Been there, hiked that. The thrill of Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu before the tourists arrive

We woke up at about 3:45am to start the final hike up to the ancient city. We left at about 4:30 and arrived around 6am. As the doors opened, I ran as fast I could to a high part so that I could get the coveted photo of Machu Picchu with the sun rising and still not a single tourists tainting it. I got it! I can come home now, ok Im not going to but that was a big check mark off my list for our trip. 

As the day went on, we found all sorts of amazing buildings and temples that each seemed to have religious significance. The temple of the sun, temple of the priests, and of the temple of the condor. We kept imagining how Hyrum Bingam found this beautiful city with trees and vegetation covering its many carved out agricultural layers and rock formations. You can tell here on the right how there is a bird carved out with its two  wings behind its body and the face and eyes are on the ground where a rope is keeping tourists from stepping on it.

Some of the most interesting structures where the ones with these square blocks that are still the original ones found. There were cut with so much precision and expertise that it was interesting to think what kind of tools they were using. Only 30 percent of the archeological sight has been reconstructed, you can easily tell what has been redone, so it was nice to determine exactly what was original.

Then we spotted a group of tourists, very brightly dressed, praying in their own faith over the mirror pools. We dont exactly know what these were used for, we just know that it had something to do with reflection. Maybe these guys knew and just weren't willing to fill us in, but it was kind of interesting to see what they were doing.

We wanted to see Machu Picchu from a little higher up, so we hiked the super steep patch to Huanaypicchu, or Waynaypicchu, it was spelled both ways on the same trail. But it was a mazing to imagine how the high priests of the town, probably the older elders, hiked such a crazy cliff to arrive at their places of worship. Everything was defintely built for a smaller generation of people. Even the steps seemed reasonable for an infant. 

So thats it! We hiked for 5 days starting about an hour or two outside of Cuzco and after over 30 miles of the Andes, hiking about 9 hours a day, we arrived to our destination. It was fun, we recommend it to hikers all over, it was hard but doable. We just want to tell our families that we are safe, resting a bit in Cuzco right now in an awful hostal with out hot water, but life is good. We have just over 3 weeks left. Next stop, Puno, Peru and the Floating Islands. Stay tuned, and remember, there is a world beyond...