Peru, day 16 (Sept 24): Machu Picchu!

Machu Picchu was the reason we'd all come this far, and this was the day we were going to visit the site. Very exciting. I don't know what it is about Machu Picchu. It's not as old as other places I've been and seen. The Mayan ruins I saw in Belize at Lamanai are way over 2000 years old...Machu Picchu is only 566 years old. And it was only inhabited for about 90 years. Lamanai was inhabited as early as the 16th century BC and had continuing occupation until the 17th century AD. Now that's a long time! Lamanai was fascinating to me, and I loved it...but what is the mystique of Machu Picchu. 'Cause there is something about it. It's an interesting phenomenon, why one archaeological site gains more importance than another.

Anyway, we were all set! Got our tickets the night before for the first round of buses up to the top. You can climb up, but that takes 1-2 hours. And after 5 days of hiking...I was ok with taking the bus. We wanted to be up there for the sunrise. So we woke up at 4:30, had breakfast, hiked up into the center of town and stood in line for the buses. And they started coming. Man, it's quite the business!!!! They have a couple hundred buses that run constantly up and down. Here you can see the road that switchbacks all the way up. This was taken up near the Sun Gate.

The buses coming into the park entrance at the top. Look at that line of buses. Just one after another...

There are far too many pictures for me to put them all here. I'll just include a small sampling. If you want to see all, or just more of our Machu Picchu pictures, look at my Peru gallery. Machu Picchu is about 3/4 of the way to the bottom. Here is my mom and I just inside the entrance. Where we are standing was part of the residential section in the "Popular District." Machhu Picchu has three sectors: the Sacred District, the Popular District, and the District of the Priests and the Nobility (royalty zone). I have a map of the site in my gallery.
Agricultural terraces. It's amazing to think that the people really worked these terraces. They're incredibly steep... and there's a HUGE drop-off! :)

That peak that I'm looking at is Wyna Picchu (or Huayna Picchu, I've seen it spelled both ways). About 1/2 way up it is the "Temple of the Moon." You can climb that mountain, it takes about 1 1/2 hours round trip. But it's dangerous. A couple people every year die climbing it. The trail is just VERY narrow and it's windy. I really really wanted to climb it, but no one would go with me, and I wasn't comfortable going by myself. Besides, mom really didn't want me to go. So I had to console myself with just looking at it.

There were llamas wandering around all over the site. They grunt! I didn't actually touch it, 'cause I was a little worried about being bitten. It was great to see them up there, where they would have been when the city was occupied. Isn't that little baby so cute?

A view down the back side. That valley is the one we'd walked up the day before. Can you see the llamas grazing and resting?
Here I am up at one of the higher points in Machu Picchu. By this time it was in the 90's. Hot enough to strip down. Besides, that made itching my bug bites easier! :)
Chinchilla!!! I didn't realize they were so big! I've only ever Mom and I spotted it from waaaay up at the guard hut. We then figured out how to get to above them, since the row of houses they were living in was blocked off. There were two chinchillas hoping around this one "house". They're so cute! And they're eaten too...it's not just guinea pigs! Raised like chickens. I didn't try chinchilla. Guinea pig was bad enough.
Mom taking a break over near the agricultural area. You can see the tree behind her that is in the central square.

This young man is one of quite a few who "chase" the buses down from Machu Picchu. He runs alongside waving and calling goodbye in Quechua. About 3/4 of the way down the bus stops, he gets on, calls goodbye to us again in English and a couple other languages, then goes around for tips. I'm telling ya, he deserved those tips!!! he worked really hard.

Here we are walking back up into Aguas Calientes to catch the train back to Cuzco. Our hotel was that yellow one way down at the end. It was very nice...especially after the tents! :)

We took the train back to Cuzco, arriving at about 6:00 pm. We went our separate ways for dinner, so mom and I went to this little restaurant I'd heard about from Olaf, the guy on my bike trip. It was a small local restaurant where we paid 6 sol, about 2 dollars, for a full three course meal. Soup, main entree and desert. Oh, and a Pisco too and tea. Other places we'd been paying 20 Sol for just the entree. It was a nice change, just me and mom. Then we spent some time returning the flashlight and headlamp that my mom had bought in Cuzco neither of which worked once we were out on our trek. As I was waiting for her outside one of the shops, I saw something that made my jaw drop!

In Peru, once evening comes and the stores close, sometimes food vendors set up shop in the doorway alcoves of the closed stores. So across the street from me is a very busy one where I've seen both locals and tourists eating. It's just a little hot-dog cart-type thing. The guy is cutting up raw meat, but evidently his knife was not sharp enough. So he steps out, walks over to the curb, bends down, AND SHARPENS THE KNIFE ON THE STREET!!!!! Then he goes back, DOESN'T wipe it off, and continues cutting up the meat. EWWWWWWWW! Those streets are not clean. Those things you just have to not think about too much.

Then it was off to bed. We had another early morning flight back to Lima.