Aric S. Queen was on a quest to be the first person at the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu, Peru, on January first. However, that involves some high-altitude walking uphill first thing in the morning, and he despaired as other hikers passed him by. But at the gate, serendipity gave Queen the opportunity to go first.
Ten-plus years of travel, forty-plus countries, countless marvels, but this is the only place I cried at seeing.
One photo was snapped from my phone — those four seconds were the maximum amount of time I wanted to take my eyes off of it.
For 30 seconds, I sat in silence – not even realizing what I had just done.
It took the sound of footsteps behind me to bring everything back to the present. And it took the sounds of voices to realize that when I had first gotten up – there were none.
An estimated 1.2 million people this year, and I was visitor no. 0,000,000,001.
Read Queen's story and see a video of the adventure at Intelligent Travel magazine. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!
(Image credit: Aric S. Queen)
Even if you were first, your experience is not in any way better or worse than anyone else's. Being first to see it on a particular day would not be, I would hope, what would make a view of Machu Picchu a memorable experience, at least not for me.
I was the first person in the Forum baths at Pompeii one day. I was able to get some nice photos without all those pesky tourists in em. I didn't feel particularly special, though.
His choice of a time period with which to be #1 is an irrelevant man-made construct that has zero meaning beyond what he himself gives it. Everyone who came after him was also #1 for the next year (or 1000, or 1,000,000,000,000,000, or whatever years). As was the last guy who came the day before him.
But he got a good endorphin rush from it, so good for him.