(Machu Picchu, Peru)
There it was. One of the most iconic travel destinations in the world, one of the seven wonders, and I was standing right in front of it on my 43rd birthday, having dragged myself out of bed at 3:30 in the morning to get there.
What did I feel? Annoyed.
I should back up.
I'm not someone who chases bucket list destinations. Crowds, lines, the performance of being somewhere famous: none of that appeals to me. But I make exceptions when something is supposed to be genuinely life-changing, the kind of place people describe as spiritual, transformative, unmissable. Machu Picchu had that reputation. So I made the exception.
Getting there was already its own adventure. My alarm had been set to PM instead of AM, so I woke up to daylight when there should have been darkness, grabbed my bag, and made the flight on pure adrenaline. By the time I reached Cusco the night before, I'd been traveling for 12 hours straight.
Cusco was an immediate, unexpected love. The cobblestone streets, the warm glow of the city at night, the energy that felt alive without being overwhelming. And the food. I cannot overstate the food. I hadn't expected to be so taken by it, but Cusco fed me in every sense of the word, and I didn't want to leave. I forced myself to sleep because I had to be up in five hours.
The morning was a series of connections: shuttle to train, train to Aguas Calientes, bus up to the site. By the time I arrived it was around 10am. What I didn't know, and what I'll get to at the end of this, is that 10am at Machu Picchu means you are arriving with everyone else. Every tour group, every photographer, every person who also took the earliest possible train from Cusco. There is no quiet version of this at 10am.
I chose Circuit 2, which takes you through the full site. My guide Alexandra was wonderful.
And I kept waiting for the feeling.
You know the one. The overwhelm and gratitude and smallness in front of something ancient and enormous. I wanted that. I was ready for it.
Instead, no matter where I stood or turned, there were dozens of people either blocking my view or waiting for me to move so they could take their photo. It became a choreography I hadn't signed up for. My guide kept offering to take my picture, and I kept saying no, and then feeling bad about it, so eventually I said yes. That is how most of my photos happened.
Here's something I don't talk around: I have ADHD, combined type, and I'm an introvert through and through. I wasn't diagnosed until I was 42, which is its own story, but the short version is that crowds and noise don't just exhaust me. They overwhelm me in a way that's hard to manage. I spend a lot of energy just trying to stay regulated in them. Machu Picchu at 10am is not a place that rewards that kind of nervous system. I was doing my best to be present. My best wasn't enough.
Then it started raining. And honestly, the rain I didn't mind. It brought a moodiness to the whole scene, something wilder and more atmospheric than the postcard version I'd built up in my head. I was soaking wet, but there was something about the fog rolling in over those mountains that felt right. Like the place was finally showing me a version of itself that wasn't staged.
I got home in time for a late dinner.
What I haven't mentioned yet is that the next morning, I was up at 3am again, this time for Rainbow Mountain. Land in Cusco at night. Up at 3:30am for Machu Picchu. Back at night. Up at 3am for Rainbow Mountain. That was my birthday itinerary for myself. In hindsight, what I actually needed for my 43rd birthday was rest, a slow morning, maybe a long lunch somewhere beautiful. Instead I scheduled myself like I was trying to win something.
By the time I finally checked into Antigua Sanctuary, my one real splurge of the Peru leg, I was beyond tired in a way that's hard to describe. I sat down in that room and for the first time in what felt like weeks, I could breathe. Nothing had been resolved, nothing had changed. But I wasn't moving, and that turned out to be the gift I'd been missing the whole time.
Machu Picchu is genuinely extraordinary. The scale, the history, the way it sits in those mountains: I understand why people are moved by it. But I've learned, and this was just another reminder, that it doesn't matter how many people call something a must. If a place is going to be swarming, I have to be honest with myself about whether that experience is actually for me. The destination isn't the problem. The mismatch is.
If you're planning the trip, here's what I'd do differently. Stay in Aguas Calientes the night before rather than taking the early train from Cusco. It gets you there before the main crowds arrive. Book the earliest possible entry time. And if you're crowd-sensitive, look into Circuit 4, which takes you higher and tends to be quieter. Most importantly: don't do Rainbow Mountain the morning after. Give yourself one of those days to just be in Cusco. That city will give you more than you expect.
