Machu Picchu

There definitely aren't enough powerful words or ideas to properly describe Machu Picchu. These mountains emerge, all over Peru, and it reminds me of how I imagined the town at the end of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. The mountains look over your shoulder, watching as us tourists embark on the Machu Picchu adventure. Glorious, magnificent, breath-taking--they just don't do it justice.

We made it up to Machu Picchu around 06.30, before the sun arose and just took it all in. You enter on one hill that overlooks the majority of the ruins and the mountains behind it. Neither of us could stop taking pictures. It became almost an addiction or compulsion for fear of missing that one shot. It ended up being the same shot but even standing 2 feet away from where the last shot was taken created a sense that it was a completely different picture.



We ran into a British woman who suggested going over to the Inca bridge and also waiting for the sun to come up for a beautiful view (again it's hard to do the view justice). Watching the golden glare peak over the mountains can only prove that God exists. The rays shining down over the city were unbelievably peaceful. It was quite overwhelming at times to witness such beauty that exists on our Earth.

This kind of beauty, while it can be found in the States, has its own unique qualities based off of the historical element here. What went on here thousands of years ago is masked by the beauty of what exists today.

We eventually went on to the Inca Bridge. The bridge is maybe a foot and a half wide and thankfully, not used anymore. It is literally attached to the mountain with solid, flat rock to one side and a couple hundred meter drop to the other side. It was an amazing view but one I'm glad to look at and not actually experience.

After the Inca Bridge, we toured the ruins. We took pictures of every angle that we could. To see these walls built by placing rocks together and where there was space, sticking smaller rocks in to hold the bigger ones. Knowing that these rocks did not come from this site is overwhelming itself. I have been struggling with a 40lb. backpack and people had to drag or carry bolders for many kilometres. Different rooms of all different sizes each having a specific purpose which is not completely known. Llamas and alpacas run around a lush green field eating, playing and even grinning for us to take pictures. It's either grinning or a warning sign of showing teeth. We were too far to tell, so we just moved on just incase.
There are steps that are so steep that you have to hold on to whatever rocks is around because no matter which way you may fall, it would do some serious damage.

By this point, my legs were already sore but we decided to do a small hike up Huaynapicchu. This hike is at about an 80 degree incline. Hmmm....my legs love me. The view was worth it. It overlooked the ruins and the mountains on the other side of the ruins. We rested for a bit and then headed to go do another hike on the other side of the ruins called Intipunku. We were told it wasn't too bad a hike until we started. It really wasn't too bad but our legs were pretty tired. The incline was not nearly as steep. We saw 2 geckos along the way. Woo hoo. We made it up and of course took tons of pictures and then headed back down to catch the bus. We made sure to descend a little slowly to avoid breaking our knees.

I have wanted to see Machu Picchu ever since I was 11 years old and it was worth every minute and every sol (Peruvian money). I would suggest to anyone and everyone to check out Machu Picchu because it is definitely worth it.