We spent the day at Machu Picchu, and the experience was the intersection of our travel goals. Scott and I were rendered speechless by the expansive beauty and obvious wisdom and knowledge of the Incas. At the same time, the kids were delighted to see something we’d learned so much about in person. It was bigger and better than they’d imagined. It was so much more than they’d been taught because I’m their teacher, and it was more than I’d even understood it to be.

We’d watched videos and read books in the weeks leading up to the trip. In education circles, you could say that we’d taken a “virtual field trip.” And while something certainly is better than nothing, we only received a tiny fraction of understanding from those clips of someone else’s experience. What we saw is something I know the children will always remember – if not the ruins themselves, then the majestic feeling of seeing something magnificent yourself vs. relying on the once-removed experience of reading or watching through someone else’s lens.

The kids were little celebrities during our visit to the ruins. First of all, there were very few children there. The park has a limit of 2,500 visitors a day, and I can count how many children we saw on 2 hands. Second, there were a lot of Peruvian visitors who had never been to that part of their country (think Americans and the Grand Canyon) and therefore had not been exposed to tourists. Many of them repeatedly asked to take pictures with our family. Initially, this caught me off guard because it’s odd to ask to take pictures with random people for no reason. I asked the kids if they minded, and they were cool with it, so we posed for a few pics. After a while, it became strange and annoying – kind of like we were on display on a safari or in the zoo. I asked our guide why so many people wanted to take pictures with our family, and he timidly explained that they had never seen black people in person – only on TV. Interesting, right?

A lot of people stopped to talk to us about our travel plans. Most often, they wanted to know what made us bring the kids to such a non-kid-friendly place, and they usually gave kudos and words of affirmation. Many were curious about why the kids weren’t in school, and I took every opportunity to share about our love of homeschooling. This left me feeling thankful because very often I was told that educating your own children was illegal in this country or that. Talk about putting things into perspective.

We cannot give the children these interests; we prefer that they should never say they have learned botany or conchology, geology or astronomy. The question is not, how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education, but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care?

This is one of my all-time favorite quotes from Charlotte Mason, and this is saying a lot because there is just so much wisdom in her volumes. Today, I watched my children care about something. They may not be able to tell you the year that the Spanish conquered the Incas or the historical significance of khipus, but they care about Inca culture. They understand that despite their worship of various manifestations of God – sun (fire), wind, water, and Pachamama (Mother Earth) – the Incas acknowledged the ultimate Creator as such. We stood in the temple where they worshipped the One, and the kids cared about it.

Quick tips for a successful day at Machu Picchu with kids:

• Don’t try to hike up. Take the 20-minute bus ride. There will be plenty of walking at the top. The kids and I hike every week back home as part of our nature study, and there is no way they would’ve made it even halfway.
• Pack lunches in your backpack and check your bag at the front gate. Even lightweight bags become very heavy with all of that climbing. No food is allowed in the actual park, so you’ll need to leave to go back to the entrance, get your backpack, eat outside the gate, and then go back in.
• Go early. We woke up at 4am today to begin our hours’ long journey by train and bus to get to the park. There was nothing fun about that, but I’m incredibly glad that we listened to the wisdom of those who came before us. It was a light crowd in the morning, and we enjoyed a leisurely experience. As we were leaving for the day, throngs of people were coming. It would’ve been a much less pleasant experience if we’d gone later in the day.
• Bring snacks. Yes, I know that I just said you can’t eat in the park, BUT you may need a little something to prevent wild screaming as you make your way back to your lunch bags. Just make sure that you don’t feed the llamas or leave any trash behind. That’s what the food rule is really all about.
• Use the bathroom at the entrance. There are no “potties” in the park. You have to pay to use the bathroom which still makes me laugh, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
• Bring fresh, clean, crisp dollars. I can’t speak for all of South America, but Peruvian places do not deal with crinkled or even ever-so-slightly ripped money. This ain’t Walmart. That’s for sure. Go to the bank before you leave, and get fancy-looking money. I’m serious. They won’t take your old shriveled up dollars.
• Use lots of sunblock. I didn’t even think about this, and I got the worst sunburn on my face that I’ve ever had in my life. It looks awful and it’s painful, so I’m paying a high price for my lack of preparation in this department.
• Don’t underestimate your kids. I was holding my breath as we entered the park because I just knew that my kids were not going to be impressed. I pictured them saying, “What’s the big deal about a bunch of big rocks?” Not that I’ve ever heard my angels say things like that before. Ahem. But they were perfect. They were in as much awe as we were. There were moments when they were paying more attention to the selfie stick than to our guide, but still. They exceeded my expectations in every way.