Machu Picchu- "The Old Mountain"

Well my legs hurt. A lot. Well they are healing, but hiking Machu Picchu was no small task. These ancient ruin are some of the most well preserved in the Western World and the site boasts the title of one of the seven great marvels of the century.

I boarded a train from Cusco at 6 am on Friday morning. It was dark. I was cold. I was in the student "backpacker" section. There was no heat. But, I did save 20 bucks.

When we got to Augas Calientes (the town situated below Machu Picchu) 5 hours later, I was still a bit frozen. Luckily I hopped a bus and began the 25 minute ascent upwards to Machu Picchu.
As you can see, the road leading from the town to the mountain is a bit curvy, at best.

We spent the first day walking around with our guide. We hired him for about 10 dollars. He had an interesting way of speaking (in English, thankfully). He seemed to have an auctioneer voice and felt the need to raise his tone at the end of every sentence. This made things a bit difficult to understand.

Luckily for us, our guide was also a photographer. He knew exactly where the best places were to take amazing photos. No..I'm only kidding. His suggestions were pretty terrible. His idea of a good shot was one that included three prehistoric buildings and a llama. If my shot was not dead on, he would patiently wait until I had the photograph just right. The photo to the right is a prime example. I think it took me about 4 tries to get the "ancient door, the ancient steps, AND the guard house!" Can you imagine?

Then we made the one hour walk downwards. That may have been a bad idea. While the view was beautiful, we almost died. But hey, what is life without a bit of adventure?

Saturday we made the hike up to Inkaputa which it the entrance to Machu Picchu from the Inka Trail. It was an hour hike uphill, but the view was fantastic.

I figured I would post some more Machu Picchu pictures. Enjoy!!!!