Day 13 Machu Picchu

What does one say. A bucket list day that started at 6.30 taking a coach to the station and ended at 20.30. Even though we are knackered it has been a very special day and truely one of a kind.

Machu Picchu was believed to have been built in the 15th century and the Incas left 100 years later having been hoodwinked by the Spanish.

The Incas believe in the elements the earth, water , mountains etc and to them these were more precious than gold or silver. We saw a statue in the town of Aguas Calientes, the end of the line for the train which depicts the three worlds – the underworld of the dead depicted by the snake; the land depicted by the puma and the air depicted by the condor. These sacred animals are part of the Inca’s holy cross.

We left the train and were bussed to the entrance as the Inca trail was closed due to landslides. This was the first sighting of Machu Picchu.

The terraces around the town were used to create more structural stability and also for grazing add growing of crops. More close up detail is as follows.

One of the buildings had curved walls denoting an important structure, in this case, the sun temple.

Just to show we were there……

We hiked up a trail close to the Sun Gate on top of the mountain but due to the aforementioned land slips we could go all the way there. We also hiked to the Inca Bridge, another trail going away from the town. We didn’t go any further for obvious reasons and the path had narrowed to less than 3 feet.

The drop was a couple of thousand feet and the wood part didn’t look brilliant either!!! Oh for health and safety ….

Back in the town of Aguas Calientes on our way home we saw this amazing stone sculpture representing the Inca God Wiracocha.

What an amazing day……