Trip to Peru- Day 6 Machu Picchu!

The big day arrived to travel to the "Lost City of the Incas," aka Machu Picchu. We had purchased our train tickets in Cusco and we were catching our train in Ollantaytambo. The train station was just down the road from our hostel, so we first ate a breakfast of banana pancakes before walking to the train station at 7am. I can say that the view of Machu Picchu was gorgeous, the preservation of the ruins was astonishing, and the day was just amazing. The site is huge, so we did a lot of walking. The only thing I wish we had done is hire a guide to give us some of the history about Machu Picchu. We were relying on a book from the library and it wasn't entirely helpful in describing what exactly we were looking at.

Vistadome train from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu- $77 per person!

Adam and I on the train- we were very excited!

Our first view of Machu Picchu- it was absolutely breathtaking

The view of colcas, which are though to be Incan grain silos

There were a lot of alpaca wandering freely through Machu Picchu, this photo is of a mother and baby alpaca

Waynapicchu (also spelled Huayna Picchu) is the tall mountain that everyone sees in all the classic photos of Machu Picchu. They only allow so many people to climb up, and they have a cut off time so that nobody gets stuck up there. I was afraid because I had heard about people falling off the side of the mountain- when Adam and I were heading up, a life insurance salesman said it was too bad he didn't have any of his applications with him. Adam and I went up while my parents explored below.

This is us at the top of Waynapicchu. The zig zag below is the road that we had to take from the train station to the site via a bus.

Steps heading down from Waynapicchu...I was clinging to the wall for dear life.

This is the Sacred Rock that is supposed to give energy- everyone is standing against it trying to get energy from the rock before heading up Waynapicchu.

Animals grazing in the center of Machu Picchu

These two pools are still a mystery to archaeologists