Conquering Machu Picchu

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We woke up at 3:30am so with could begin out climb up to Machu Picchu by 4:15am in order to be one of the first 400 in line to get an entrance stamp to climb up to Wayna Picchu. The town was dark and deserted minus the people who were still getting back to their hostels from going out that night...and we were heading to Machu Picchu...

After passing the que for the first buses up to MP, we climbed the Inca trail stairs to the top for an hour and 15 minutes. We started with loads of layers on to protect from the morning chill and ended in our t-shirts absolutely drenched in sweat from the non-stop uphill climb. We got in line to 5:30am and we were number 394 and 395 for the Wayna Picchu stamp--soo lucky! Had we stopped on the climb up, we would have missed out!

Our 2.5 hour tour of Machu Picchu with Elese was amazing! We learned so much about the Inca culture and society--it´s amazing how progressive and successful they were--even though there was an Inka (king), the civilization was really structure like a democracy because the next successing king was chosen based on ability and reputation, work was assigned based on skill/capability, men and women met and married each other based on the relationship rather than an assigned marraige. They had 3 main beliefs of work, knowledge, and love. Moreover, one of their main laws was to not be lazy, and this showed in the vastness of the city and the perfection of each building and structure. It´s really a shame that the Spanish were so greedy and wiped out the Inca empire, because we could have learned so much from them.

After our tour, we took a break for about 45 minutes while waiting to enter Wayna Picchu at 10am. It already felt like the afternoon since we had been awake for nearly 7 hours. The rest was definitely necessary because we had to climb for another 45 minutes to get to the top of Wayna Picchu. It was worth it--the view of the entire city of Machu Picchu was one of a kind.

The pictures really speak for themselves, as usual...and they are hopefully coming soon!

After descending Wayna Picchu, we took another break and just took in Machu Picchu one last time before walking back to Aguas Calientes for our 5pm train back to Poroy and then Cuzco. We of course made some new friends on the train who were on business and invited us to dinner back in Cuzco. However, after an epic day at Machu Picchu, we were not up for a potentially epic night so we declined. Good decision.

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