Marvelling at Machu Picchu

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Day 588 (6/11/08)

Waking early yet again, we dragged ourselves out of our comfortable beds and grabbed some brekkie before hitting the already sizable queue for the bus to Machu Picchu. We could have got up earlier and walked up but with all of us still not feeling quite right we wanted to make the most of our visit without killing ourselves getting there.

We arrived at the gates with the other earlybirds and were amongst some of the first through the gates. A short climb up some of Machu Picchus many steps amd we broke out to a picture perfect view of this amazing Inca Citadel. This was like nothing we had ever seen and, having waited for so long to make it here, truly took our breath away. We couldn't do anything but marvel at the amazingly intact site perched on top of the mountain in front of us. We spent a fair while just taking in the view and soaking up what has to be the must unique situation of any city past or present.

Once we had gathered back together, Roger took us on a great tour around main features of the site including the temples, agricultural and residential areas, the irrigation and water features in the city to name but a few, before he left us (veritive Inca experts by now) to explore more of the site ourselves.

Due to the train strikes we didn't have as much time at Machu Picchu as we'd have liked (we could have spent all day there!) and we'd liked to have squeezed in the challenging climb to Huayna Picchu the mountain at the foot of the city. Mark queued up but didn't manage to get a ticket in time (limited numbers are allowed up per day) so joined Chrissie to see some of the other areas as yet unexplored.

With our time in the ancient city coming to a close, we met up with Kayla and grabbed the bus back down to Aguas Calientes. With final goodbyes to Roger we boarded the train back along to the Hydro Station where we caught the long bus back to Cuzco. What an incredible, unforgettable day!

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