Hiking, hiking, hiking... hiking...

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I wore my dogs out today. (Dad says "dogs" means "legs". Never knew that.)

Up at the crack of dawn to Machu Picchu - and aside from being the most incredible place in the world, it has about a billion steps, all narrow and rocky and.... hard, basically. That was just the standard of the main ruins, the ones you see in all the postcards; we also took a few hikes up mountains, like Huayna Picchu and a part of the trail to the Inca Bridge.

Even though a few hundred plus people try to hike the mountain each day, it´s no easy task. The majority of the trail is exactly like this: less than three feet wide, on the side of a 2,000 ft. cliff - no way you´d survive if you fell - and with people trying to pass every so often, sometimes in places so sheer that one person has to hug the mountain wall while the other hangs on to their shoulders and swings precariously around (no exaggeration). Those that took the hike didn´t seem to have a problem with heights; some would sit on the edge, feet dangling, leaning over the edge to get a good view of Machu Picchu below.

I can´t imagine the Incas climbing these things every day. They must have had solid-iron legs, and I´ll bet their calves were as big around as Dad´s head. We thought we were exhausted yesterday - but today we were shown the true meaning of exhaustion.

It might sound like Machu Picchu was no fun, but that´s not true at all. It was awesome - a ton of astronomical and religious significance in almost everything there, and great views for the whole Urubamba Valley.

It took about 15 minutes to put one picture on yesterday, but tomorrow we´ll have a lot of time; hopefully we can put some more up.

The last leg of the trip is almost over...

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Comments

[Petrea]

Glad you both didn't fall off. Mom