Day 3--Machu Picchu

Finally, the day we have been waiting for.  From the town of Ollantaytambo, we take the Inca Rail train to the town of Aquas Calientes where we will meet our guide and then go by bus to Machu Picchu.

We enjoy the scenery as we travel alongside the headwaters of the Amazon River on our way to Aguas Calientes.

We meet our guide in Aquas Calientes...

...

then take the 30-minute bus ride up to Machu Picchu on a twisty dirt road....

And we start walking in..

And there it is!

Of course there is the perfect spot to take our photos.  Must document we were here, you know.

After about a zillion photos, it was time for our guided tour.

Our excellent guide, Marybel Ortiz guided us around the ruins.

Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire.  It was abandoned just over 100 years later, in 1572 as a belated result of the Spanish Conquest.  It is possible that most of its inhabitants died from smallpox introduced by travelers before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the area.

Although it was located only about 50 miles from the Inca capital in Cusco, the Spanish never found Machu Picchu and so did not plunder or destroy it, as they did many other sites.

Over the centuries, the surrounding jungle overgrew the site, and few outside the immediate area knew of its existence.  In 1911 American historian and explorer Hiram Bingham traveled the region looking for the old Inca capital and was shown Machu Picchu by a local farmer.  Bingham brought Machu Picchu to international attention.  In 1983, UNESCO designated Machu Picchu a world Heritage Site, describing it as "an absolute masterpiece of architecture and a unique testimony to the Inca civilization".

Inti Watana is believed to have been designed as an astronomical clock or calendar by the Incas.

Inti (the sun god) Watana

The Temple of the Condor in Machu Picchu has to be one of the highlights of our exploration of these Inca ruins. It is a wonderful example of Inca stone masonry. The Inca took a natural rock formation shaped by the elements millions of years ago, and skillfully shaped it into the outspread wings of a condor in flight.

On the floor of the Condor temple you can see a rock carved in the shape of the condor's head and neck feathers Historians speculate that the Inca used the head of the condor here as a sacrificial altar.

Machu Picchu has a number of structures that would have enhanced the spiritual significance of the site.

One of them, the “Temple of the Sun,” has an elliptical design similar to a sun temple found at the Inca capital of Cuzco. It is located near where the Inca emperor is believed to have resided at Machu Picchu.

A rock inside the temple could have served as an altar. During the June solstice the rising sun shines directly into one of the temple’s windows, and this indicates an alignment between the window, rock and solstice sun.

Temple of the Sun

The sculptured circles carved out from the rock bottom of the sun temple is interpreted as "Water mirrors for observing the sky".

After our guided tour with Marybel, we enjoyed relaxing with a drink and overlooking it all.

Terry and Jen stayed on Machu Picchu while the rest of us traveled back to Aquas Calientes to check into our hotel.  They hiked to the Inca Bridge, which is part of a mountain trail that heads west from Machu Picchu.

The trail is a stone path, part of which is cut into a cliff face.

A 20-foot gap was left in this section of the carved cliff, over a 1,900-foot drop, that could be bridged with two tree trunks leaving the trail impassable to outsiders.

And they saw some llamas along the way.

While Terry and Jen were hiking to the Inca Bridge, the rest of us walked from the bus stop in Aquas Calientes to our hotel, the Inkaterra.

The Inkaterra is a beautiful hotel; it seemed out of place compared to the local living conditions.

We enjoyed some afternoon tea.

And then when Terry and Jen joined us, it was time for Pisco Sours!

The next day we explore Machu Picchu on our own....and we hike up the mountain called Huayna Picchu for a wonderful bird's-eye view of the Machu Picchu ruins.