Up at 4:30 AM. for breakfast then to the train station for a 1.5 hr, journey to Aquas Caliente along the 'roaring' Urabumba River under blue skies. Caught glimpses of the local glaciered, incredibly steep Andes en route. Then onto a bus for a 40 minute ride down river and up the hill thru a multitude of switchbacks to arrive at the entry station to Machu Pichu...along with 2,000 of our nbf's from literally all over the world. Then we climbed up stone steps until our leg muscles were 'barkin'...to ultimately open out into the incredible overview of this special place. We climbed all over this 32 hectare phenomenon. We took one excursion to an Incan bridge which was a trail built across a vertical cliff.
Besides the obvious beauty of this place, you are left in wonder about why they built this place in such a formidable location. With no written language to help decipher, most are left with either conjecture or theory as to the Incan thought process. Clearly, they were concerned with safety. The majic of Machu Pichu is that the Spaniards never found it, therefore when discovered by Hiram Bingham, it was fully in tact...a fascinating archeological find.
We headed downhill to our bus then the long train return, arriving back to our hotel at 5 P.M., a full day of wonder about these people that thrived for but a few hundred years before the Spaniards arrived in the 1500's.
Machu Pichu is amazing! It looks like the weather cooperated with you too. That Incan trail is not something I would have ever wanted to navigate.
ReplyDeleteSending love from the Northern Hemisphere... -K