Machu Picchu Mountain -- my spiritual journey

This is the mountain that I climbed to the top of on Saturday!!!!!!! I was soooooooooo sick on Friday from the altitude in Cusco, that I worried about going to a much higher altitude at Machu Picchu.

I learned a great life's lesson on the journey up this mountain. As the altitude increased, there were times I wanted to give up. I thought, "I can't go on. I can't do this." Then, something inside me said, "You have to try. At least try."

There were times I wanted to turn back, but once you had made it half-way up and looked down on where you had been, turning back wasn't any better of an option than pressing onward.

Many times, especially the more the journey progressed, I had to stop and rest on one of the narrow, rock-ledges that were my "steps."

This gave me the strength I needed to climb higher. That's the way life is, sometimes.

Sometimes, I could only climb three or four ledges up. Sometimes, more. There was always someone who waited patiently with me, till I could catch my breath and have the strength to carry on. 

 Our guide, Juan, carried my backpack. Had he not done that act of kindness for me, I would have had so much more of a hard time. It was all I could do to climb it with my weight, alone. In some ways, Juan's being there during the climb and carrying my backpack was a similitude of the Savior in our lives...how He "carries our backpacks" to help us along, if we will only let Him do that and trust Him to do that. On a couple of really rough parts, Juan would climb up ahead of me and say, "Take my hand, Lady." Isn't that what the Savior does for us, so often, in our lives?

Once that goal was reached, I was praying that the tour company had a helicopter that would appear up there and take me back down!!! But, no! I had to go on.

It was much easier this time. I still had to be careful and cautious, but my journey was much easier and much faster after I took the initial leaps of faith and trudged the hard part. Another life lesson.

You can bet I used leg muscles I didn't know had not been used in a long, long time, too! I had what they told me was mosquito bites all over my arms. I thought I had a disease or something. It didn't look, nor feel, like the painful bites I was used to living in the Southern part of the USA. Alan's arms were much, much worse than mine.

No one else got bit. Oh well, I guess even the Machu Picchu bugs know a good food source when they see one! ha ha ha...

Julie