Cusco Trip POST #4

And now, finally,

Day 3: Machu Picchu/ Huayna Picchu

I could talk about this day for hours.

I have not been this moved or impressed by scenery in my life, even when I was at Masada in Israel.

I know some have gone to Machu Picchu and loved it for the fact that it is a cool hike to accomplish, or because it is one of the amazing 7 wonders of the world.

There are others, like myself, who are total nerds when it comes to MP, and are absolutely fascinated by the history. Just thinking about my time there gives me chills. MP is often called the Lost City of the Incas, because it was never found by the Spaniards. When the Incas in the city heard of Spanish invasion, they fled for the jungle, thinking it would be a safer place to situate themselves. Well, as we know, the Spanish conquerors ended up finding these people, but never this city on top of the mountain, which historians have called Machu Picchu (Old Mountain). The first person from outside of Peru to find the ruins was Hiram Bingham from Yale University, led by a small local boy.

The city itself is supposedly about 80% finished, and after 135 years of building it, it could not be finished because of the invaders coming their way.

We started our hike at about 4:00 am, leaving early in hopes to get one of the 400 tickets to go to the tall mountain next to MP, Huayna Picchu. We hiked up the 2000 steps in the rain and fog to reach the top, got our tickets for Huayna Picchu, and walked amongst the ruins with our guide, Ali. It was unreal to see all of the temples, the sundials, the sacred stones still completely intact, untouched by Spanish hands. Unlike most Inca cities that were found and either destroyed or converted into Christian towns with churches, MP is just as it was left.

At around 10 am we all hiked up the slippery rocks and through tight caves to get to the top of Huayna Picchu (young mountain). From this point, MP looks like a center for ants. (zoolander, anyone?) The girls and I sat with a few members of the group on a huge rock at the edge, dangling our legs over thousands of feet of mountain. Little by little we hiked down, enjoying the ruins that were on this mountain as well, drinking a little wine, and pouring some on the ground to salute Pachamama (mother earth). After a few hours we made our slightly scary trek down back to MP, where we took more pictures and hung out with some llamas. (only in peru..)

A train took us back to Ollantaytambo (after an hour delay because it evidently "slightly broke and derailed"...according to one of the train workers), where we met a bus bringing us back to Cusco. The girls and I got back to the hostel where we had a room reserved, only to find the night guard confused other girls for us, and had given it away. We spent the night allll squished together in two beds pushed together, that equalled the size of about a ping pong table. We were all so tired, you could have put us on a bed of nails and we wouldn't have cared.

I left the girls the next day to fly back to Lima, and my kind, young taxi driver home from the airport gave me his number and asked me to go salsa dancing with him. Sigh. You know you're in Peru when your TAXI DRIVER asks you out.

Here are only a few of the hundreds of photos taken (there are also a couple tiny ones to the top right of this page):

We made it to the top! Please note the long line to get Huayna Picchu tickets. And the intense fog.
Foggy ruins
Poles for hanging sacrifices on in a temple
Reflecting pools to see/read the starsAt the top of Huayna Picchu, looking over the edge.
Machu Picchu ruins, from the famous National Geograpic angle. the big mountain behind the ruins is Huayna Picchu, the other mountain we climbed that day.
Llama party '09

I will hopefully post more pictures later, but as of right now I am about to head to the airport to go backpack through Bolivia for the next 10 days!

Besos y Abrazos!