Peru Parte dos-Machu Picchu

Ah, Machu Picchu. Truly, the highlight of the trip, let's be honest. Although hiking up the Inca Trail would have been super cool, alas, we didn't have enough time on our trip to do that. Also, pretty sure a couple of us might not have made it out of Peru if we had to hike for 5 days. :) So, we went lazy and took the train up to Aguas Calientes. Being as how we were a threesome, Becky and Rachel sat next to each other, and I was the odd man out, which means I got to sit next to 3 French speaking folks and 20 of their loudest, closest friends. I happened to have the window seat, and they had no problems leaning right over me (apparently, French culture personal space is a lot smaller than American culture personal space), laughing (most likely at me) and taking pictures of the scenery (which was pretty, but probably not 100 pictures pretty-although Becky might have taken 100 pictures). Here's a view from the train outside.

Becky and Rachel on the train.

We then took the bus up from Aguas Calientes, where we dropped off our stuff and up to Machu Picchu. And this was our first view of Machu Picchu when we walked in to the ruins:

SO AWESOME!!! OK, it might be a lot more spectacular in person, but seriously, if you were there, wouldn't this be an awesome view?! OK, why don't I let you all just take in the sites? I'll interject with commentary as I see necessary. Because really, pictures are worth a thousand words, right?

Please note the farming terraces. The Incans were smart when it came to farming.

The Incans also knew how to use the natural shape of the rocks to help build their buildings/temples/etc.

So, according to our tour guide, this was one of the rooms they meditated and prayed in. So we meditated and 'ohm'-ed in these little windowless windows to hear the echo. Not gonna lie, it felt a little silly. And I'm not sure I'm convinced that this is truly how they meditated...but who am I to argue?

3 windows.

They still use llamas as their lawnmowers :)

Can't get enough of these pictures.

One of the favorite pictures from the trip :)

This was Rachel and I heading back to Aguas Calientes after a day of amazingness in M.P. I just think this is a great picture of us.

Machu Picchu day 2 was a bit cloudier for the first part of the day. Which made us all glad that we didn't go for the hike up Huaynu Picchu with the 7 AM crowd, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to see Machu Picchu at all.

So, this rock is shaped like a Condor. The rock in front of me is the beak, and the wings are the rocks behind me. Totally, right?

After a morning in the fog, we started our trek up Huayna Picchu. Which was an awesome, fun hike. In all the previous pictures, Huayna Picchu is the big mountain in the background.

Pre-hike smiles

There were a LOT of stairs.

Becky and Rachel are a bit tired of hiking

The view near the top of the mountain.

At the very peak of Huayna Picchu!

I wasn't kidding when I said there were a lot of stairs. And they were very steep. And very narrow.

It was an awesome hike. I loved it.

After Huayna Picchu, I hiked up to the Sun Gate, which is where the Inca Trail trekkers come through to get their first view of Machu Picchu. I loved the view from up there, and it was a fun hike.

The view from the Sun Gate

Sun Gate!

Good view on the way down from the Sun Gate. Huayna Picchu in the background.

Machu Picchu was amazing. Sorry for the picture overload, but I really just had a hard enough time deciding which pictures to use because there are so many awesome pictures! If I didn't have 500 other places I wanted to visit in the world, I would totally come back. And who knows? Maybe I will come back! It was *that* good. GO people!!