Machu Pichu #1

It’s time for Machu Pichu!!! We went on a bus from our hotel to Ollataytambo, where we visited ruins the day before. There we got on a train, that followed the Urubamba river up an incredible gorge. Huge, rocky, steep mountains on both sides. Very beautiful!! There were some ruins along the way.
You arrive in a town called Agua Calientes. The hikers that do the entire Inca Trail hike are probably happy about that. Then we bussed up to our hotel, just outside the Machu Pichu National Park. We immediately went into the park, and up to the Guard House. Just for some altitude references, Cusco is 11,400 feet. The hotel at the outside of the park was 7,000. There aremountain peaks all around, going up to 16,000 and 18,000 feet. We went slowly up to 7,500. You couldn’t take it all in. The engineering and organization of this site is phenomenal. There are buildings and rooms for so many functions. There’s original paths that go EVERYWHERE. The rocks, like yesterday, are HUGE. When you get to these various locations, you just can’t believe what you are seeing. This was all built in the 1400s, and wasn’t discovered until 1909-1911, when Hiram Bingham, a Yale professor from Hawaii, got some kids from the local villages to bring him up here (by ropes!). Fortunately, the Spanish didn’t find it during their plunder.
Tomorrow we’re planning on two hikes – up to a spiritual site, the Sun Dial, for sunrise, and a little later to the Sun Gate, where the sun comes through for the Summer Solstice.
Adios!!