Machu Picchu

UPDATE:  I now realize that I've been spelling Machu Picchu wrong this WHOLE TIME!  It's something I've been dreaming about a long time, yet I can't even spell it correctly.  The irony isn't lost on me.  Anyway, try to ignore my idiocy.  Enjoy!

Going to Macchu Picchu is something I've always dreamed about doing.  I'm not really sure why, it just sounded so amazing and impossible that I added it to my bucket list and tucked it away into the very back of my brain (where I keep random Jeopardy trivia and pretty much everything I learned in school).  Not until we started planning our trip did I decide I had to go, it was now or never.  Aaron was none too thrilled because like I've reiterated before, it's not the cheapest or easiest adventure, but I HAD TO GO so he humored me.

I've been thinking about it on and off since, just waiting for the moment I would see it.  Let me tell you, for me it was one of those rare moments where you just know you're exactly where you're supposed to be in life.  Since leaving home (exactly 2 months ago), I've questioned whether or not it was the right choice: leaving my dogs, my family, my job and my house, but in that moment I knew I was exactly where I was meant to be.  It was one of those full-circle moments and it was overwhelming because you only get a few of those in your life.  So, let's back track and start on the morning of May 1.

We woke up around 5:30am because our shuttle was picking us up around 6:15.  I was nervous because I knew the train we were getting on was travelling to a much higher altitude and I wasn't sure I could take going much higher.

At the highest, the train would be at 4600m, which is a little more than 15,000ft.  Yikes!

The shuttle picked us up and we drove through the cuts of Cusco to the town of Poroy, where the train station was.  I took some pictures on the shuttle.  This is still Cusco:

About 20 minutes later, we were at the train station:

Here's our train:

It was very comfy.  I've never been on a train before (BART doesn't count), so I was excited.  In our backpack we brought snacks and lots of water because nothing is provided (although at the train stations there were kiosks of food).  The ride on the train was picturesque.  We went through all these small villages in the middle of The Andes Mountains with The Sacred Valley River flowing in between.  Stunning.

Of course while watching all these rural farmers plowing the land and chickens and mules roaming free, all I'm thinking is how do these people get jeans and stuff?  They live so far out there, where the heck do they buy Old Navy cargo pants?  I even saw one wearing an Aeropostale sweatshirt.  

We stopped at a train station to drop people off who were doing the one-day Inca Trail and there were still people capitalizing on tourism WAY OUT HERE:

Then we kept on truckin':

We ran into a group doing The Inca Trail:

The Inca Trail is a 4 day, 3 night hike to Macchu Picchu:

The dotted line is us on the train and the red line are those hiking The Inca Trail.  It's 4 days of hiking up The Andes, sleeping in tents and eating who knows what.  Major props to those guys!  Like I said earlier, you can also do a one-day Inca Trail, if 4 days without a shower isn't your thing.  Major props to them too, like I said we're pretty high up and to hike uphill isn't something I'd recommend.  I get dizzy just sitting up after laying down.  Okay, almost there:

The train ride took about 3 hours total and it dropped us off in a town called Aguas Calientes (translation: Hot Springs, of which I'm told there are some).  The town was insane because it was completely surrounded on all sides by giant mountains:

We're now about 6,500ft above sea level, so after we went up to 15,000ft, we went back down.

This is Wagner, our Macchu Picchu guide.  He met us at the train station and led us to the bus stop, which will take us from Augas Calientes to Macchu Picchu in 30 minutes (about 7,800ft high).

Trust me, the back of him was the best part (you're welcome, ladies!).  I took a short video of the town, so you could get the feel of Augas Calientes.

Okay, now we're on the bus:

The roads were cobblestone and we were going up a steep, narrow mountain in a giant bus:

Our driver was a maniac, but got us there in one piece:

It was around this time that it all started to hit me and I started to cry.  

It was right there in front of me, I could almost touch it.  And we're here.  Macchu Picchu.

We showed our tickets (good thing they didn't try to take it from me because even though it's just printed on a piece of paper, I would've cut a bitch):

Then we walked up this path and we were in:

We had to walk down all those stairs to get to the main attraction.

Holy Shit!  We're in Macchu Picchu!

Yes, I'm wearing the exact same clothes as the day before.  They were the warmest I had and it was chilly that morning.  Traveling makes a hippie out of everyone.  In fact, I'm wearing the same jeans again today too and I'm not even embarrassed.  Get acquainted with these suckers because you'll be seeing a lot of them.  Back to Macchu Picchu:

It really is true that the human species is a tiny dot on the timeline of the planet.  When you see something ancient like this, you really realize that your entire life will be less significant than the blink of an eye in terms of the age of the Earth.  It's humbling and and really puts things in perspective.  

Let's get some background on Macchu Picchu.  I know you didn't ask, but if I'm into it, you kinda have to be too.

Macchu Picchu construction began around 1400AD and continued for 100 years.  The Incan leader, Pachacuti, already ruled over the Cusco area and decided controlling the jungle area would be a great idea because then he would control the water source, as well as the gold and silver mines.  This guy was no stooge, he had done his homework.  Everywhere you look, you can see evidence (well only because Wagner showed us) of earthquake-proofing.  Every 300 years or so, Peru would have a major earthquake and everything would be thrashed.  Pachacuti realized that only one type of building wasn't being destroyed and hired those builders to build Macchu Picchu for his fellow Incans.  Got all that?  Let's keep going:

See the different levels of grass?  The Incans were farmers and everything they did was based on growing crops.  These terraces were where they grew all kinds of crops, especially corn and potatoes.

These random "veins" were all over to control the flow of water to different parts of the city.  The shape of the veins is strategic, they could use it to slow the flow to barely a trickle.

