Machu Pichu!!!!! ⇒
Wow. Wow. Wow. What a beautiful site!! When we got there on day 3 in the late afternoon (about 3:30pm) the sun was just starting to go down and all the tourists had left, so the place was empty! We didn't actually go into it as our tickets were for the next day, but we did sit up by the sun gate and look around. I can't explain how magical it was to be there, with nobody else and our guide playing his wood flute. The notes just sailed across the air...very surreal! We had a great group picture taken (with all 25 cameras!!) and then headed down to camp.
The next day, I was really, really, really not feeling well. Initially I thought it was a hangover (understandably), but it turns out there was more to it. So when we got up to the site at about 6:30 and most of the group headed off for a guided tour, I had a great nap! When I woke up I tried to find the group by following the sounds of Julio's flute but I didn't have much luck. I finally located them over by Winapichu, which is the big mountain just behind Machu Pichu. Turns out that Christine (!!!) went up it! It is a very, very, very difficult hike due its extreme steepness. This from the girl who doesn't like heights and gets vertigo!! But she made it (yah Christine!!) and got some great pictures. Everyone who did that hike said, "If I had known what it was like, I wouldn't have gone!" Christine thinks it was harder mentally than the hike! I am very proud of her for doing that!!
We finished off the day with a little bit more guided touring, which I saw this time as I was feeling better. We left at about 11:30am, before most of the tourist go there, as I was again feeling crappy and Christine was exhausted (go figure, eh?). We headed down to the meeting place, a restaurant, where I grabbed yet another nap and Christine went out wandering around. I woke up feeling better and went to join the rest of the gang downstairs. Unfortunately, my good feelings didn't last very long. I tried to have some soup and that appears to have set me off again! By this time I realize that it is not a hangover, it must be something else. Oh well, most of the people on the tour had this at one point or another and I guess it was my turn. It was a very enjoyable day regardless as Machu Pichu is the most beautiful Inca ruin I have ever seen!
The way they put the rocks together so closely without mortar is amazing! And they last forever, even through earthquakes! Nothing we build today could make that claim. And the rocks they used were also from the surrounding mountains so they had to cart them down the mountain and then up to the mountain they were living on. At times they even diverted rivers to move the rocks! Some of the rocks where over 10 tons!! Holy beshnarkin!! How they did all of that without machinery is beyond me. The pictures Christine took will probably not do it justice, but hopefully you will be able to see some of the beauty.