We were up early for our drive to Ollantaitambo where we then catch the train for our long‑awaited visit to Machu Picchu.
The scenery along the route was mountainous and very beautiful.
We saw more Inca ruins along the river bank across for the train
and a waterfall tucked back in a valley.
We arrived in the town of Aguas Caliente late morning (at the base of the mountain)...
and were met by our guide who escorted us to the bus station. Then it was a half hour very windy bus ride up the side of the mountain.
Our entry tickets are not until noon so we went to our hotel (that is right at the entrance to Machu Picchu) for lunch. While checking in we met a met a couple from Texas, Susan and Mike Miller. We had an interesting chat and made arrangement to have dinner together.
Our table was right beside a wall of window that faced onto
a wall of bushes. We spent most of lunch
enjoying the hummingbirds that darted around the feeder in the bushes.
And there was a wild red orchid nearby.
After lunch, our guide picked us up and we headed the 100 feet or so to the gate. Very quickly the brush fell away and we had beautiful views of the breathtaking mountains cross the valley. It had been raining earlier in the day but now we just had enough clouds to make the mountains look a bit moody and mystical. Gorgeous.
The first building we came to was the Watchman’s Hut, a guard/lookout house…in a gorgeous setting high above the valley.
And then we were there, overlooking the Machu Picchu ruins with the iconic Huayua Picchu mountain looming over the far end.
It was magical and beautiful. The pictures do not even begin to show how truly beautiful this site is.
The spur of the Inca Trail that leads to Machu Picchu ends abruptly at the main gate.
As the day went on the clouds moved away and we had spectacular, sunny lighting.
Some of the other structures we saw included the House of the Three Windows,
and the Aqueduct that delivered water throughout the complex. These small "waterfalls" are a very small portion of the Aqueduct.
The Temple of the Sun is specifically aligned to the east so that at their winter solstice (21 Jun in the southern hemisphere) a beam of light shines through a window forming a rectangle on a slab of granite just inside the window. For some reason neither of us took a closeup of the Temple of the Sun but you can sort of see it (the rounded wall in the center) in this photo.
We also saw the Sacred Plaza where the stone wall was displaced due to a long ago earthquake.
Amazingly, the Incas were such superior stone masons that all of the stone buildings were constructed with no mortar and they fit so perfectly that a knife cannot be inserted into the seams.
There were also a large number of terraces used for farming to feed the population of the citadel.
We both felt it was a perfect day…perfect moody weather early on and glorious sunny weather as they day went on It could not have been better.
Wild begonias growing out of the rocks.
We got back early enough that we had some time to rest before heading down for dinner with the Millers. We had a very fun evening with them. Then it was to bed…exhausted but satisfied with the day.
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