There are times while traveling when you arrive at a long anticipating destination and the experience doesn’t match your expectations. I knew that Machu Picchu would be full of tourists. Most popular destinations are – I’m pretty good at ignoring crowds and finding my own personal experience and quiet moments in well-visited places. What I didn’t expect is that we wouldn’t actually be able to see Machu Picchu when we arrived.
When we arrived at Machu Picchu at about 7am, this was our view:
When you visit Peru during the wet season, you risk encountering a Machu Picchu hidden by fog. We walked up to the guard tower with our guide and couldn’t see anything more than 5 feet away. We had plans to walk up to the sun gate, but it wasn’t worth the hike – there was no view that day. So our guide just started our tour of Machu Picchu. Luckily once we went down a bit from the guard tower the fog was less extreme, we could see the immediate area around us. We had a great tour, but still couldn’t see the mountains surrounding us, or get the famous “big picture” view of Machu Picchu.
After the tour, we took a break to grab some food and relax for a while. It was only about 9am, and we were free until 3pm. We could stay as long as we wanted at Machu Picchu before catching a bus back down to Aguas Calientes. We decided to stick around and see if the fog would lift.
Luckily, it did lift. Not completely, but enough so that we could see it in its entirety, and catch glimpses of the stunning and dramatic mountains surrounding us. Here are a few photos:
I’m so happy that we stuck around and that the fog lifted a bit. I’d still love to someday see Machu Picchu on a gorgeously clear, sunny day, but I am so grateful I was able to visit this incredible place. It’s really magnificent, and the rain/mist seemed to curb the number of other tourists there. I really enjoyed wandering through the amazing ruins and imagining myself alive in the height of the Inca Empire, rebuilding the city around me in my imagination.
There are a lot of great books that cover Inca history, and I highly recommend immersing yourself if you plan on visiting Peru. I enjoyed reading Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams the most – a very readable and fun introduction to Inca history and Peruvian culture. From there you can dive into a more in-depth history of the Incas (such as The Last Days of the Incas) or explore the world of Hiram Bingham’s expeditions (in his own The Lost City of the Incas or Cradle of Gold by Christopher Heaney).
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Have you ever visited a famous “bucket list” place and found it completely different that you’d imagined? Have your travel plans ever been completely derailed by weather?
My previous Peru travelogues: Condors and the Lares Trek.
Thank you for sharing your adventure – your photographs pull me in. Most awesome.
Thank you so much! :)
Sorry to hear it was so foggy, but I’m glad you had a good time anyway! Machu Picchu is right at the top of my bucket list; I’m dying to do the whole Inca Trail hike.
It’s phenomenal – you’ll love it! I definitely recommend going during the dry season, but it was still a wonderful experience. Very happy the fog lifted eventually. :)
Beautiful, beautiful pictures Emily, I rather like the fogginess! I’ve heard about people going to the Grand Canyon and not being able to see it because of the weather. Didn’t it happen to Bill Bryson? Anyway, I’m glad the weather cleared a little bit for you guys to actually be able to see this incredible place!
Thank you so much! And I agree – I think the fogginess adds some intrigue – makes the mountains look even more majestic.
I think you’re right about Bill Bryson & the Grand Canyon – it sounds familiar! It’s been so long since I’ve read his US travels though, I’ve been thinking recently that I need to re-read them soon. Are you excited for his next book about England? I’m getting so antsy for it to be released! :)
This place looks just astounding. I’m so glad the weather cleared up for you guys! Peru isn’t exactly a day trip kind of destination. ;)
Seriously! Me too. If it hadn’t cleared up I definitely would have felt like I still had to go back someday in order to really see it – but it lifted enough that I feel like I got fully Machu-Picchu-ed. :D
Glad the fog lifted some – and the fog that remains make the pictures look very atmospheric and evocative! I worked retail near Acadia National Park in Maine for several summers, and tourists often had their views stymied by the fog. Some of my hikes there were also fog-bound, but because I was there the whole summer, it wasn’t as frustrating as it was for the tourists.
For me, I found Hagia Sophia to be underwhelming. It hadn’t been exactly bucket-list, but it was the most famous landmark in Istanbul, so my expectations were high. But it was being renovated, and it was very crowded. Also, we had visited at least three of the gorgeous mosques in Istanbul by that point, which were still places of worship and thus had a great sense of serenity that Hagia Sophia could not have, as it is no longer a place of worship for any religion, but is now a museum.
Agreed – the remaining fog does look rather picturesque!
It’s interesting to hear about your experience at Hagia Sophia – renovations can make places so tough to experience! When I visited the Pantheon on my very first trip abroad it was being renovated – there was a giant tower of scaffolding going all the way to the top on one side, covered in sheets. It would have been very upsetting, except that it was my first real landmark I’d ever visited in a foreign country, and I think I was too overwhelmed and impressed to care! :)
I’m glad the fog lifted somewhat for you. Machu Picchu is high on my list of places to visit someday. Your pictures are beautiful!
Me too! We were very relieved. :) And the fog that remained did look pretty cool in the background of the photos, so it wasn’t that bad at all.
Sounds like an amazing experience. I know what you mean about wishing for a sunny day to capture the details in your photo and to see the sun shining off all of that green. but there’s something hidden and almost mystical about the shroud-like aspects of the fog.
I agree! Once it lifted a bit so we could see something, the remaining fog added a certain atmospheric quality to the experience and the photos … mystical is a great word for it! :)
I’m sorry you didn’t get quite the view you wanted, but I think the photos with fog look absolutely stunning! What an amazing place
Thank you! I’ve started to think so too. :)