca Trail. We hugged each other goodbye at the fork in the road and we will never see each other again.

The Puerta del Sol was the end point of the Inca Trail and the only way to go to the ancient city of Machu Picchu at that time. The mountain road leading to the Puerta del Sol has the same stone steps as the Inca Trail. It takes about an hour to walk all the way up. Climbing stairs is not an easy task, but it is much better than the altitude of three to four thousand meters in the past few days.

When we reach the top of the mountain, we have a wide view. Looking at Machu Picchu among the high mountains from the Sun Gate, it seems that it is already another world.

·END ·