The Lost City: Machu Picchu

After taking the taxi from Cusco to Ollayantaytambo, we took the train from Ollay to Aguas Calientes, or "Machu Picchu City," because it is the city where everyone stays to go to Machu Picchu. Aguas Calientes is a tiny town, you can walk across the whole city in about 5 or 10 minutes. Everything is aimed at tourism since it is the entry point to Machu Picchu. All the same, it was cute and not a bad place to stay for a few nights. The first day, we decided to hike up to Machu Picchu. Aguas Calienetes is in a valley at the BOTTOM of the mountains, Machu Picchu is set at the TOP of those same mountains. It took about an hour and half for us to walk from our hostel to the entrance: 30 minutes from town to the "trailhead" and then one hour up stairs straight up the side of a mountain. It was a really beautiful hike though. And, of course, since it's rainy season right now, it rained on us the whole hike up in the morning and the whole hike down in the afternoon. We didn't count, but some Argentinian's told us that there were 1,460 (or something like that) stairs from the bottom to the top of the mountain. In any case, there were a LOT, and with the altitude, about 8,000 feet above sea level, it was quite a hike.

However, when we arrived and got our first glance of the city, I was in awe. Three best words to sum up how I felt: INCREDIBLE, AWESOME, INSPIRING. It's just so crazy to think that the Inca's built this city before there was all the technology available and everything. And just how intricate the city is, wow. The city was a lot different than any of the Aztec and Mayan ruins I have been to, more city-like and less pyramid-y. Anyways, I could go on and on about how much I loved Machu Picchu, but I'll just show some photos instead to try and transmit how amazing the ruins are.

Our train from Ollayantaytambo to Aguas Calientes. It was pretty nice even though it was the "cheap" train. It took us an hour and a half to go 27 miles, or so the announcement told us. But, the views were spectacular because we were going through the incredible, green mountains the whole time. As the automatic announcement on the train told us, "you will be able to see copious amounts of vegetation" :) You have to love those translations.

First view of the city with Maya. The part behind us is the main part of the city, with all the practical, city stuff. Maya informed me (she has studied ancient civilizations) that Machu Picchu was built as a "vacation home" for the Incan emperor. WOW.

At the sun gate. Apparently the "proper" entry into Machu Picchu.

See those roads zigzaging below? The stairs we hiked up cut through the middle of those roads. This picture doesn't do justice to how steep the mountain is.

The main entryway into the main part of the city.

Hanging out inside the city. These were the people I spent time with in Cusco: me, Karen, Lewis and Maya.

Looking out over the mountains and valley. The Inca's had a pretty nice view from their windows.

Enjoying looking out over the city. A lot of the ruins have been reconstructed to make the city look more complete, so it's hard to tell what is actually original. But it's quite impressive to see how the city may have actually looked (minus the roofs)

Llamas grazing in the main plaza of the city. They are "imported" (aka, they put them there for tourism sake) to demonstrate that even back in the days of the Inca, they used llamas to transport good.

Hanging out in some of the windows up near the observatory.

Look at how close together all the rocks in the walls are...impressive. Apparently the didn't really even use anything to hold them together, like we would today. Also, imagine even putting those rocks in place...I know I'm not strong enough.

Well, there are a few of my favorite pictures from our first day :) I can understand why it's called "the Lost City" for two reasons (I don't actually know the real reason...): it is buried so high up in the mountains that why would be wandering up there and also during the rainy season, it is constantly covered by clouds, making it really hard to see. It's more like the "disappearing city" during rainy season.