Machu Picchu, “ancient peak” in the Quechua language, is South America’s crown jewel of exploration. Each year, over 65,000 dreamers make the rugged 25-mile hike up the 500-year-old path carved into the sacred Andes.

"We are not at our best perched at the summit," observed writer John W. Gardner. "We are climbers, at our best when the way is steep."

Hidden for centuries in Peru’s misty jungle, Machu Picchu was discovered in 1911 by Yale historian Hiram Bingham as he searched for the "Lost City of the Incas." Located 50 miles northwest of the former Incan capital of Cusco, the site had long whispered its secrets to the mountains alone.

"Machu Picchu balances cleverly," writer Katy Koontz observed, "caught in a dance between earth and sky."

A sacred place of pilgrimage constructed in the 15th century, the spectacular ruins include staircases, towers, fountains, terraces, and temples. Carved directly from granite bedrock, the famous Intihuatana—“Hitching Post of the Sun”—still pulses with ceremony and celestial grace.

"The magic of Machu Picchu is unseen... The Incas thought things through," explained engineer Kenneth Wright, who revealed how the Incas layered rocks beneath the site to protect it from the rainforest’s 79 inches of annual rain. Nothing was random. Everything was sacred.

As Dutch lithographer M.C. Escher said of the journey, “He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder.”

And so we climb—not just the mountain, but toward deeper meaning, closer to the pulse of something timeless. Let the fog lift. Let the spirit rise. 🌿