a llama.
Overlooking the main square of Machu Picchu. The acoustics here are perfect. It echoes so everyone would be able to hear.
Today´s post will include pictures from both yesterday and today at Machu Picchu...
In front of the sign for our hotel
We woke up bright and early this morning after having a great time last night. After blogging we went to dinner at the lodge. We both split beef skewers to start. Dad had beef tenderloin and I had Alpaca tenderloin. For dessert, dad had chocolate cake with mint ice cream and i had fried bananas. Yum.
Part of the main plaza of Machu Picchu with Wyna picchu in the background, to your right. It means "young mountain"
Dad woke up this morning not feeling so well in the stomach department but we decided to try and make it out to Machu Picchu by sunrise anyway. We went out there and hiked around for a bit. It was overcast and cloudy so the sunrise wasnt exactly what happened but it was still awesome. We went back to the Lodge for breakfast, ate and then headed back. Dad and I parked ourselves on one of the terraces of Machu Picchu and just absorbed it all. We just relaxed and took in the sun. It´s pretty surreal being there. It looks like something out of Jurrasic Park. It just looks so unreal.
The sun temple. On the two soltices the sun shines through the windows and lands exactly on the altar where the Inkas would give offereings to the Sun.
overlooking Machu Picchu. At the bottom of the picture are the terraces used for farming in the Inka times.
After, we decided to try and hike to the very top of the citadel. Once we got up there, 8 llamas were there to greet us. It was pretty cool (and scary...c´mon their hooves are sharp). We stayed a while longer and finally it was time to catch the bus back down the mountain. I really didnt want to leave. I mean I´ve been dreaming of going to Machu Picchu for 5 years now and to have it actually happen seems like a dream. So it sucked to have to walk away. As we were boarding the bus we saw Miguel (our guide from yesterday) and he wished us good luck on the rest of our journey.
Machu Picchu
The bus ride down took us back to the village of Aguas Caliente. We hung around in the main square people watching and hiked up to the thermal baths there. The town is a pretty unique place. We decided to try and squeeze lunch in before catching our train. We ate at this little restaurant near the station. Dad had a taco and I got fried chicken tenders. Dad was pretty brave eating Mexican food considering his track record throughout the day with eating and trips to the baño. We rushed through lunch and got on our train.
You can see the bus route up the mountain. Notice all the switchbacks!
The train ride was fairly uneventful except when the workers put on crazy masks and went down the aisles dancing or put on a fashion show of alpaca sweaters to Abba´s "Dancing Queen". Overall a good time to be had by all. We pulled into the station praying that our bags were still at "El Albergue" where we had left them. Thankfully the guy remembered us (He was like a Peruvian Jay Leno) and our bags were safe. He called a taxi for us to Urumbamba.
The little girl from breakfast yesterday. Check out her blingin candy bracelet
The taxi driver picked us up and we haggled over the price to take us. Unfortunately he didnt speak any english so it was all in Español. We finally ended up on 30 soles (US$10) and were off. We arrived in Urumbamba a half hour later at our hotel, Sol Y Luna.
Our bungalow. Second from the left. #17
Our hotel is actually made up of 30 or so different bungalows. There are also tennis courts, a spa and a ranch with horses on the grounds. Its like a little compound really. It´s really pretty and will be relaxing. Dad and I walked out to the ranch earlier and saw that there was a little pony. When we asked the worker when it was born he told us "Dos Dias". Two days old!!
So now we are heading back to the room to relax or in dad´s case pass out and try and recover. Tomorrow we head to Pisac where we will see the ruins and the famous market there on Sunday morning. It should be great!
Adios!
notice: these are only a small fraction of the pictures we have from Machu Picchu. Pictures cannot describe the wonder and beauty of the place. If we were to put them all up it would take over the blog. Hopefully we will find someway to send a link to our online albums. Thanks for reading!