This was the Temple of Mother Earth, where they mummified their dead (only the high-ranking ones).  After mummification, they would treat the priest (or whoever) like he was still alive, by feeding him and talking to him.  Then much farther down the line (I'm guessing once they could no longer stand the smell), they would bury him in the mountains in the fetal position to be reborn in the afterlife.  They would also include whatever tools he used in life because he might need them to work.  The Incans didn't really believe in death, they believed life was a cycle.  There was the actual world (kay pacha) represented by the puma, the world up above (hanan pacha) represented by the condor, and the world down below (uku pacha) represented by the snake.  I didn't totally understand how they all connected, but it wasn't a heaven and hell system.  Wagner was talking about how when you die you go up and then down and then back to Earth, like a never-ending cycle.  The Incans believe there is no actual death, you will come back (not reincarnation, you will come back as yourself).  Moving on:

This is The Temple of The Sun and this is one of the most important structures to the Incans.  In fact, there's a Temple of The Sun at every Incan site (even Sexy Woman) and they're always the same shape.  The windows were used to measure the seasons by the length and timing of the shadows coming through the windows.  This would help them know when the rainy season was coming and since they were farmers, this was of the utmost importance.  Wagner said they could grow hundreds of different types of potatoes and corn because the weather was so unpredictable, they had a type that could be grown in every kind of weather.  

Random pics (because I just couldn't help myself):

This is the back side of Macchu Picchu and looking down you can see The Sacred River (Wilka Mayu).

In 1534, The Spaniards came and took over Cusco, so the Incans fled Macchu Picchu and went far into the jungle preparing for battle.  They waged war from the jungle and never returned to Macchu Picchu.  Wagner also said The Spaniards never actually found Macchu Picchu, so it just remained empty after that.  The ancestors of the Incan people still live about a 5-day walk past this mountain into the jungle.

Eventually Sacred River empty's into The Amazon.

They also had a rock quarry back there, where they harvested the stone used to build Macchu Picchu:

These triangle buildings were houses:

In important buildings (temples, priest's house, ruler's house), the structure of the stones are like puzzle pieces, they cut each stone to fit just right and slanted them just so to be earthquake proof.

Those pegs were for tying down their straw roofs. 

This green patch was the square, where they would have events, parties and even have ritual animal sacrifices:

There were llamas lounging in the square.  

In 1911, an explorer from The U.S. named Hiram Bingham was brought to Macchu Picchu by an indigenous farmer and he took some pictures.  This essentially brought Macchu Picchu into the public eye, which made it an attraction and A Wonder of The World.  

More random pics:

This is Huayna Picchu (young mountain) and you can hike all the way to the top, if you wish to fling yourself off afterwards (it's like super steep stairs).  This was an important mountain to the Incans and they made offerings to it.

On the other side is Macchu Picchu (old mountain) another important mountain they made offerings to (it's the pointy one):

Another short video.

They were making offerings to the mountains, but they are so out of the way and treacherous, so they came up with a genius, lazy way not to climb a mountain:

They just shaped a rock like a mountain and made offerings to it (people after my own heart).  Much more efficient.  Now this rock is considered sacred, lots of people were touching it and saying prayers, so I touched it too.

This was the local watering hole (archaeologists know this because they found lots of clay pottery remnants in this room and that's what they used as drinking vessels):

Lots of doors to enter from all sides:

Lots of shelving to set your drink down:

What better place to party than with this view:

After partying, visitors would crash in the guest houses (there were a few of these because believe it or not, Incans had guests often):

They would lay these poles down and make a second floor, the first two-story house!

Llama likes Aaron:

Then Wagner's tour was over and we were free to explore on our own for awhile.  I have to say, Travel Agent Deb really pulled it off with this tour.  It was expensive, but by far worth it because not only did we have private transportation waiting for us every step of the way for 3 days, but we had 3 different private tour guides.  While in Macchu Picchu, there were groups of 20 people crammed together trying to listen to their guide and take pictures over each other, and we were the only people I saw with a private tour guide all to ourselves.  We could ask questions and go at our own pace.  It was fantastic.  If you go to Macchu Picchu, look into G Adventures, they had excellent service and great staff.  

Back to Macchu Picchu, we took some random pictures and selfies before heading back to the bus:

One more before we go!

Bye, Bye Macchu Picchu!  How I've loved you (believe it or not, Aaron loved you too)!  

We were there about 2 and a half hours and then we got back on the bus to Aguas Calientes.  The town is so beautiful, I took more pictures from a bridge:

Then we shopped in a flea market-type area and I got a few Macchu Picchu souvenirs (they're really stupid too, but I couldn't help it).  I did get a few souvenirs I'll never forget:

Shh!  Don't tell!

Aaron tried on this dorky Russian hat:

Then we got back on the train and headed back to Poroy.  The train took longer on the way back for some reason, it was almost 4 hours this time.  Then our shuttle was waiting to take us back to the hotel in Cusco.  We got back around 9pm.  Long, but exhilarating day!

This morning the shuttle picked us up and took us to the airport.  We caught the one-hour flight back to Lima and are now waiting for our flight to Buenos Aires.  Our flight leaves here at 11pm and we arrive at 5am (due to time change, the flight is only about 4 hours).  We will now be 4 hours ahead of California time.  The owner of the apartment we rented, Mauricio, booked us a shuttle from the airport to the apartment.  Nicest guy ever!  Next time I post it will be from our new apartment in Buenos Aires!!!

I hope you enjoyed this tour of Macchu Picchu: Maravilla del Mundo (Wonder of The World)!!!!!!