To travellers and tourists alike, a journey to Machu Picchu is exactly that. A journey. To lose site of it in favor of the destination seems like an incredibly short-sighted misstep. To sum up Machu Picchu as simply another Eiffel Tower or Angkor Wat of the world, another checklist of must-sees in the travellers intrepid diary, seems equally misguided.

For me the journey began years ago as a kid. After reading about the ancient Inca civilization and their city in the clouds somehow lost to time and then rediscovered in more modern times, I was hooked. After all, it is the place of imagination.

The Spanish never found the place and still to this day Machu Picchu and it's place in history is still shrouded in mystery. No one knows what happened to the Inca's that once called it home. And they scarcely know how such a thing was even built. Was it alien technology? Was it ancient genius? Your guess is as good as mine.

In the end however, where does one even begin to sum up the magnitude of a place like this? The intricate stone work, the sheer magnitude and size, the altitude and beautiful ruggedness of a place seemingly so impractical to allow such a thing to ever be constructed. I simply don't know.

One will brave humidity, altitude, an onslaught of vendors, train or trail, and the ever present mass of tourists and travellers alike to get here. In the end the journey, not the destination, make the juice worth the squeeze.