Wanderlust Wednesday
As you’re reading this post, my friend Stacey and I are hiking the 26-mile Inca Trail through the Andes to get to Machu Picchu! So, today’s quotes are a bit of motivation for us, but also motivation for you guys. Although I haven’t seen them first hand yet, I know that this is a site that is not going to disappoint me!
“Few romances can ever surpass that of the granite citadel on top of the beetling precipices of Machu Picchu, the crown of Inca Land.”
-Hiram Bingham-
“For the first time since dropping out of graduate school, I remembered an unpleasant weekend spent struggling to comprehend the philosopher Immanuel Kant’s explanation of the difference between calling something beautiful and calling it sublime. Nowadays, we throw around the word ‘sublime’ to describe gooey desserts or overpriced handbags. In Kant’s epistemology it meant something limitless, and aesthetically pleasing entity so huge that it made the perceiver’s head hurt. Machu Picchu isn’t just beautiful, it’s sublime.”
-Mark Adams, Turn Right at Machu Picchu–
“Of course, tourists traveling in their comfortable rail coaches could only glean the vaguest idea of the conditions in which the Indians live, from the fast glimpses they catch as they speed past our train, which has stopped to let them pass. The fact that is was the U.S. archaeologist Bingham who discovered the ruins and expounded his findings in easily accessible articles for the general public, means that Machu Picchu is by now very famous in that country to the north and the majority of North Americans visiting Peru come here. (In general they fly direct to Lima, tour Cuzco, visit the ruins and return straight home, not believing that anything else is worth seeing.”
-Che Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries–
“Accept that cars aren’t necessary and that some meals take hours, that we can now fly to space, that there’s nothing wrong with crashing on couches if you’re on an adventures, that three outfits are enough, that sunrises are free, that the first time you see Machu Picchu it will break your heart, that being alone in a country with no money or return rocket will teach you more about yourself than any therapist ever could.”
-Aric S. Queen-
“In the variety of its charms and the power of its spell, I know of no other place in the weld which can compare with it.”
-Hiram Bingham, ‘discoverer’ of Machu Picchu-
“I was moved beyond words. The tram ride over the mountains from Lake Titicaca to Cusco reminded me of Africa where I grew up; and 4 days walking on the Inca Trail, then more in the jungle, just magnificent- time, space, and splendor. Our planet is superb.
-Jay Woodman-
These books are sure to inspired your next Peruvian Adventure
*Photo by my good friend Sherwin Walden
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4 Comments
Giorgos Marios Kartalias
January 28, 2016 at 10:36 amIt is my life dream to go to Machu Micchu. I also have a secret desire to go visit all 7 wonders! Thank you so much for your quotes!
Sandy N Vyjay
July 20, 2017 at 1:36 amMachu Pichcu is definitely the stuff that dreams are made of. I am sure the hike culminated in a moments of joy when you set sights on what you were seeking and all the pain and stress of the hike evaporated into thin air. These quotes are great inspirations. It is always so motivating to read or listen to people who have been through similar experiences and are able to voice it so profoundly.
Megan Claire (@mappingmegan)
September 4, 2017 at 4:21 amWonderful set of quotes which capture the Machu Picchu experience – I’m in half minds about whether or not I would recommend visiting in the future – it’s very sad that the sheer amount of mass tourism means they’re bringing in rules that mean you can only head in with a tour guide. I was fortunate enough to visit a couple of years ago, but even then tourism was very high and it did kind of dampen the adventurous dream I think many of us have in our heads about visiting this ancient lost civilization – it’s not very lost any more! But it’s still an incredible marvel to see and imagine how people lived so remotely for so long, and how a community can just disappear into nature. What I would have given to have been on that initial expedition which discovered it!
Dave Briggs
October 10, 2017 at 11:24 amMachu Picchu is a magical place to visit. It does get popular year on year and the rules change also, but if you can visit at a quieter time and visit a spot without anyone else, the feeling is incredible. The quotes are certainly inspirational!